Star Wars: Legacy of Vader #8
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeStar Wars: Legacy of Vader #8 marks the first canon appearance of Tava Ren, a newly created dark-side warrior who steps in as leader of the Knights of Ren during Kylo Ren's tenure as Supreme Leader of the First Order — filling a narrative gap that had puzzled fans since The Force Awakens in 2015. The issue simultaneously delivers the most complete in-canon account yet of why the Knights were essentially absent from the first two sequel-trilogy films: writer Charles Soule reveals through flashback that Snoke personally severed Kylo's ties to his former band, leaving the group leaderless and adrift until Tava rose to fill the vacuum. By grounding this long-standing continuity mystery in a single, tightly-plotted issue, the comic meaningfully retroactively enriches both The Rise of Kylo Ren miniseries (also by Soule) and the sequel films themselves. Tava's introduction also pushes the series into genuinely new creative territory: she is the first female leader of the Knights of Ren in canon, and her red-bladed lightsaber — a weapon previously exclusive among the Knights to Kylo — signals that she is a peer, not a subordinate.
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Star Wars: Legacy of Vader launched in February 2025 as an ongoing Marvel series written by Charles Soule with primary art by Luke Ross, conceived to chart Kylo Ren's politically and emotionally turbulent reign as Supreme Leader between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker — a stretch of the timeline Soule himself described as 'almost entirely open.' Artist Stefano Raffaele joined the book beginning with issue #4, and it is Raffaele who both designed and illustrated Tava Ren; concept art he created was publicly unveiled at the Lucasfilm Publishing panel during Star Wars Celebration Japan on April 18, 2025, where it was briefly and incorrectly attributed to Luke Ross before the mistake was clarified. Editor Mark Paniccia oversaw the issue, and the series sits within the broader wave of sequel-era comics Marvel and Lucasfilm began prioritizing in 2025 to expand the canon of the Disney trilogy.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Tava Ren, a new canon character created by writer Charles Soule and artist Stefano Raffaele, published September 3, 2025.
- Tava Ren is established in-story as the leader of the Knights of Ren during the events of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, explaining the group's near-absence from those films.
- The issue delivers the first full canonical account of how and why Snoke severed Kylo Ren from the Knights — forcing them out when he brought Kylo into the First Order — a mystery dangling since 2015.
- Tava Ren wields her own red-bladed lightsaber, making her the first member of the Knights of Ren besides Kylo (and the previous leader 'Ren') to be depicted with a red-bladed weapon in canon.
- The flashback sequences retrace Ben Solo's arc from joining the Knights through murdering their original leader and renaming himself Kylo Ren, directly bridging Soule's 2019–2020 miniseries The Rise of Kylo Ren to the events of Legacy of Vader.
- Snoke and Armitage Hux both appear in the issue; Hux is present when Tava Ren's ship — the Knights' vessel the Night Buzzard — arrives at Kylo's flagship the Finalizer.
- Tava Ren's character design was first revealed publicly at Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 (April 18, 2025), with concept sketches by Raffaele mistakenly credited to Luke Ross during the panel.
- The issue is set in 34 ABY, per Wookieepedia's canonical dating, concurrent with Kylo's early reign as Supreme Leader following Snoke's death at the end of The Last Jedi.
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