Phasmom memes are dead

If there was any doubt in your mind that Phasma wasn’t a complete and total monster that would kill anyone in her way, regardless of who it was, this comic crushes those doubts harder than Jaime Lannister did Brienne of Tarth’s hopes in S8 of GOT. This is really a comic I enjoyed a lot because beyond seeing Phasma as a straight up complete monster, we got a new stormtrooper that I fell in love with instantly.

Now ironically, if Jaime Lannister was into cold-blooded, wine drinking, Draco Malfoy haircut having, evil AF monsters, like he was Cersei, then bloody hell he would have given his other sword hand to jump in a trash compactor with Captain Phasma in this comic.

Captain Phasma’s true origins: dealing with an idiot sandwich

This is what bad breakups do to you, kids.

The comic begins in the unknown regions of space, on some mad max looking world, the iron planet, Demir. We see stormtroopers engaged in a violent battle with hostiles, and it’s there that we meet KM-8713, who will be called KM as of now…I would call her Kim, but then I’d be forced to make a Kim Possible reference…Screw it. She’s Kim. Deal with it.

Guuuurl, you need better role models

While Phasma is the focus of this story, the comic itself is told from Kim’s point of view as a supporting protagonist. We actually never get to go inside’s Phasma’s head to see what the brutal soldier is thinking, which works very well for how this story plays out.

Kim would have made Finn proud

Kim is a good soldier, a loyal soldier, and she cares about her fellow stormtroopers. In fact, this opening battle with her trying and failing to save one of her injured comrades seems like a callback to the beginning of The Force Awakens with Finn and Slip.

The parallels between Kim and Finn don’t stop there in this comic. After the battle, Phasma chides Kim’s attempts to save one of the fallen stormtroopers and asks her why she had done it.

This exchange between Kim and Phasma is a parallel back to Before the Awakening when Phasma had questioned Finn as to why he had gone back to help Slip during a training simulation instead of completing the mission.

As it turns out, Finn wasn’t the only stormtrooper who cared about his fellow trooper, but sadly, Phasma was able to use Kim’s own ambition against her. What I found interesting about Phasma is just how different she is from Hux and Captain Cardinal (Phasma Novel). Cardinal didn’t just care about the FO’s mission, he also cared about his fellow soldier and treated them like family. Hux, while nowhere near as compassionate as Cardinal, actually does believe in the First Order, and even didn’t see Finn’s loyalty towards his fellow soldier as a bad thing.

Phasma, on the other hand, doesn’t care about anything but her own survival. Not the First Order, not the stormtroopers under her command, no one but herself.

Phasma makes Kim an officer and appoints her as the leader of the mission…which quickly turns into a suicide mission as enemy forces begin to totally demolish the stormtroopers. It’s then that Tie-Fighters swoop in, killing practically everyone but Kim and Phasma.

It’s at that moment that Kim learns that the stormtroopers were just a diversion so the enemy forces would open their doors and allow the Tie-Fighters to destroy them all at once. They were just cannon fodder. Now, normally in the SW universe, we are desensitized to seeing that sort of thing, yet here, we are brought back to the horrors that the stormtroopers go through. Not here though. This comic plays it completely straight and once again we are brought back to the bloodstained village of Tuanul were Slip died in front of Finn. Kim calls her out for betraying them all and using her own men as bait, promising that she’ll pay for what’s she’s done and I can’t help but be reminded of the Alternate Phasma and Finn confrontation that had been deleted from The Last Jedi.

Finn vs Phasma Deleted Scene

Now, if you haven’t seen this deleted scene, it was an alternate version to the confrontation between Finn and Phasma. In it Finn confronts Phasma directly about the events of TFA and how she had lowered the shields to Starkiller base, thus betraying the first order. This makes the troopers surrounding Finn lower their weapons and Phasma kills them all before they can turn on her. Though just like in the theatrical release, Finn still kills Phasma. Personally, I found this version to be one of the more redeeming aspects of Finn’s arc in TLJ, like most of his deleted scenes honestly, and question at times why it was deleted and we were given so much Canto Bight. Oh, well. Back to the comic review.

Kim tries to avenge her fallen brothers and sisters, she tries to kill the real traitor, but sadly, Phasma’s armor protects her and Phasma shoots her in return, leaving her for dead like all the others.

I mean..she could still be alive. Maul and Anakin survived worse…No one’s ever really gone!

As this comic comes to an end, many will likely not see it as something of great importance when it comes to the big picture, but I’d like to argue something different since I’m an opinionated bastard and you’ll all just have to deal with that.

This story reinforces multiple different concepts and parallels that relate to the very co-protagonist of the Sequel Trilogy, Finn.

Kim, like Finn and Cardinal, proves that there are more stormtroopers out there that merely want to do what they think is right and not only bring order to the galaxy but protect and help the people they fight with.

Phasma has been gaslighting stormtroopers, lying to them, and honestly, if we look back at Finn and Cardinal, she herself is one of the main reasons the first order is falling apart and stormtroopers are deserting or turning on their masters, which brings me to my final point…

If the Phasma comic shows us anything, besides the fact that Phasma is basically Cersei Lannister’s dream woman, is that the stormtroopers will turn against those that they feel don’t have the best interest in mind for the galaxy, but also their brothers and sisters. The Stormtroopers while raised to be conditioned to have unquestionable loyalty to the FO, will still rise up against what they feel is an injustice. So, this has me thinking, will Finn’s role in The Rise of Skywalker be that of Space Moses? Will he take the next step in the hero’s journey, returning “home” a changed man and help liberate his people with the help of the resistance? Thus giving the Resistance a fighting chance to turn the tide of the war…who knows? Maybe, a reverse order 66 is coming. What would that be called? Ah, Order 2187!

All in all, this was an enjoyable read and I would suggest it to anyone that wants to see more of our favorite sociopath Captain Phasma. I found it to be much more interesting than I had originally thought I would. All it took was looking past the surface read.