For five years, the word “somehow” has been a big deal for Star Wars fans. Poe Dameron (Oscar Issac) delivered the phrase “somehow Palpatine returned” in The Rise of Skywalker, and since then, the specifics of that return have slowly but surely been revealed. In fact, clues were being dropped before that infamous moment. Because the first sequel movie, 2014’s The Force Awakens, took place three decades after Return of the Jedi, post-2014 comics and novels started to explain how the defeated Empire rebuilt into the First Order. Now, an ongoing comic series is pulling all those strands together in a way that makes “somehow” much more explicable.
Star Wars: The Battle Of Jakku — Insurgency Rising #2, from Marvel Comics and writer Alex Segura, is continuing its post-Jedi storyline, and in doing so, it’s pinpointed the earliest movements of Palpatine’s Sith Eternal, the sinister cult integral to his return. Mild spoilers ahead.
