SPOILER WARNING: This article contains spoilers for "Star Wars" #25, which is on sale now.
The stormtrooper gets the better of Luke, who feels Vader's presence through the Force. "The Force is a distraction, kid," yells Kreel as he knees Luke in the gut. The battle has made a decisive turn, and Luke's on the losing end. That is, until Luke realizes he has a power he hasn't used before...
Yep, Luke uses the Force push maneuver for the first time right here, to defend himself from Kreel's attack. He shoves Kreel backwards so hard that he falls and a massive piece of machinery pins his arm down. Kreel later has to cut off his own arm to escape from the Star Destroyer before it explodes. As Han points out, Luke's Force move makes the entire ship shudder. Luke's even powerful enough to make Darth Vader take note.
As this issue takes place in the months after 1977's "Star Wars," Luke is still very green in the ways of the Force. We've seen him reach out with his feelings and defend himself from a practice droid while blindfolded -- and that's about it. There have been plenty of times over the course of Jason Aaron's "Star Wars" run that Luke really could have used the Force as telekinesis. Seriously, Luke drops or loses his lightsaber all the time and he always has to rush to pick it up again. This marks the first time in the new canon that Luke's actually used the Force in an offensive and telekinetic manner.
This fills in a gap that existed in the previous trilogy. "Star Wars" ended with Luke having blown up the Death Star by trusting his feelings over his X-wing's computer. By the time we saw Luke again in "Empire Strikes Back," he was levitating and commanding his lightsaber with his mind (like in the Wampa's cave on Hoth). We never saw the steps he took, as Luke went from a novice to a somewhat confident user of the Force in-between films. This development could be a sign that Jason Aaron is going to show us more of Luke's developing Force powers over the course of his run.
And Luke's going to need all the Force powers he can get, as "Star Wars" #25 reveals that one of the Rebellion's own has been taken hostage by the SCAR squadron.
Oh Threepio, what a fine mess you've gotten yourself into.
"Star Wars" #26 arrives in stores on December 28.