If Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker left fans in the dark about just how Ben Solo became Kylo Ren in the first place — not to mention just who and what the Knights of Ren were — then they didn’t have to wait long for some answers, as long as they were looking in the right place… namely, Marvel Entertainment’s Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren comic book series.
The second issue of the series by Charles Soule and Will Sliney adds considerable backstory to Adam Driver’s character from the film sequel trilogy, revealing that Ben Solo had met the Knights of Ren years before he turned against Luke Skywalker and the burgeoning Jedi Order, while exploring a Jedi outpost on the planet Elphrona alongside Skywalker and Lon Sen Tekka, a character introduced in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
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The fight between Skywalker and the seven Knights of Ren — one of whom identifies himself as Ren — ends in a stalemate, with Ren inviting Ben Solo to join them, before leaving; this happened years before Solo destroyed Skywalker’s Jedi temple, and it’s after that later point when Solo returns to Elphrona at the bidding of Snoke to search out the Knights anew. The issue ends with Ren inviting Solo to meet them, revealing that he knows Snoke in the process.
While the comic book series has two more issues to run — showing, presumably, Ben Solo taking on the Kylo Ren identity for himself — the second issue alone adds new details, and new wrinkles, to the sequel trilogy’s storyline, including Snoke’s role (and through him, Palpatine’s) in Solo’s fall and induction into the Knights of Ren, and the fact that the Knights are clearly not following either the Jedi or Sith traditions… and their amusingly adolescent punk attitudes, instead, as evidenced by Ren’s introduction:
Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren Nos. 1 and 2 are available now digitally and in comic book stores.
