The Age of Resistance Finn comic was….dare I say it, pretty subversive.

WAIT! Don’t click away! I promise there’s no green milk, shirtless emos, or casinos in this comic! I swear on the Force! There’s fire, bats, a Rey Expy, and it confirms that Finn wasn’t actually a janitor!

I was actually surprised with how much I grew to like this comic because, I’ll be honest with you lovely readers, I wanted to yeet this comic into Mustafar like it was a burnt marshmallow-looking Skywalker high off the dark side. I mean, have you read the description for this comic?

I mean, bloody hell! Was this supposed to be the description version of a cold shower? Because consider me turned right off! I was ready and willing to write this comic off as Lucasfilm trying to erase Finn’s history as a competent stormtrooper and go read Before the Awakening again and dream of a world where the co-protagonist of the Sequel Trilogy could get some blasted respect.

My love for Before the Awakening is eternal

And then the preview for the comic dropped…

Yeah…ignoring the unfortunate implications of projecting the perception that many bigots have of black people and how this comic looked like it would just be dedicated to making me wish I was a 19-year-old named Jared who didn’t know how to read, at this point I was getting ready to just ignore this comic, yet I had pre-ordered it anyway because there is a severe lack of Finn content and as we know, if Disney ain’t making money off it, they aren’t going to make content for it. So, I caved and gave the house of mouse more of money. Side note, if you actually think about it, the real Empire looking to control the galaxy is Disney. All hail Supreme leader Bob Iger! Now, today was the day the comic dropped and HOLY KRIFF, KAREN!

WHAT IN YODA’S NAME IS THAT?!!

THIS COMIC WENT FULL DEADSPACE ON ME!

BREAKDOWN

I was not prepared for this comic. I was expecting a stupid comic that had Finn cleaning out a bathroom of porgs, not him and his merry band of space thots getting attacked by some unholy creatures that looked like they came out of a Mass Effect game.

This comic pulled a bait and switch in a way that I actually don’t honestly mind….once I got past the cringe-inducing janitor description and dirty mop water leaking on Finn’s shoulder.

We open the comic with a Finn on Starkiller base, pre TFA, so he’s FN-2187, but I’m not spelling that over and over again, so I’m going to just call him Finn. Got a problem with that? FIGHT ME! Fight me at Denny’s! Not gonna lie to you guys, the comic starts off pretty rough with a bait and switch that looks like Finn’s in some form of fight, but its actually him just screwing around with a mop. Now before you ask, no, Finn isn’t actually a janitor, you learn in the comic that Finn basically gets sent to sanitation whenever he shows signs of being too independent or a free thinker. As it turns out, it happens a lot.

Finn knows Kylo is greasy boi. Kylo knows Finn is going to hook up with his cousin.

Now, ignoring the dollar store mop dripping on Finn’s shoulder, something I thought was interesting, yet bloody odd, was the fact that Kylo had taken an interest in Finn long before Jakku. We were originally lead to believe that Kylo hadn’t even known who Finn was till that night, yet this comic says otherwise. I am curious as to why Kylo has a Regina George level of obsession with Finn.

Honestly, Kylo, Hux, and Phasma are the Heathers of the FO

The comic initially plays out like a slice of life for Finn. He is told by Captain Brienne of Tarth to go join a cleaning crew in clearing out a deck.

Pretty sure Phasma is just grumpy because the GOT finale sucked

Men and women in the same changing room? How is the FO more progressive than us?!

We learn that there’s an infestation in the FO and I’m thinking only one thing: PORGS. Kriffing Porgs. Its been almost 2 years since The Last Jedi and Rian Johnson is still torturing me with those kriffing monsters. Finn meets another soldier who had an encounter with these beasts and he seems pretty shooketh:

I thought this was going to be another bait and switch. At this point I was fully expecting whatever infestation Finn had to clear out, to be some comic relief type alien.

Sweet Christmas kill it with fire!

Yeah, no I was dead wrong. Finn and the other stormtroopers are straight-up mauled by some demonic bat beasts and I’m wondering when the hell did this comic become Deadspace and why am I actually SWEATING while reading it?

The captain leading the mission gets covered in these bat things and to save his life, Finn does the only reasonable thing:

HE SETS EVERYTHING ON FIRE WITH A FLAMETHROWER

Pretty sure that’s not how you give someone a bath Finn

Apparently, Stormtrooper armor can survive a flamethrowing at point-blank range but can’t survive blaster fire. Whoever made this armor had a sick sense of humor.

RIP SLIP.

For saving his commander’s life, as well as setting him on fire, Finn is tasked with cleaning up the leftover mess himself and the rest of the stormtroopers leave him to do his duty. While cleaning Finn learns a secret about these creatures he had just been fighting and killing:

We’ve gone from Deadspace to Metroid. Finn is truly a gamer

As it turns out, these beasts weren’t beasts at all. They were just trying to protect their home and the ones they cared about. Once again, the comic has pulled the bait and switch on us. After learning this, Finn tries to tell his crispy commanding officer, but the man isn’t having it and for “complaining” Finn is put on garbage detail.

We are then treated to a Rey expy named “Marialew” and I’d gather that now we know that unless you need a tetanus shot, you’re likely not Finn’s type.

Rey, what are you doing not on Jakku?

This is actually where the comic finally won me over completely. We learn that Finn had smuggled the creatures away from the FO with him and had purposely gotten garbage detail to do it, something that Marialew deduces cleverly.

No, but seriously, Rey why are you not on Jakku?

Review

This comic started off stupid, then turned into a horror/action comic, and finally ended at a surprisingly emotional and introspective conclusion. We learn that Finn isn’t working in sanation because he’s a janitor by profession, he works in sanation as a punishment when he acts out. Finn is a stormtrooper with compassion, which is a dangerous thing within the First Order, something Marialew comments on. What I found sad though was that Finn knows that his compassion is a problem, yet clearly by his actions alone in this comic, its a problem that he doesn’t know how to solve. Now, if you’ve read Before the Awakening, you’ll realize that this is a callback forward to Finn realizing that no matter what he does, he’ll never be able to stop caring about innocents, thus foreshadowing his eventual defection in TFA.

At first, I was pretty turned off by the whole mop thing, but after reading it again and giving the comic some time to settle in my brain, I can honestly say that I enjoyed this comic a lot. Mind you, these Age of comics aren’t filled with as much world-building or character exploration that I know many people would like, Finn fans especially, and while I agree that the marketing for this comic did it no favors, this is honestly something I think many Finn fans would enjoy reading. The ending is probably my favorite part of the entire comic, just because it drops all of the humor and lets us take a look into the Finn that many people want to see more of. A caring, intelligent, soldier, who’s just trying to do the right thing by his own moral standards. There are some subtle call forwards to Before the Awakening and The Force Awakens, as well as some interesting theories that I think could come out of this, but as for my rating of this comic? I’ll give it an 8/10.

The overall comic became enjoyable, but the beginning is honestly pointless and kind of tone-deaf of not just the character on a meta-level, but honestly on a narrative level. Still, it was a good read and I would recommend picking up a copy of it.

Continue Reading more about The Origins of Finn here!