Star Wars Finally Answers a Major Kylo Ren Question

“End the Jedi, and become what your grandfather Vader could not,” the undead Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) tells Supreme Leader Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) — once Ben Solo, grandson of Anakin Skywalker — in the opening minutes of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Before Ren faces the resurrected Sith Lord in a temple on Exegol, his red lightsaber cuts down an army of Alazmec in Corvax Fen, a scorched forest on the volcanic planet where the newly-risen Darth Vader nearly burned to death in Revenge of the Sith: Mustafar.

After slaying the Mustafarian warriors, Ren claims the Sith wayfinder, a triangular device that leads him to Palpatine on Exegol. There the phantom Emperor reveals that he made Ren’s predecessor, Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), and has been “every voice” the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa has heard inside his head as he fell to the dark side: Ren murdered his father, slew his master, and attempted to destroy what remained of the rebel Resistance during an encounter with his uncle, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, on Crait.

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Marvel’s Star Wars: Legacy of Vader #1 picks up where 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi left off, with new Supreme Leader Ren haunted by Skywalker’s taunting last words at the Battle of Crait: “See you around, kid.” The ongoing comic book series from writer Charles Soule (Darth Vader) and artist Luke Ross (Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker — Allegiance) bridges the events of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker as the Supreme Leader assumes command of the First Order.

Aboard the First Order flagship Finalizer, Supreme Leader Ren presents Snoke’s severed corpse to a legion of First Order stormtroopers. “See what your enemies have done,” he says. “Snoke is dead. The Resistance killed him. I am Kylo Ren. Your Supreme Leader.” As he discards Snoke’s body into space, Ren says, “This is the end. This is the beginning.”

But letting go and killing the past proves difficult for the fallen Ben Solo, who wrestles with visions of his father’s death by Ren’s blade in The Force Awakens. The Supreme Leader’s next order of business is to consult with his advisor, General Hux, who says the First Order is without a shipyard following the destruction of Starkiller Base and down the Supremacy and a large portion of their fleet following the Battle of Crait.

Ren tasks Hux with building him a throne worthy of the Supreme Leader, and in private, he talks to Vader’s charred mask reclaimed from a funeral pyre on Endor.

“How did you do this for so long?” Ren asks the helmet. “For decades, you did this. Ruled over weaklings. How could this be enough for you? I thought I wanted to follow your path. You were the one I thought I understood. I thought I was your legacy. But I’m not you. I’m not Vader, I’m not Luke, I’m not my mother, I’m not Han Solo… I’m not any of them.” He recalls telling Rey, “I told that girl to let the past die. To kill it. I’ve done that. So why am I not free?”

Ren realizes that it’s because he’s not finished reckoning with the past. “There’s still more to do. More has to die,” Ren tells Vader’s helmet. “I’ll start with you.” He travels to Vader’s Castle on Mustafar, furiously slashing through the Alazmec of Winsit as he tells the guards, “Do you not know who I am? Let me show you. Do you know what I have done? I have destroyed legends. My own blood.”

“And you, all of you think this is your time? Your moment to destroy me?” Ren’s petulant raving continues. “No. I am Kylo Ren. This is my reign. My ascent has just begun.” Ren’s rage is witnessed by Vaneé, the once servant of the Dark Lord whose head pilots a spider-like droid body. Vaneé offers to serve Ren as he served his grandfather, but Ren wants to literally kill the past with Vaneé’s death.

“You are the past. Darth Vader is the past,” Ren explains. “This entire place is the past. The past strangles me. Its expectations and legacies and vendettas. I will destroy every last vestige of it. I will free myself.” Vaneé responds that Ren is a foolish, ignorant child lashing out at the past.

“Vader’s power was his past,” Vaneé says. “Darth Vader never allowed himself to forget his past, filled with horrors though it was. His loss, his pain, his rage at the things that happened to him became his fuel. He never looked back, but he never let go either. This is why the dark side ran so strongly through him.” Vaneé then tempts Kylo Ren with an offer: “I can tell you how he did it. I can tell you how he turned his past… into his power.”

To that, Ren says: “Show me.” Next, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren and Vaneé will return to where it all started for Anakin Skywalker: Tatooine.

Star Wars: Legacy of Vader #1 is on stands now. Issue #2 goes on sale March 12.