The conclusion of the four-part story and two delightfully dark additional tales.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jason Aaron / Steve Orlando / Frank Tieri
Art: Leonard Kirk / Paul Davidson / Danny Earls
Colors: Romulo Fajardo Jr.,
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
TRAPPED ON THE FROZEN PLANET HOTH! FRANK TIERI sends VADER to HOTH. STEVE ORLANDO goes cerebral with THE CORRUPTION OF DARTH VADER’S MIND! PLUS: The Final Chapter of JASON AARON & LEONARD KIRK’s dark tales!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening story for this book is the ongoing one that comes to a close as it brought Jason Aaron back to the property and character. Paired with Leonard Kirk and Romulo Fajardo Jr., the tale feels like the late 70s and early 80s Star Wars comics from Marvel in a great way. Cyn’s story draws to the expected close because once you find a weakness within Vader and exploit it, he’ll kill you and eliminate the weakness if you don’t take him down right away. Cyn’s plan has gone so badly that even his own side is ready to kill him, but Vader doesn’t allow that, eliminating them first and taking control of Cyn. Cyn’s defiant and glad of what he accomplished, but Vader’s dialogue is stronger in the end and he shows the whole style of justice he believes in ever so clearly. There’s cruelty to it that was always part of Anakin because of the cruelty done to him, or perceived by him, so watching him as judge, jury, and executioner across the galaxy is an easy thing to reinforce as Aaron does here.
The second tale from Orlando and Davidson is a lot of fun as we get Vader investigating a new world in the Unknown Regions and lists it as having no inhabitants. When he’s going through the bacta tank later to check for anything that might be dangerous, we discover that there was basically a fungus of some sort that serves as the inhabitant of the world. And it’s taken advantage of connecting with Vader to invade his mind and to try and kill him in his dreams by drawing on his greatest fears. It’s an interesting piece in seeing the way the fight plays out and highlighting his fears, but we already know that this is a losing strategy against Vader. The design for it is great with the creatures capturing a very distinct look that’s made even more interesting in the color design here and watching Vader work through some of this while in the tank with no armor adds a new wrinkle to it as well. And I love the end sequence as they basically make sure that the alien inhabitant is properly dealt with.
The final story gives me some new Frank Tieri material and some fantastic Danny Earls artwork as Vader is drawn back to Hoth when one of the probe droids left there after the attack goes offline. It could be anything but Vader’s intent on checking it out and that leads to a lot of great visuals, including him stalking the old Rebel base in a way that’s creepy. What he finds, however, is that a Wampa has ravaged the machine and that there are several working through the base – causing him some real harm and attacking his ship as well. It’s the kind of situation where he takes a real hit and has to struggle for a bit and the tension works nicely even if you know the overall endgame. Tieri’s script is minimal and effective while Earls’ artwork is fantastic in a way that’s very strong with its layouts and the use of the red to create the right effect.
In Summary:
This has been a fun series overall in providing a look at Vader but they all keep coming back to the same thing where Vader always wins. And I get why that might either be an edict or just the way everyone writes Vader. But it closes off a lot of interesting avenues to explore in showing some real what-if style kinds of stories. The various works all had their pros and cons and it was fun to get Jason Aaron back on Vader for a bit with an extended four-part story. This issue brought in some great creators for the standalone tales and they each play out well while being their own thing. Definitely an enjoyable run as a whole that I wish took a few more chances.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: July 26th, 2023
MSRP: $4.99
