Such a selfish little murder bucket.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: Mike Deodato
Colors: Frank Martin Jr..
What They Say:
VADER DOWN PART FIVE Chewbacca versus Black Krrsantan! What else do you need? Marvel’s first Star Wars event continues!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The penultimate chapter of the Vader Down event has arrived and there continues to be a whole lot going on. Yet it also has that kind of decompressed feeling about it where it doesn’t feel like much significant is happening, though that’s in the eye of the reader. Aaron and Deodato are definitely doing a great job of presenting it all as it looks slick, has the right tone and feeling, and it plays well with bringing in the newer elements with the familiar characters. But I can’t help but to feel like it should be at least one installment shorter, simply because it’s almost coming across as a kind of back and forth event now with how the sides are going at it.
The core event with Vader is definitely appealing here as we see him making it clear to Leia that he intends to end her existence at this point. It’s a given that he doesn’t, but I like the way she makes it clear that the Rebellion will not stop while he contrasts it with just another in a series of endless executions that he and the Emperor are carrying out. It’s an interesting angle to play for the character in his own perverse way of reordering the galaxy so that it makes sense and takes away his pain that made him this way. Amusingly, things got all pear shaped with the arrival of Karbin and his troops as he’s looking to eliminate Vader and take the plum position for himself. Karbin’s not really been an engaging character for me, mostly because I continue to have a hard time seeing his species as real combatants in the kind of way we see here, and that takes me out of things.
That said, I did enjoy his fight with Vader because he goes all four-armed with lightsabers and acts like it’s a new thing, which makes for fun memories of Grievous and what Obi-Wan and Anakin faced in him before. The fight is one that really is one-sided simply because Vader actually is able to use the Force to his advantage and that alters the course of it far too easily. But that’s what many beings do, since they don’t buy into the “hokum” and myth of the Jedi and the Sith. Vader’s past does make for an interesting moment later in this, however, when he hears voices from the Jedi temple there in his mind. It’s not stated whose voices he hears, but it really does feel like Qui-Gon and/or Obi-Wan from the early days and it’s definitely neat to see how that makes an impact on him.
In Summary:
The Vader aspect of the book is what’s selling me on it and I kind of feel bad that the rest of the cast is sidelined for a lot of it. Deodato really makes Chewie’s fight with Krrsantan a whole lot of fun in actual execution and design and I’m enjoying the near levity that Han brings to it until things go south for him. Luke’s storyline is very small here, but he has the same touches as Vader when it comes to the temple and that connection is nicely played as it provides nudges and foreshadowing to what’s to come in the other film storylines. I definitely liked this issue more than the previous one, though it could have used more of my favorite murder droids since they finally get to be unleashed briefly.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: All Ages
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: January 6th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
