The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: Visions #1, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
Introduced in the Star Wars: Visions animated series on Disney+, the fan-favorite character 'the Ronin' returns in Marvel's Star Wars: Visions #1 (by Takashi Okazaki and VC's Joe Caramagna). Okazaki worked on the Disney+ series as a character designer, which has a second season in the works. Steeped in the culture of Feudal Japan, The Ronin offers a character that is the perfect mix of something brand new yet familiar.
Since the Disney buyout of Lucasfilm, fans have been wanting something fresh from the Star Wars property, while at the same time worrying that the new Star Wars content won’t be recognizable to the dedicated fan base. It’s a balancing act that Disney has found itself wobbling at, struggling with how to create new stories with old characters. But with Star Wars: Visions, and specifically the character of The Ronin, Disney has a bona fide win on the board.
Who is Ronan of Star Wars: Visions?
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In The Duel on Disney+, The Ronin is introduced as a wandering force user akin to the master-less samurai of Feudal Japan, and survivor of a Sith civil war. Along with his astromech droid companion, B5-56, the two stop in a small town besieged by a group of Stormtrooper marauders led by another Sith. The comic simply offers another adventure in the life of the Ronin. Both stories are engaging, but for Star Wars, they’re fairly straightforward. However, the characters and concepts are much richer and offer a vast amount of possible expansion and new lore.
Maybe the most interesting aspect of The Ronin is that he is a good guy with a red Sith lightsaber. Little is known about The Ronin, but at the end of The Duel, we see that he’s been collecting red kyber crystals, the power source of any lightsaber. His aesthetic is almost exactly that of a traditional samurai, from his wardrobe to his sword scabbard (which also houses a second secret lightsaber blade). The comic is a new story and is pretty much in lockstep with what we see in the episode, but it does take a few visual liberties with aspects of The Ronin. In particular, his movements and the dynamic of his lightsaber.
Star Wars: Visions Moves Forward Through Character and Concept
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Both in The Duel and the comic, Okazaki has taken familiar characters and concepts, but built upon them in a way that makes them fresh to the Star Wars Galaxy. All the Stormtrooper armor is incomplete and patched with bamboo limbs and grizzled metal parts. One of the best designs is the mini-gun-toting protocol droid wearing traditional Japanese hakama. Okazaki also introduces a new Sith, Lord Kouru, in The Duel that wields a parasol, akin to the weapons seen in Japanese action cinema. In the comic, he adds to the Sith lineup with a splash page of another 18 new Sith, each with their own, unique red lightsaber, including kyber-powered machetes, bo staffs, and glowing red palm blasters. All from battles in The Ronin’s past, defeated and added to his kyber crystal collection.
Along with the characters, Okazaki plays coy with the concept of good and bad; Jedi and Sith. It creates a strong sense of ambiguity, and rocket fires the entire world back to the Akira Kurosawa films that George Lucas was so influenced by when he created Star Wars. Because of this, the comic establishes a heightened feel of tension when The Ronin meets a Stranger on the road that wishes to join his company for the night. The Ronin deduces that the Stranger is a Jedi and that he’s there to kill him, and in a daydream scenario, he envisions the two locked in battle. But instead, they both part ways destined to meet again.
A curious thing at the end of the issue is Ronin referring to his droid as “master”. Using the theme of the Ronin juxtaposed with the theme of the Jedi, and even the Sith, it’s interesting that Okazaki leaves this open to interpretation for the reader. Another fresh twist on a traditional concept of Star Wars. It hasn’t been announced whether this is just a one-shot or if there will be a second issue, or possibly an ongoing series. But even more than another animated episode featuring these characters in season 2, the Visions comic lends itself to truly branching off, moving away from the Skywalker lore, and creating something brand new that lives within this galaxy that fans love. Okazaki manages to bring diversity in both culture and concept in just one issue, something Star Wars wrote the book on, and will continue to do so with ideas like Visions.