Star Wars: Lost Stars—Volume 1

Comic Info

Love at first sight

Rebel Thane Kyrell finds himself a betrayer to the Empire and caught up in the Rebellion.  Despite his current situation, Thane remembers growing up on Jelucan and befriending Ciena Ree.  Both Ciena and Thane dreamed of joining the Empire and found their dreams were attainable…but as Ciena found herself more drawn to the Empire, Thane began to question the Empire’s goals…and their friendship would never be the same.

Written and illustrated by Yusaku Komiyama, Star Wars:  Lost Stars—Volume 1 is a Yen Press manga Star Wars story.  The manga is an adaptation of Claudia Gray’s 2015 Disney Lucasfilm Press young adult novel Star Wars:  Lost Stars.

I like Star Wars books, but with so much to read, I generally can’t keep up with Star Wars books.  The interest doesn’t outweigh the time commitment.  On the surface, Gray’s Star Wars:  Lost Stars seems interesting, but I probably was never going to read it…Yusaka Komiyama’s telling of the story provides an easy, slick replacement.

The story is essentially a star-crossed lovers story…literally in the stars.  Thane and Ciena come from different classes in the same planet that aren’t supposed to interact, but they find a fast friendship with their mutual love of flight and space.  The present day story is set at a time where Thane has betrayed the Empire and in turn betrayed Ciena, but a majority of this volume is a flashback of what came before.

Young hope

While it could have been easy to tell the story of two kids choosing different, divergent paths, the manga manages to start to explore the why instead of just the how.  While Thane always found acceptance both on Jelucan, and in the Empire, Ciena was always an outsider.  Star Wars generally is very liberal on acceptance of women, but class and racism in Star Wars has been an issue before (like the feuding Gungans and humans on Naboo in Star Wars—Episode 1:  The Phantom Menace).  The Empire provides Ciena where she is accepted and approved of…Grand Moff Tarkin takes a special interest in her and that alone could inspire someone to fall in line with the Empire’s goals.

Thane is painted as “kind” and not seeing race.  When the Empire intentionally creates a wedge between Thane and Ciena to force their loyalty to the Empire he starts to question who he is working for, and the destruction of the peaceful planet of Alderaan almost completely seals deal.  He comes from the same planet as Ciena but not the same background.

Star Wars:  Lost Stars—Volume 1 is a good start to the series.  Yusaku Komiyama’s adaptation is easy to read and flows nicely while the art also lends itself to the story.  This volume establishes the groundwork for the next volume which hopefully will work in more “present day” with the story of how Thane defected to the Rebels…and probably attempted to recruit Ciena to the cause.  I look forward to seeing how it plays out.  Star Wars:  Lost Stars—Volume 1 is followed by Star Wars:  Lost Stars—Volume 2.

Related Links:

Star Wars:  Lost Stars—Volume 2

Star Wars:  Lost Stars—Volume 3