Stay on target…
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Giuseppe Camanucoli, Daniele Orlandini
Colors: David Curiel
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
LEGACY’S END CONTINUES! Vader and the Inquisitorius set their sights on one of the most dangerous Jedi remaining alive…and it’s not who you’d expect.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
This Darth Vader series did some fun things in its opening arc but the beginning of Legacy’s End is where it started to click for me. Charles Soule has done some fun Star Wars projects so far (I’m hoping for another Lando miniseries) and there’s a lot of great areas to explore with the real early days of Vader where he’s still trying to figure it all out. It’s also an area where you have to readjust expectations of physicality and Camanucoli along with Orlandini have been doing some good stuff there, though some of the pages in here – mostly the early part with the Emperor – just doesn’t click as well for me as what we get with Jocasta does. It’s almost like this book hasn’t really found its defining style just yet.
Interestingly, Vader’s almost not the primary character in this issue and that works well. We get to see how he’s operating under his new master in the beginning here which leads to Palpatine making it clear to him that they can’t just kill everyone as he doesn’t want to rule over a galaxy of the dead. That’s certainly one way to look at it but explores a bit of Palpatine’s goals. We do get some really neat things with how Vader is learning control and focus internally that’s beautifully laid out and illustrated in a way that speaks to the evil of the Sith within. Vader’s confidence level is admittedly earned here in a way, but it may only seem so if you’ve watched the films and not included the Clone Wars material where he gained a lot of experience (which, admittedly, didn’t translate well into the third film).
The bulk of the book focuses on Jocasta and her making her way to the secret vault where she’s retrieved a critical piece of information with the database on every Force-sensitive child that they knew of. This is one of those problematic areas of the films that Rebels has touched on with not-Jedi being out there with a range of Force abilities, so I’m curious to see how this unfolds. Jocasta is fun to watch as she moves with ease and confidence while having a sadness over what’s changed so quickly with Palpatine’s rise to Emperor. But I also have a love/hate relationship with the way she handles the Inquisitor in the library because she knows better but can’t resist. I totally get her reasoning with what he’s doing but at the same time I want her to really think big picture and act as a Jedi should instead of with the emotion she does here.
In Summary:
Though there are still a few areas that feel a touch wonky to me in a way, both in character/story points and artwork, Darth Vader feels like it’s coming into its own with this arc as it starts to explore a post-Order 66 galaxy. I’m hopeful we’ll see some connections in Imperial characters from the novels such as Catalyst since that can tie in well to the films themselves as well as Rebels. The Vader material has some intriguing moments but for me it’s all about the Jocasta storyline with what she’s doing and the seeds for the future that can exist here for something larger. Though she frustrates me just a bit toward the end there’s so much good stuff with her in both story and art that I want a miniseries for her already.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: November 15th, 2017
MSRP: $4.99
