An investigation fraught with memories.
Creative Staff:
Story: Kieron Gillen
Art: Leonard Kirk, Walden Wong, Scott Hanna
Colors: Nolan Woodward
What They Say:
DARTH VADER intends for the Empire to hold no secrets for him — or from him. Which means it is time to dig into the pet project of GOVERNOR WILHUFF TARKIN and ORSON KRENNIC: the massive battle station being built on GEONOSIS. Opportunity arises when the project is hindered by sabotage from unknown forces. THE EMPEROR calls on his dark enforcer to root out the source of treachery that threatens to destabilize the Empire’s galactic ascent.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
It’s been a few years since the previous Darth Vader annual but that doesn’t mean much as they’re largely standalone books in terms of story. Kieron Gillen plays within a couple of fun areas here as it ties to movie backward and forward from where it takes place and adds some nice context in addition to what some of the novels have done, notably the Catalyst novel for Rogue One that takes place after the fall of the Republic. With this issue we get Leonard Kirk stepping in to handle the art duties for the whole thing as there are no backup stories here. He’s ably aided by Walden Wong and Scott Hanna on the inks which gives it a pretty good consistent look overall.
As we’ve seen in other stories in the Star Wars Universe, there are people that are catching wind of what the Death Star is to varying degrees. Vader is continuing his own research at this early stage regarding it and that has him on Scarif looking for information, which ties us nicely into the Stardust project. His time there is cut short as Tarkin has come to manipulate him and reinforce his dominance over him thanks to the Emperor, though this more Palpatine challenging his apprentice and enjoying the chaos of it all. What we learn is that there are acts of sabotage happening on Geonosis that’s slowing down production on the Death Star and that simply can’t stand. So Tarkin sends Vader off to figure out what it is that’s going on now that he’s ensured his own position.
The result of it isn’t all that interesting overall since it almost feels like a “local politics” issue but the journey to get there is delightful. Following Vader, we see him going to Coruscant to see what he can find out about Galen Erso there which shows us some of their home life and what his wife and child were up to at this point. It does lead him to Geonosis where a younger Krennic is brought into the problem and reinforces more of the working order between the two that we saw take place years later in Vader’s temple. But what I liked with Geonosis beyond this is that we got to see Vader walking through the place and remembering ghosts of the past when he was there fighting as Anakin. It has to be a surreal kind of event in a lot of ways but also just how he has to convince himself that he really is on the right side with what he’s doing.
In Summary:
The dynamic between Tarkin and Vader is an interesting area to explore and some of it was done in novel form previously. We’ve got expanded elements of it in the ongoing Darth Vader series and I like that we get more of it here, though its primary focus is to bring Vader through a journey to familiar locations and adding more nuance to it all. Gillen keeps it moving well and touches on some fun areas that I know of from the Catalyst novel while still making it all pretty accessible. Leonard Kirk’s artwork is solid and captures the tone right while having fun with the locations and characters involved. This is a bit more blatant in some of its fan-ish-ness but it’s not done in a big way that often so it’s easy to work work.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: July 18th, 2018
MSRP: $4.99