The issue of Marvel’s Star Wars comic series tells a dark sci-fi story, revealing how Luke Skywalker, Leia and their allies found a way to kill Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious, only to end up having to weigh choices of life and death that are totally on par with the manga/anime series Death Note. In fact, Star Wars #50 feels less like a Star Wars movie and more like an episode of Death Note. Read on for SPOILERS if you don’t believe it.
In the finale to Marvel’s Star Wars series, Luke Skywalker is living in the post-war era of the New Republic, and preparing his student Ben Solo to graduate to Jedi Knight. Luke tests Ben’s moral resolve by telling him a secret story from the years between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, when he, Leia, Lando, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO tracked down the “Grim Rose,” an ancient box that uses “arcane mystical power” to kill any target, after being fed a sample of the target’s genetic material.
That premise sounds just like the Death Note notebook from the anime/manga series, which used the lore of Japanese Shinigami to explain how the protagonist, Light Yagami, kills his targets. Like Death Note, Star Wars #50 is focused on the moral ambiguity of having the power to kill indirectly, and how one chooses to use that power. In the case of Star Wars, the plot device of the Grim Rose sets up the framework of the age-old question: If you had the opportunity to assassinate a dictator/mass murderer, would you do it? Should you do it?
(Photo: Marvel Comics)
Full disclosure: Star Wars #50 kind of side-steps the issue by revealing later in the issue that the Grim Rose doesn’t just kill its target – it has to search out its target spiritually, by way of the path of their spiritual influence. The box finds the closest person who carries echoes of the target spirit’s influences, and follows the chain of that influence all the way back to the target. In Palpatine’s case, his influence as both Emperor and Sith Lord meant that thousands of souls had been influenced been him – including Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. In order to kill Palpatine, the Grim Rose would have to extinguish all those other souls, as well.
Luke and Co. learn of this caveat before turning on the Grim Rose, and hesitate – but Chewbacca’s rage at what the Empire did to his home and people makes the sacrifice worth it, in his eyes. Once the box is on, there’s no way to destroy it or stop it; Luke ultimately figures out the loophole of changing targets, feeding the box a sample from the corpse of an ancient Jedi whose life (and all the personal connections in it) is already done.
Ironically, the story ends with Luke imparting the lesson to Ben Solo that you can’t become evil to defeat evil – words Luke clearly forgets, when he almost strikes Ben down out of fear, sometime afterward.
Star Wars #50 (and the entire comic series) is available at Marvel Comics.
