"i will hold more power than any of you.”
i can’t help but feel that the comic, when taken with everything we already know from the movies and extended canon, is foreshadowing a larger role for hux in tros.
we know hux is ruthless. he’s risen to the position of general at an unprecedented speed. he’s gotten so far so young by a combination of extremely hard work and murdering people who get in his way.
his father would have belittled and shamed him in front of the other officers and likely blocked his son’s path to greatness in the belief that he was weak and undeserving, so he had to go. hux inherited his father’s position and quickly worked to outrank him even in death. by tfa, he is third in command after snoke and kylo and controls the order’s greatest weapon capable of killing billions in one strike, but even this is not enough. he believes he is above both of them, more deserving.
his disdain for kylo seems to me in part fuelled by the fact that kylo has a power and authority he can never have, regardless of the fact that he has no real interest in the force itself. he chafes at the bit to usurp him, taking every opportunity to tell snoke when kylo fails, as when he brings back rey instead of bb8, thwarting the order’s search for luke. kylo’s defeat by rey is only proof of his superiority and kylo’s weakness in being bested by his emotions. he stands above others in judgement, knowing he could do better. even the destruction of starkiller base is not proof of personal failure but of others’ incompetence:
he wants to punish those who ruined his beautiful machine, and i believe he will.
there’s also no doubt he has an ego and that it’s easily stung. poe’s jokes at the beginning of tlj bother him, especially the comment about his mother. any implication that he is somehow lesser is unacceptable to hux, who in contrast sees himself as destined to rule the galaxy according to the tfa visual dictionary. in the novelisation he is shown to be intensely vain, obsessed with his appearance:
this is echoed in his choice of weapon in killing brooks in the comic, when he takes phasma’s gun because it’s “good and intimidating.” appearances are extremely important — to be powerful, he must appear impressive. he must radiate power and control in order to achieve it.
kylo presuming the take the role of supreme leader after snoke’s death likewise rankles him. how dare he try to command him when he has been defeated twice by a nobody scavenger?
he’s clearly very protective of what he believes to be his, and covets whatever he believes is his right. he has the finaliser and controls the military, but wants the supremacy and the title of grand marshal. he will take and take and take whatever he deems himself to be the only person worthy to possess.
fuelled by a sense of vain superiority and a need to prove this to everyone who ever believed what his father said about him, likely including himself, his ambition is endless. this is made even more clear by the novelisation, which shows that he plans to build a hundred of starkillers given half the chance:
he also plans to kill (apparently again) anyone he feels is detrimental to the order and therefore his ambitions:
not only does he remind himself constantly that he is superior and work tirelessly to secure a higher position, he takes every opportunity to remind those around him that he outranks them as virtue of this.
and finally, his ambitions extend all the way to becoming supreme leader:
there’s a sense that nothing is enough for hux, that nothing and no one will stop him from relentlessly pursuing the greatness he sees in himself. he only has to continue working, waiting for his moment. when he found kylo unconscious on the floor of the throne room he nearly took his chance, and the look he gives kylo towards the end of tlj is pure venom:
none of this is new to us. but the final pages of the age of resistance comic make a strong case for hux putting these plans into motion in the near future. his speech to brooks before killing him makes it clear that he is only waiting patiently for the right moment to strike:
“You, my father, Snoke, Ren. You all underestimate me. You see me as something you can control, something weak. I am not weak. I am patient. […] I will hold more power than any of you.”
obviously this is a reference to the future superweapon, not yet finished at this point of canon, but i don’t think that’s the limit of the kind of power he is referring to, especially considering that by tlj he’s planning on hundreds of starkillers and dreams of becoming supreme leader. he will always want more.
the final note by bria lavorgna makes this even more explicit by implying that kylo is in immediate danger from hux:
aside from the fact that he relies on hux’s military prowess, this is the main reason he chooses to keep him so close to his side from the end of tlj. he knows that hux is ready to kill him to ascend to power just as he has killed others for the same reason. he tells snoke so in the comic, although snoke doesn’t seem to take it seriously.
it’s important also to note that hux’s patience is not endless. he has been abused, degraded, and dismissed for his entire life, first by his father and the likes of brooks, then by his older inferiors, snoke, and finally kylo as supreme leader. he seems willing to bear whatever he must as long as he sees future greatness ahead, but i’m sure he has his limits. maybe something in tros will be the last straw for him. as lavorgna says:
and of course, there have been possible leaks suggesting that hux might turn against the order itself if he deems it necessary. there’s certainly no shortage of reasons for him to do it.
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