Star Wars continues to be one of Marvel's best comics. While it focuses plenty on the adventures of Luke, Han and Leia prior to The Empire Strikes Back, it also has given fans a more in-depth look at Obi-Wan Kenobi's life on Tatooine and introduced a deadly new squad of Stormtroopers.
Soon, in issue #26, writer Jason Aaron will continue to widen the scope of his series by exploring the past of none other than Jedi master Yoda.
The story will play via a flashback of sorts, as Luke reads an entry Obi-Wan's journal about Yoda. The catch is that, since Luke has yet to meet his eventual mentor (the comic series takes place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back), he won't actually realize that he's reading about Yoda.
"So we've liked jumping around to different parts of the timeline like that, and [telling] a story that would connect tangentially, or just in terms of the overall theme but not necessarily vital to our ongoing plot," Aaron tells StarWars.com. "I kind of wanted to do something like that, but instead of having it be just a standalone issue between the arcs, have it be the actual arc. And of course, I was always trying to figure out a way for us to use Yoda. We're a bit hamstrung in terms of the time period of our main story, because Yoda's chilling on Dagobah. So this was kind of the only way we could kill all those birds with one stone — to do one story that connects Luke, Yoda, and Obi-Wan all at the same time, while still taking place in three different time periods."
So, what exactly will the story be about? That's still a mystery, but Aaron did reveal that the tale takes place prior to the events of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. He also confirmed a cameo appearance from a young Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jin.
"The challenge was to do something with Yoda that we hadn't seen before," Aaron says. "I really wanted to see just what it was like when Yoda was going out into the galaxy and being a Jedi. This story takes place before the Clone Wars and it's set in a world we've never seen before. I was always just intrigued by that idea. You know, we've seen Yoda as the teacher, as the wise Jedi Master, but I wanted to see Yoda just as the Jedi. So this puts him on a very unusual adventure.
"The other big challenge with Yoda, of course, is finding something that's a challenge for him, right? Who can pose a threat to Yoda? I think we came up with an interesting answer to that question. That's part of the mystery of this story. There's a very specific reason that this is going to be quite the challenge for Yoda. It's not a matter of just him being the more powerful Jedi. It's a bit trickier than that."
Aaron says his Yoda will still be the wise master fans know him as, but that he also wants to inject a bit of the playfulness seen from the character in The Empire Strikes Back.
As for what's next, Aaron says he has ideas for other "journal" stories, and that he would love to use Yoda again in the future and to continue exploring Obi-Wan's time on Tatooine.
