New Look At Luke Skywalker's Yellow Lightsaber

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of facets of the entertainment industries took a hit. Lots of things got delayed, and comic book releases were hit pretty hard. 2020 was meant to be the start of a new era for Marvel when it comes to Star Wars comics, especially given that the ongoing series simply titled Star Wars, which started in January 2015, relaunched in January of this year with the issue numbering restarted. The current run, written by Charles Soule, takes place, like other comic series right now, between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It follows a vulnerable Luke Skywalker after the revelation that Darth Vader is his father.

Thankfully, comic books recently got back on a consistent schedule. The first arc of Soule's Star Wars run was finally able to conclude, and now it is on its second arc. The first arc culminated in Luke Skywalker acquiring a yellow-bladed lightsaber. Everyone knows the Skywalker lightsaber with the blue blade, as well as the green-bladed lightsaber that Luke has in Return of the Jedi. But in the gap between the aforementioned films, Luke had a yellow-bladed lightsaber. It might seem odd to think about, but it is canon, and it looks great.

Just to add a bit more context, Luke finds this lightsaber in Star Wars #6 at a High Republic era Jedi outpost on Tempes. There, he uses this particular lightsaber for the first time in a duel against the spirit of the Grand Inquisitor, whom Vader had placed there in case anyone came to that location looking for knowledge. Yes, this was quite a surprising issue, and an exciting end to that first arc. It is also a nice piece of multimedia synergy, incorporating elements of the upcoming The High Republic publishing project into this story.

StarWars.com has released solicitations for upcoming issues of multiple Star Wars comic series, going so far as to include the gorgeous cover art. One of the upcoming issues, Star Wars #10, currently due January 2021, gives us another look at Luke wielding the yellow-bladed lightsaber. Here is the solicitation:

"'OPERATION STARLIGHT, PART 2 (OF 3)' – REELING FROM THE LOSS OF ONE OF THEIR OWN, THE REBELS FINALLY SEE A PATH FORWARD!

-THE REBELS attempt to create a new communications code that THE EMPIRE will never be able to crack, in hopes that they might be able to safely reunite their scattered fleet and rejoin the fight.

-However, the code has a cost, one that LANDO CALRISSIAN is not willing to pay!

-Meanwhile, STARLIGHT SQUADRON, the group of elite pilots tasked with finding the scattered divisions of the fleet, heads out on its first deadly mission."

For the time being, we do not know the "final fate" of this yellow-bladed lightsaber. If we speculate enough, we can come up with a lot of possibilities. Perhaps it gets destroyed in a fight. Perhaps Luke loses it. Or perhaps he places it back in the Jedi outpost, feeling that it does not belong to him and that he should construct his own lightsaber. (I feel very confident about this particular guess.) We know that he constructs and uses the green-bladed lightsaber that we later see during the rescue of Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt. So in order to see what happens to the weapon, we will have to keep reading as this series continues to fill in the gaps. While this era within the comics is not exactly a brand new one, it is still fun to see how the characters are being utilized at this point in canon.

Written By Steven Shinder

Syndicated From Culture Slate