“The Queen’s Heart”
Creative Staff:
Story: Greg Pak
Art: Raffaele Ienco
Colors: Carlos Lopez
Letterer: VCs Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
The alliance between Darth Vader and Sabé has always seemed destined for disaster. After all, how long can the Dark Lord of the Sith and the idealistic handmaiden of Padmé Amidala find common ground? So as Vader and Sabé enter the final battle against a corrupt Imperial governor, something’s going to break. Will it be Vader’s cold resolve or Sabé’s true heart? And how long until Ochi of Bestoon finally makes his move?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The current storyline is one that certainly makes a lot of sense to be happening amid other events between films and but it’s also feeling like it’s eating itself with all the characters involved. Greg Pak has made it interesting to see how it flows thanks to those that are aligned around Vader, but what’s holding it together for me is the use of Sabe and how this installment finally reveals itself. Raffaele Ienco returns back to the book with this issue and we get some solid stuff with the cast involved and just the way he handles Vader using the Force. Just the overall style of movement and intensity works well and Lopez’s color design also works really well, especially in the more Imperial aspects of this installment, making for a solid design overall.
It’s obviously no surprise that Vader survived the storm and explosion from the previous issue but he did protect Sabe as well, and indirectly Kitster as well. All of this has put Vader in the position of now knowing exactly what it is that the Governor has been up to and that it’s time to extract Imperial justice. Having Admiral Piett fire from the Star Destroyer is impressive as expected but as we see, the death machine that the Governor has created is too protected. It’s able to generate a shield using the energy it draws on from the planet and through that protect itself from even a blast like this. You can see this being something that the Emperor would certainly want and to use to scale for projects that he’s manipulating, but for Vader, he sees it as a threat to the Emperor that must be destroyed. The setup for that and the slow nudging of things happening so they can figure out the weak point are a bit rushed but not unexpected.
Nor is it that Vader basically goes in alone, with a droid in tow, and uses the kind of thinking that goes back to his Clone Wars era fights. Using the droid to get under the death machine and shoot his lightsaber up into it, which he then controls with the Force, is pretty inspired. And it causes plenty of destruction, allowing him to go directly inside and confront the Governor. Nothing is a surprise here, even down to Vader being wounded pretty hard here, as it sets up for Sabe to get her chance to either kill him or rescue him. Where it works is in her trying to deal with what Padme would want, knowing their past together – especially through the novels that I’ve read – and seeing her wanting to trust in her Queen one more time. Even Vader seems to recognize this a bit and when they finally escape and learn that the whole thing was set up by the Emperor, you see more the seed put in place that has Vader ready to turn by the time Episode 6 arrives.
In Summary:
While I haven’t cared much for the storyline with the Governor as she’s far too underdeveloped overall and just never connected well as a character, the use of Sabe is what has driven the whole thing well. I like the place she’s put in here at the end and seeing the choice she makes while also understanding how Vader’s view of things is changing more and more as well. A couple of decades worth of manipulation means it can’t last forever and exploring some of that is fun. It’s a decent read with some great artwork. I’ll be glad to move on from some of these legacy characters, however, and see where it shifts to next with Coruscant and Palpatine.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: September 21st, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
