Can a Darth Vader series end on a positive note?
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Giuseppe Camuncoli, Cam Smith, Daniele Orlandini
Colors: David Curiel
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
FORTRESS VADER: FINALE! The FORTRESS is complete. The door will be opened. VADER finds everything he has ever desired. THE DARK LORD gets everything he deserves.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The conclusion of this series now brings us two two twenty-five episode runs for Darth Vader and a host of material between the two that is thoroughly exciting and enlightening. And it leaves me hopeful that Marvel will get the chance to explore who Vader is in a post-Empire Strikes Back era. Charles Soule was a solid choice for this run and he got to work with a very different Vader from the one we know from the original trilogy and that offered up a lot of avenues to explore, especially after Rogue One came out. Giuseppe Camuncoli put in so many great pages with wonderful panels and designs in how it all came to life that it was a treat in seeing it come together with the words and concepts to form something that really hit a sweet spot.
This finale really is an intriguing culmination of who Vader was prior to this point, with nods to the future mixed in. The creation of his fortress has been an engaging enough arc with Momin and all that came from that side of it, but seeing him orchestrating his entry to the other plane of existence and going through takes us to a whole other place. We’ve seen touches of this more in the Clone Wars series but it works well here as he seeks to bring Padme back to life based on what Palpatine has told him. Of course, Palpatine is a master liar and wraps people under his control through those lies. The drive to save Padme is something that may not have been felt in the films as much as some would like, both through the script, the direction, and the acting, but the pieces were there and Soule has expanded upon it to make it a lot more real, complementing the Clone Wars presentation of the relationship well.
The majority of this oversized issue focuses on Vader in his “Force Form” wandering through this other plane in search of Padme. It has some great touches on The Phantom Menace era that circles back at the end (and to promotional poster material) and it sifts its way through more of Anakin’s life and how he was molded into the person he became. The secrecy of the relationship ate away at him but there were so many distractions along the way – I wish more time was given to Ahsoka since she’s so pivotal. All of these areas are well-handled and when we do get to Padme it resonates well because everything he truly desires is forever out of his reach and unrecognizable at this point because of what he’s become. The small nods toward the future with Luke is definitely delightful and the fever dream that we get here puts him on a path that will take a few decades to be fully realized. A few decades of carnage, death, and destruction by his hand.
In Summary:
Once again, I’m sad to see a quality Star Wars series end and a Darth Vader series to end. I really liked what Charles Soule first did when he tackled the Lando series with an understanding of how the galaxy views events over the years. Soule’s exploration of this period of Vader’s life, when he has to shuffle off the Anakin mindset and coil to become something different all in pursuit of Padme, is a vastly interesting one even if it seems like a lot of people can’t quite grasp that. Soule tackled a lot of great areas here in the early days of the Empire through these primary players and I hope there are more explorations of it in the future from other points of view. I hope Soule and the rest of the team with Giuseppe Camuncoli and Daniele Orlandini get a chance to work on more Star Wars books in the future. This is a solid ending.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 19th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
