Luke Skywalker has become a living myth, and his interactions with people across the galaxy often leave them with more questions than answers. In this manga, notable mangaka adapt four stories from Ken Liu’s novel The Legend of Luke Skywalker.
The first is a story from an Imperial officer who meets a hooded figure that matches the description of Luke, on a planet that looks like Jakku. The second story is told from the perspective of an enforcer droid at a mining operation that is somehow able to buy R2-D2. The third story follows that of mole-flea Lugubrious Mote, as he guides Leia and Luke through the scenes of Jabba’s Palace at the beginning of Return of the Jedi. The fourth story is told by a young researcher who gets picked up by Luke on her way back to her university, only to be caught by an exogorth, the large worm-like beings who live inside asteroids.
While it is unclear when some of these stories take place in the timeline of the Star Wars universe, each of the four serves the same purpose: to show the larger-than-life exploits of Luke, and possibly to shed some light on how the whole universe knows of the Jedi legend Luke Skywalker by the beginning of The Force Awakens. These stories are not all of equal quality, however. The art of the first story is extremely rough and unpolished, and it initially put me off. By far, the strongest chapter is Akira Himekawa’s final story, complete with beautiful story and illustrations, as is expected of the mastermind of the Legend of Zelda manga fame.
VIZ rates this title for Teen Plus, but I honestly can’t figure out why. The first story does depict torture, but no more explicitly than Han’s torture scene in The Empire Strikes Back. There is no vulgar language, as is standard for the Star Wars universe. The themes of enslavement and torture would be enough to keep this off elementary shelves, but there doesn’t seem to be anything that would otherwise make it inappropriate for middle school audiences.
Purchase if you have many patrons who are fans of Star Wars. Otherwise, despite the beauty of Himekawa’s story, this is one you can skip.
Star Wars: The Legends of Luke Skywalker—The Manga
By Akira Himekawa, Akira Fukaya, Takashi Kisaki, Haruichi, Haruichi Subaru, Ken Liu
ISBN: 9781974715848
VIZ Media, 2020
Publisher Age Rating: Teen Plus
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NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16), Older Teen (16-18)
Related to…: Book to Comic
