Valance keeps his eye on the prize.
Creative Staff:
Story: Robbie Thompson
Art: Stefano Landini; Roberto di Salvo, Georges Duarte
Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
SHOWDOWN! Valance has escaped the clutches of the Empire, and finally has a lead on who’s REALLY behind the mysterious crime syndicate, the Hidden Hand. In the process, he’s uncovered a mystery about his own past. Darth Vader… AND members of the Rebellion, desperate for one last arms deal with The Hidden Hand. Will Valance be able to finish the job and kill Vader? Will Vader crush the Rebellion once and for all? Or will The Hidden Hand continue to walk between the raindrops and escape them all? Check out the thrilling finale to find out!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The final installment of the Target: Vader series brings things to a close but it won’t be the last time we see Valance. While Robbie Thompson has put together a solid little story here overall, a new Bounty Hunters series is coming with Valance as the key player in it. I like what Thompson did here overall as there were a lot of fun bits but it also comes across a bit disjointed by the end because it’s gone in so many directions. This issue also frustrates me in that I think for the third issue in a row we get a new art team on it, with three different artists no less. There was a lack of a strong cohesive visual vision for the series and that definitely hampered things the more it went on and happened.
The general idea behind this installment is to wrap up the stories so there’s nothing left out there lingering in the grand scheme of things. That as Valance going after the Hidden Hand since that was his primary goal to begin with. Knowing how they operate and taking advantage of it as he’s known for the longest time about secret bases within asteroid fields, his attempt at taking out this one with the seeming leader of the Hidden Hand doesn’t go quite to plan as he ends up caught setting up his sniping position. That brings him right into the place, which is also part of the plan, and he’s able to make clear just how much he knows and how compromised they are. Valance is playing a big game with sizable powers here and aligning with the Empire even briefly is not in his favor – though it does complete the main goal of dealing with the Hidden Hand.
All of that is going to circle around on him as he’s a dangerous piece on the board that can’t be left to his own design. That has the Empire after him and they’re intent on eliminating the main piece that he’s got ties to with the village that he came from. It’s amusing seeing him get one over on Vader in this regard, having them snuck off elsewhere, but when it seems to happen in a lot of books with Vader it gets closer and closer to him just looking incompetent. The back half/resolution side of the book wraps things up well enough there and sets Valance on his own journey again, but I’m also glad he had a little more time with Dengar as well back on Coruscant because you just can’t leave someone like him out there telling tall tales as he does.
In Summary:
Target: Vader had some good story ideas in the mix and some very fun action sequences as well. But as a whole concept it didn’t come together as strong as it could have, at least when viewed in this monthly-ish release format. The changing of artists frustrated me a lot and the main story is one that worked well enough but was drawn out more than it should have been. I like exploring non-standard stuff within the Star Wars realm but I’m getting a bit tired of the over-reliance on Vader as the main boogeyman when several others can be used depending on the time period.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 11th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99