Creative Staff:
Story: Robbie Thompson
Art: Stefano Landini
Colors: Neeraj Menon
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
HUNTING THE HUNTERS! DARTH VADER is trapped, alone, and surrounded by deadly bounty hunters…but the SITH LORD is never truly alone as long as he wields the Dark Side of The Force! VALANCE and his gang of bounty hunters soon find that the hunters have become the hunted, as Vader picks them off one-by-one — and he’s helped by one of Valance’s own!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Robbie Thompson gave us an installment the last time around that was definitely a bit slower and more character-focused, though only so far with what it wanted to do. It worked well to connect us with this group of scum and villainy before it headed into the action where the plan went largely as intended by getting Vader to where they are and on the surface of the planet. Stefano Landini is doing a solid job on the series by giving the settings a good feeling throughout whether interior or exterior, settled or not, while also making for some really good action scenes. That picks up nicely here as we get a lot of minor flashback moments to really set the stage and some good action mixed into it all.
Vader has always cut an imposing figure when played right and Landini does him right here with a good splash page to let him dominate as he hits the surface while giving us the nod that General Gollin knows exactly how quickly he’ll handle things down there. A good bit of it at the start is all about the patience since Valance has to get the device physically onto Vader for it to work but that’s the hardest part for the team. As good as Valance is not everyone is as patient as he is and it doesn’t take long for one of them, Chio, to give into the revenge that he’s harbored for years after past losses. It plays well as he goes all out to avenge Rone but you know that throws everything off from what Valance had planned. Hell, even Dengar just abandons the plan entirely and runs – though for very particular reasons.
The book does a good job of showing the group that does remain throwing themselves against Vader, including seeing Honnah wielding her axe and trying to land a good blow against him. Even Urrr’k manages to snipe well from a distance after revealing their true self to Valance when he gets smacked down. It’s not that Vader ever feels like he’s truly off-balance here but it does get him to react more instead of just moving through everything cleanly and with purpose. That’s almost enough to make it worthwhile in a sense since that doesn’t happen often. With the minor flashbacks, maybe a page each for most but not all of the group, we get just a little more on who they are and some of their reasons for all of this and it helps to create that bond just a bit more. But it really all comes down to Valance trying to finish the job and with two more issues you know that’s not happening.
In Summary:
Target Vader continues to be a pretty fun book overall with what it’s doing but at the same time I’m sort of waiting for Marvel to just shift things like this to trades outright and be done with it. While an ongoing series is a separate thing, these kinds of straightforward action pieces are likely being trade-waited more than anything else and the monthly read, or bi-weekly in the case of this series, doesn’t help the narrative overall. It’s a fun book but one that would be a far better experience when read in full. This issue is certainly fun as it all falls apart on Valance even as he tries to keep to things. Thompson’s script does some good fleshing out at the right time for the cast while Landini delivers a lot of great panels as Vader is targeted and the attempt goes as best as it can considering who they’re up against.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: October 9th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99