Obi-Wan 4 is the fourth issue of the canon comic miniseries Star Wars: Obi-Wan. The issue was written by Christopher Cantwell, illustrated by Madibek Musabekov and Sebastian Cheng, and published by Marvel Comics on August 31, 2022. The issue contains the story "The Sun Sets and It Rises".
Publisher's summary
As the sandstorm overtakes his home, Obi-Wan has more time to reflect in – and on – the darkness. He looks back on a time when he and Anakin Skywalker were pulled off the front lines of the Clone Wars to confront a lost soul from Kenobi's wartime past. Can the two Jedi bring a man back from the heart of darkness to which he has fallen?
Plot summary
| "The Sun Sets and It Rises" |
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On Tatooine in 1 BBY, Obi-Wan Kenobi remains in the shelter of his hut as the sandstorm has arrived and hears his vaporator breaking outside, to which he notes that the power cells and weathered walls are aging just like him. Reflecting on the Clone Wars, he explains how they raged on and brought about the darkest hours yet, but his kinship with Anakin was like a shining beacon during this period. They’d been the closest they’d ever been, and through many ups and downs they were alway working to purge the shrouds of shadows that threatened to fall across them.
At one point, they were urgently called away from the blockade reinforcing Herdessa to discuss a secret task on Naboo, and once inside a command center with Admiral Yularen, they are asked if they remember Commander Mekedrix from the Battle of Abrion Bridge. Since then, he’s continued to serve with honour and distinction at Ryloth and Saleucami, but after the loss of the Temple of Eedit on Devaron, he disappeared. He is believed to have gone rogue, and so Yularen explains rumours of an execution squad called the death wind. They’ve been striking out at detachments of clones as well as high ranking members of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, meaning they’re not Separatists. Three months ago an entire commerce guild hub on Mintooine was raided and had its residents slaughtered through terroristic murder. Having their suspicions about Mekedrix, the Republic believes that the war may have broken him in some irreparable way, and so Yularen wants Anakin and Obi-Wan to investigate rumours of his presence on Ando in the swamplands. When Obi-Wan questions what’s to be done once Mekedrix is captured, Yularen says that the best course of action would seemingly be to eliminate him on sight, but Anakin takes issue with this as the Jedi aren’t assassins and if they give up hope on Mekedrix then what hope is there for a fractured Republic. Anakin doesn’t want to take the same course of actions as their enemy in the Separatists, and while Obi-Wan agrees with this, he warns that they must stay vigilant as a dangerous mind may be encountered.
Once they arrive on Ando, Obi-Wan informs Anakin of his time in the Codia System after he’s reminded of it due to the dark swamplands, and they soon come across hung up clone trooper armor as a warning. In his journal, Obi-Wan reminisces on his thoughts when he was a youngling, as he used to believe that he’d never have to use his lightsaber to take another life, but then one day Qui-Gon died before his eyes. That was followed with Obi-Wan cleaving Maul in two and the beginning of the Clone Wars, and he hoped that Anakin wouldn’t have to go through the same fate but it was inevitable and he had to use his saber countless times. Obi-Wan had a familiarity with death, but he despised the comfort that he had with it and became curious as to what Mekedrix’s familiarity had done to him. The two Jedi eventually reach the end of the river and arrive upon the headquarters of the Death Wind with a sign that reads “Into the night I go, sent there by the winds of death and all who feed its currents”. Just then, several armored and armed members of the Death Wind emerge from the water and surround the two Jedi who request an audience with Commander Mekedrix. After explaining how they are acquainted, the Jedi are ordered to hand over their lightsabers before being led into the Death Wind headquarters, which was built from the ruins of a Sith Temple used many millennia ago during the Jedi-Sith War. Because of the presence of the dark side, Obi-Wan notes that freeing Mekedrix’s mind may prove much harder than they’d anticipated.
Once inside the throne room, the Jedi are brought before Mekedrix who is wearing 212th Attack Battalion clone armor and wielding a sword made from the bones of a clone since he doesn’t want to let a prime agent of death rot and waste away. When Obi-Wan states that Mekedrix will return with them to Coruscant and answer for his crimes, Mekedrix doesn’t believe that he’s done any crimes as he’s only saved his victims by showing them the truth. When questioned about the truth, Mekedrix explains that war is just a distraction that denies its own real goal and the one of their entire existence - annihilation. People only live to kill and die, everything else is beside the point, and so Mekedrix serves the one true master, death. When Obi-Wan tries to agree with him by saying he’s seen the horrors he’s witnessed himself, Mekedrix corrects Kenobi by explaining that he’s found the light the Jedi claim to follow. It is a void and eventuality that is pulling everyone inside of it. Clones are only created to serve death, and the Separatists rip apart the galaxy in service of it. Mekedrix believes that what the Jedi call the Force is actually the death wind which is the strength of the void itself. He continues on, saying that clones don’t have any names and are just numbers off an assembly line, and when Obi-Wan brings up Mekedrix’s homeworld of Roon, he is immediately shut down. Taking a sensible approach to his response, Obi-Wan tells Mekedrix that a sunrise needs three parts to exist - the light of a star, sky of a world, and life to observe it. Mekedrix thinks that this is nonsense since this all happens without them, but Obi-Wan emphasizes that life gives the sunrise meaning so that its beauty can be seen and cherished. Just as Obi-Wan questions where death has a part in all of this, Mekedrix leaps at them with his sword in hand, but Anakin swiftly uses the Force to summon his lightsaber and impale their attacker. As Mekedrix dies in Obi-Wan’s arms, he reasons that he thought this was the quickest way back to the sunrise. Realizing that Mekedrix is home, Obi-Wan prompts to two of them to return to theirs, and thinks that light will shine again once the storm passes.
Continuity
The issue incorrectly depicts Qui-Gon Jinn's lightsaber as being blue, instead of green.[4]
Media
Cover gallery
Appearances
| Characters | Organisms | Droid models | Events | Locations |
| Organizations and titles | Sentient species | Vehicles and vessels | Weapons and technology | Miscellanea |
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Organisms
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Droid models
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Events
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Locations
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Organizations and titles
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Sentient species
Vehicles and vessels
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Weapons and technology
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Miscellanea
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Collections
Sources
SWCA 2022: 8 Things We Learned from the Marvel Star Wars Comics Panel on StarWars.com (backup link)
"Launchpad" — Star Wars Insider 212 (as Obi-Wan Kenobi 4)- Flashback to a Top-Secret Mission in Marvel's Star Wars: Obi-Wan #4 – Exclusive Preview on StarWars.com (backup link)
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10
Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) #4 on Marvel Comics' official website (backup link)
- ↑ The frame story from Obi-Wan occurs during c. 1 BBY per the reasoning here
- ↑ The flashbacks seen in Obi-Wan 4 occurred during the Clone Wars and after the Devaron massacre, which appears in
Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Monster". As Star Wars: Timelines dates the episode to 20 BBY, and end of the Clone Wars to 19 BBY, the flashback must take place between those two years.
- ↑ Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace