It’s here that we resume the main plotline with a huge story arc called
Claws of the Dragon, where without warning, we’re dropped onto the demolished Jedi Temple on Ossus, where we find Cade lying on his back, passed out on the fumes of a death stick induced high. That’s it: we aren’t told how or why he’s here, or why he separated from the Jedi he was last seen ferrying to safety.
In fact, we aren’t given a moment to ponder any of this, since through drug-induced hallucination, Cade is visited by a mirage of none other than Mara Jade Skywalker. Despite being generations removed from the former Emperor’s Hand, Cade recognizes her immediately.
Mara, as you can see, is stunningly realized in Jan Duursema’s gorgeous artwork (I especially love her scalding look in the last panel, which is 100% the kind of frigid beauty I’ve always pictured her to have). She cuts over Cade’s try-hard dismissive attitude, and dresses him down as a coward trying to outrun his destiny. Cade makes light of the Skywalker bloodline and its ties to the Force, claiming he’ll be the first of the family to never have the Force impact his destiny…Light or Dark. Mara responds coldly to his scoffing, telling him that the Dark Side is nothing to downplay, before her mirage twists and warps into another Skywalker who walked the light and dark just as she did…Anakin, the Chosen One himself.
Anakin emphasizes the seductive thrall of the Dark Side by warping into Darth Vader, the family’s most scarring cautionary tale for future generations, dueling Cade within the confines of his hallucination. Vader insists that the Skywalker blood, the mountainous power that makes them
the most dangerous victims to the temptation of the Dark Side, is Cade’s inheritance….his legacy. Cade screams that he’ll never have the same destiny as Vader—and that
he controls his own destiny, regardless of any Dark Side. His anger fluxes into pleas to be left alone, to which Vader all-too-knowingly declares that the Force cares little about what he or anyone else wants…let alone the Dark Side.
Stabbing Cade, Vader cautions the bitter double-edged sword of the Dark Side: its brilliance as a tool against one enemies, and its cancerous hold that can easily devour his host.
Cade watches in horror as the Dark Lord reveals his deformed face, the lasting consequence of his jaunt down the dark path, the same consequence that awaits Cade, should he stumble. No matter how hard Cade runs, or how far, he runs the risk of stumbling just as any other Skywalker…or, perhaps even more.
This is a great scene, and is obviously paying homage to the terrifying vision that Luke sees within the Cave on Dagobah, preying on his fear of falling. But as an Arthurian fanatic, this scene also reminds me of Merlin’s warning monologue to Arthur in the film
Excalibur, telling him the immense power and crippling consequences that come with being a hero:
“What does it mean to be King?”
“You will be the land, and the land will be you. As you thrive, the land will blossom. If you fail, the land shall perish.”
That could easily be me reaching, but with the Skywalkers and Star Wars in general borrowing from Campbellian motifs of heroism and Arthuriana, it was the instant comparison that sprang to mind. Much of both deals with the burden of being a destined champion, and the susceptibility for evil and self-made suffering that comes with that mantle.
Regardless, Cade awakens from his hallucination, and in his groggy state, is greeted by not another Skywalker to impart a cautionary tale, but a wizened alien whom he recognizes as the Jedi Master K’Kruuhk. Now, this character is actually another character created by the Ostrander-Duursema duo for their series
Republic and
Dark Times respectively, with this comic establishing that he survived to join Luke’s New Jedi Order, and be a regular member during all of the events of the post-Endor saga, as well as the Ossus Massacre. Which I only find problematic as he’s never mentioned or utilized in the NJO or LOTF novels, the events of which he surely would have been present. And given how Luke spends a lot of that time struggling with understanding how the PT Jedi ran the order, it begs the question why he wouldn’t just consult K’Kruuhk…someone
from the PT Era. It’s nothing catastrophic, but kind of feels like a continuity flub.
K’Kruukh expresses his displeasure at the man Cade has become, a street urchin shortening his life with extreme substance abuse. Cade laughs off his displeasure, stating that he uses his healing ability to dampen the effects of death sticks—which is the explanation the authors are offering those of us wondering why the lethal oxidants of the galactic drug don’t seem to affect Cade, despite him using them for years.
His reassurances don’t impress the old master, and then Sazen and Vao step into frame. It’s here that the last few days’ events come back to Cade as he recuperates from his overdose…which I really like, as it’s a nifty way of giving us exposition as an audience without it coming off as forced. We’re told that after escorting the fugitives to a safe location, Cade jumped ship and took off on his own—prompting the concern of his former master, Sazen. They follow his Force presence to Ossus, and now stand questioning Cade as to why someone like him—determined to outrun the past—would return to his old home. He reveals, to the shock of everyone, that he wants to finish his Jedi Training.
Cade very bluntly states that, now that he’s been yanked out of his personal exile, and with the Sith hot on his trail, he needs his Jedi skills now more than ever. His old Master, Sazen, agrees to aid in his training…tentatively. We get the sense that he doesn’t completely buy Cade’s reasons for returning to Ossus, or constantly running off and seeking solitude from the rest of them.
Fast-track to the pirate world of Socorro, where Cade’s old crew have learned of their Leader’s disappearance. Syn, wasting little time, has already gambled away the reward bestowed upon them by Princess Marsiah, and is seen bugging, Deliah, who is in a boiling rage over Cade leaving them both (and who I must say looks far hotter when she’s angry).
On the dingey pirate world, they reunite with an old “colleague”, Rav, the space pirate who Cade has done years of business with (in exchange for Death Sticks). Rav tempts their empty pockets with the prospect of a new job—and despite Deliah wanting nothing more to do with their old lives under Rav’s heel, a broke and desperate Syn caves in.
What awaits them isn’t a job at all, but a trap orchestrated by Nyna Calixte, who is very tactfully following up her active pursuit of Cade Skywalker with the capture of his friends. She demands his location, which sobers up Syn out of his greedy stupor to defiantly refuse, prompting the snide Imperial to declare that she’ll get Cade’s location out of them, one way or another.
A few weeks roll by, and we cut back to Cade’s Jedi Training back in the misty marshes of Ossus, sparring with Shado Vao under the observation of the two Jedi Masters.
During their training, Sazen quietly reveals his primary motive to K’Kruuhk: not just to take this edge lord high on both ego and substance abuse and forge him into a formidable warrior, but into a beacon that can unite the scattered Jedi across the galaxy. Sazen believes that the Jedi Order will only rally again under the reassuring presence of a Skywalker, something that he claims to have even seen in a vision. K’Kruuhk expresses his doubt, wary of the flickering darkness within Cade, and how they could be training the next great Sith Lord if they’re not careful.
As they’re talking, the two headstrong apprentices take their sparring session deeper into the Ossus jungle, with Vao disappearing into the shadows constantly, goading Cade to find him in the viny brush. The two pursue each other before stumbling into an open ravine, sending them tumbling down into a undiscovered part of the Jedi Temple…one flooded with priceless Jedi artifacts.
Even Cade is stunned, verbally stating that he didn’t know about this place when he helped raid the Temple alongside some space pirates. We experience a brief flashback set seven years earlier, and learn that after being jettisoned from his X-Wing and presumed dead in the opening issue of the series, Cade was picked up as a castaway by Rav and his crew, who were on fast approach to Ossus to scavenge in the aftermath of the Temple Slaughter.
It’s here that we learn how Cade and Jariah Syn became friends, as well as the origin point for Syn’s distrust and hatred for Jedi that eventually costs them their friendship as adults. Having found Cade so close to the planet, Rav and his cutthroats instantly think that he’s a Jedi who managed to escape the carnage below, and prepare to gut him, until a young Syn, recognizing a kindred spirit, speaks up on Cade’s behalf and convinces the other pirates to spare him. To save his own skin, Cade plays along.
With his new scavenger guise, Cade accompanies the pirates back to Ossus, where a dismal sight awaits him, as well as the grim reminder of how helpless he was to stop the carnage that ensued.
Rav’s callous words wash over Cade just as much as the rainwater, fueling his heartbreak and self-loathing, drowning out the cackling of all the space pirates scampering to and fro with armfuls of loot. Even Syn’s anxious voice doesn’t reach Cade, as he stands there over his father’s body, and worse than react to Rav’s spiteful words…he
believes them. The Force wasn’t there to help his father, or to make
him strong enough to save him. The Jedi, the Force…none of it amounted to anything, when it was needed most.
This was a really great scene to read. Not only is it complemented by effectively-dreary imagery, but it finally strips away some of the layers of Cade’s unlikability, and explains the impetus for his shitty, cynical attitude as an adult. The drug-scarfing, back-stabbing Cade we know is very much a product of the factors around him—the trauma of losing his father and previous life, the heartless space pirate life he was put on…and the knifing sense of guilt that dogs his every step. In many ways, it all justifies the person he got molded into, and explains a lot his behavior. A lot of it boils down to him blaming himself, and being gnawed at by the shame and disgust that comes with survivor’s guilt.
Now, we get a lot of this information later in an expanded flashback (which I’ve placed here for the sake of my coverage). In present time, all the fully-grown Cade has time to express is the revelation that he led some space pirates to the Temple to pilfer it, which doesn’t evoke the most sympathetic response from Shadao. The Twi’lek Jedi angrily admonishes Cade, calling him a traitor for whoring out the Temple.
But suddenly, their argument is cut short by the whizz of an insect-like creature…which isn’t an insect at all, but a thudbug incendiary grenade.
The two of them whirl around at the echo of bloodcurdling battle-cries behind them, finding themselves ambushed by a pair of Yuuzhan Vong Warriors. And right away, with the swinging of amphistaffs and the guttural utterance of the word “Jeedai”, I had a huge grin on my face. It is cool as
fuck to see the Vong again.
The confused Jedi are brought to heel by the Vong, who even a century later make for unorthodox and brutal opponents…that is until one of them emerges from the shadow to stop their hostile brethren, reminding her kin that the Vong no longer fight Jedi. After a brief pissing match with one of the Vong warriors mistaking him for a plunderer masquerading as a Jedi, Cade realizes at once who these characters are. It turns out that these are the Vong Caste that allied themselves with Kol Skywalker’s Jedi Order, now standing guard over the last of its treasure hoard. He even recognizes the Shaper as Nei Rin, someone he remembers vividly from his childhood in the Temple.
Tensions subside, and the Jedi characters gather around Nei Rin and her Vong companions, asking why they still endanger themselves to guard the Jedi Temple after all these years, when they can easily escape. Nei Rin reveals herself to be intrinsically tied to the tragedy that befell the Jedi Order, as none other than the alchemist spearheading the doomed Ossus Project that led to
Legacy’s events unfurling. She slips into melancholy as she recalls Kol’s enthusiasm, his dream for a galaxy where both natives and Vong outsiders lived in harmony, and this project to heal planets ravaged by the Vong War as the perfect means to achieve it.
To this day, Rin is still helplessly baffled as to why her experiments backfired, especially when the first wave of experimentation worked flawlessly. Then the citizens of the planets she was trying to heal began to mutate, destroying all of her efforts to redeem the Vong’s tainted reputation. Even the species’ place of exile, the sentient planet Zonama Sekot, had no answers to this dilemma and fled into the Unknown Regions (unhelpful prick).
At first, Rin interprets this as the gods mocking and abandoning her, with the last ditch effort to re-integrate the Yuuzhan Vong into the galaxy now ripped from them. But when the Sith emerged from the shadows to aid the Fel Empire as war breaks out, it became clear that it was foul play that sabotaged her experiments, not godly punishment.
Rin laments how she raced to find how her work was sabotaged, to clear the names of the Vong and the Jedi Order who supported them…but returns to Ossus too late.
Heartbroken and riddled with guilt, Rin and her bodyguards remain on Ossus, guarding the sacred treasures of the Jedi Order they failed in shameful solitude, until the right champion returns to restore the Jedi…the champion they now believe to be Cade.
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