Vader versus a giant squid is what I never knew I wanted.
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Giuseppe Camanucoli, Daniele Orlandini
Colors: David Curiel
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
Darth Vader continues his mission to bring Mon Cala to heel! Vader goes in for some wet work in this brutal story!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Mon Cala arc set in the early days of the Empire shows us a lot of interesting aspects to the initial wave of resistance to what Palpatine was orchestrating. A lot of worlds didn’t see the bad things happening, particularly in the Core, while others knew it was safer to go along instead of just being overrun and having no local control at all. Charles Soule has dug well into the way the Mon Cala leadership is trying to resist but not realizing just how far Palpatine will go with it. This issue continues the strong run of artwork from Camanucoli and Orlandini combined with David Curiel’s excellent color design, particularly in the initial underwater pages where things are even more striking. It’s a great looking book and the team effort makes it incredibly easy to immerse yourself into this world and feel like it’s part of the film universe.
The book does a pretty even split with the first half focusing on Vader and the rest on other aspects of the operation. It’s not a surprise to see Vader deal with heading down into the deep and that the Force will guide him out of it, but it is done in a nicely creative way that shows more of the scope of his powers. And his ability to kill giant squid in a really beautifully laid out series of panel slices to produce the battle. What I really like, however, is when he ends up on the ship that the Inquisitors used to head down to rescue him and he basically gives them all hell for it. The simple reality is that he never needs rescue, which you can definitely believe, and that they failed by not executing their mission and instead coming to rescue him. His style of training is kind of awkward when it comes to the Inquisitors but he doesn’t like them to begin with so it makes sense. Looking at it from the way that the Sith are trained and how they manipulate others, it’s a great bit of insight into how they all function with the single minded approach of completing the mission at the forefront. I’m just surprised he didn’t kill at least one of them to make an example.
The back half of the book with its focus on dealing with the moves against the Mon Cala is almost a little bit of a whiplash series of events but it covers a lot of things. Seeing Ackbar and a group going after one of the skybases at one of the polar regions is definitely fun as it’s a little old school but the same could be said of how they created the tidal wave. Those actions have put Tarkin’s ISB officer in the doghouse with him because he’s woefully unprepared, which gives us a nice look at the simple and efficient ruthlessness of the Governor. We also get to see a bit of what’s going on with the king, once rescued, and just what kind of target he’s put on Jedi Barr who is just starting to learn what’s coming his way. There’s a lot of little things and I kind of hate that the real dialogue about what to do as a world when it comes to the Empire gets sidelined but the factions that the king is dealing with is definitely intriguing.
In Summary:
Admittedly, once again, my reading of other books in the Star Wars universe colors my enjoyment here. Reading the Thrawn novel (and comics) at the same time and others like Ahsoka and New Dawn shows a range of things that the Empire is up to during this period as it consolidates power and control over numerous worlds, sometimes quietly and sometimes in bold and public ways to ensure compliance of others. So much of this was left unsaid in the original films, and prequels, so getting to see aspects of it and how quickly Palpatine was able to achieve so much with so many ruthless people in his employ seeking to impose their order on things is exciting to see. It may lack a kind of real cohesion in the long run because it’s getting busy with so many projects but I’m loving what Charles Soule is exploring here as it delves in a lot of different areas masterfully.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 25th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
