Chaos on Coruscant.
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Giuseppe Camanucoli, Daniele Orlandini
Colors: David Curiel
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
Vader’s showdown with Jocasta Nu comes to a startling conclusion! What secret information has the Jedi librarian risked her life to protect? And can she stop Vader from getting it?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Darth Vader in this time period is an area that I’ve definitely been interested to explore and Charles Soule has certainly built up toward some neat areas. Some of the early issues were a bit more of a struggle to get through but that was more perceptions on my part to remember who the character was at this phase. This issue has the series very much in its groove and a big part of that is what Giuseppe Camanucoli and Daniele Orlandini bring to the page with David Curiel. The flow of the action is definitely fun and it’s well populated in key areas that you can see it translating to film well, and at some points really wishing that it was being done up in that way as well.
But what I’m enjoying the most is the creativity that Soule gets to play with here. Jocasta’s run at gathering information and removing certain items from play is an important one but her inability to leave the Inquisitor alone has her facing off against Vader now, and she knows who he is and expresses her frustration over what he represents that fell apart as it did. These are great moments that we only got from Obi-wan before and her expressing them while fighting him using a rifle that uses lightsabers as its charge is just kickass, to put it plainly. Vader doesn’t exactly struggle against her here but he has to keep her alive and she’s making that hard. But the Clone Troopers are also making that hard when the battle shifts outside and they try to take out both her and him since he’s such an unknown at this point and comes across as a strange Jedi. You almost feel a bit for the poor troopers that he kills because of how problematic they become.
The fight takes some good turns and I really love the way the Clone Troopers are presented as they get more involved in it with aerial aspects and just their designs overall. But the big pieces here are with Vader and Jocasta as she does do her best to escape but ultimately fails. The reveal that she was after the list of Force-potential children candidates is no surprise when you get down to it but how it’s handled, how these two face each other in the ship, and how Vader takes her out even though Palpatine wanted her alive, resonates. More so because of his destruction of the list. Is it part of a plan of his own to use them? Guilt over the younglings he killed? Or something more? His brief exchange with Palpatine over it only makes you wonder more just how much he knows as well.
In Summary:
This iteration of Vader has another very solid issue that, like the series, builds to its strengths the more the issue goes on. The pacing here is very engaging and I like the use of so many different elements, particularly the Clone Troopers and just how much of an unknown Vader is at this point as his reputation is only beginning. The artwork is strong throughout and I really liked the abrupt end to Nu herself as it felt like a very Vader thing to do in how he deals with her. There’s a lot of gray in the mix here as you can imagine that even though he’s become this thing that he’s still struggling with the war within him as that little bit of good peeks out from time to time. It just makes me more excited to see where this series can go – and leaves me hopeful someone will pick up on that rifle concept and run with it.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: January 10th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
