The joys of planet ownership.
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Giuseppe Camuncoli, Daniele Orlandini
Colors: David Curiel
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
“FORTRESS VADER,” PART TWO! A thief faces the consequences for their crime. EMPEROR PALPATINE rewards DARTH VADER with three gifts…A thing, a choice and a voice.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Fortress Vader arc is one that looks like it can hold some real potential for things that can be expanded on throughout the run across multiple periods of time. With the fortress revealed during Rogue One, the first steps toward establishing it are coming into focus here with Charles Soule guiding it well – while giving us some familiar beats from Attack of the Clones as well. Remembering that this is still a relatively young Anakin is important. As with past issues, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Daniele Orlandini continue to deliver well with the series as the characters look great and the flow of the action, especially in the flying chase sequence in this issue, hits a certain sweet spot that makes me enjoy it all the more.
The inclusion of the Inquisitors from the Rebels series continues to be a bit of a rough thing as I’m still not fully on board with them even with all the exposure to them. The return to Coruscant has Vader realizing more of what had gone down on the last mission thanks to information from Fifth Brother and seeing the relationship that was developing between two of the inquisitors and how she didn’t follow through on the assignment properly leads to the chase itself. Vader doesn’t explain himself to the others and it’s amusing to see how the Grand Inquisitor simply lets it all unfold after having been put in his own place recently. The dynamic between the couple works really well for how little we really know them and seeing the way they see this as a chance to escape and truly be free, and potentially by taking out Vader, makes for a lot of good tension.
The real tension for me though is watching Vader explain all of this to the Emperor and how Vader’s actions have really caused problems with collateral damage and deaths. The relationship between master and apprentice has been amusingly adversarial for a while now as seems to be Palpatine’s desire as a Sith as well as knowing exactly how to tweak him. Vader’s boldness here in demanding a world of his own to operate from so as to cause less problems on Coruscant makes its own kind of sense, especially in keeping some distance between Sith, and that he picks Mustafar really is a beautiful choice. But it’s Palpatine that pushes harder here in gifting him a ship that turns out to be Amidala’s, though scuffed and nowhere near as shiny as before. I love the dynamic between these two characters and all the history that exists with how they push and pull against each other.
In Summary:
The things this arc are exploring is definitely up my alley in what I’m looking for and this issue handles it well. The action elements are well-illustrated and laid out to make it exciting and fun while providing just enough character material to make you care about aspects of it and leaves you wanting to know more. But it’s the back half with all the tension between Vader and Palpatine that really delivers and sets the stage for what’s to come. The way Palpatine scratches deep with both words and actions is delightful and I’m really digging how Camuncoli handles Palpatine’s designs here to make him extra disturbing but still in line with what we know of him. A very fun issue that has me excited to see what’s next for this period of the character.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: August 8th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
