I haven’t been reviewing much of IDW’s Star Wars Adventures because they aren’t really for me, thus I feel like I’d not have anything worthwhile to add to the conversation. I read them and enjoy them, don’t get me wrong, and stuff like the Forces of Destiny miniseries or the recanonization of Jaxxon has been too intriguing not to cover. But the most exciting miniseries yet was announced back at SDCC, Tales from Vader’s Castle, a five issue miniseries releasing in the month of October, bringing the Halloween spirit, and frights, to Star Wars comics. a little preview on my feelings
In Tales from Vader’s Castle, a team of Rebellion operatives are forced to crash land on Mustafar, and while they attempt to escape the eerie planet and its giant, evil looking fortress, the team tells each other spooky tales to help with their nerves. The team is made up of: Lina Graf, a Commander in the Rebel Alliance, who co-starred in the Adventures in Wild Space series with her brother Milo Graf, itself a tale of the two children trying to get their parents back from Imperial custody. She’s great-aunt to Emil Graf, the character who introduces the “Tales from Wild Space” section at the end of each Star Wars Adventures issue; Lieutenant Hudd, a former thief now serving the Rebellion; Skritt, a nervous technician, who much like potato bugs here on Earth, rolls up into a ball to protect itself; XM-G3 aka Gee-Three, a bodyguard droid for Lina; and CR-8R aka Crater, who has been in the Graf family for generations, staring in both Adventures in Wild Space and “Tales from Wild Space.” I think it’s really cool to see Lina having grown up and rise to such a rank within the Rebellion, considering her child adventures beginnings, and I hope we’ll see more of her across all sorts of mediums, as I’d love to see what she’s up to with the Rebellion during the original trilogy. Otherwise, the overall cast of the framing story is fine, with Skritt having the best arc of the group, otherwise there’s no real surprises with the crew.
Now for the “tales” within:
Issue #1- The Haunting of the Ghost (Art by Chris Fenoglio)
There was never enough alone time for Hera and Kanan on Star Wars Rebels, and while this “Haunting” story gets these two alone together, this is an all-ages comic so it’s more about the spooky tale than relationship dynamics between the two. Meeting a contact named Graysom with data on the Imperials, the two rebels, with Chopper, find Graysom’s ship abandoned and crashed on a small asteroid, picking up a ghostly apparition after investigating the contact’s ship. After finding Graysom in his escape pod, the four of them quickly realize whatever Graysom is mumbling about is real, and the Ghost is being taken over by an unknown entity. It turns out to be some type of Force spirit, caused when Jedi stripped it from its body to languish among the stars, taking over Chopper and eventually worming its way into Kanan’s defunct holocron, where it’s trapped for good. Overall, a solid beginning, but arguably the weakest of the bunch, but it helps set the tone and expectations for the rest of the series’ take on horror for all-ages.
Issue #2 – Count Dooku: Prince of Darkness (Art by Kelley Jones, Colors by Michelle Madsen)
The fact this tale is able to honor and play on Sir Christopher Lee’s past as Count Dracula is all you really need to know, as it has some campy fun with the actor’s legacy. Of course things are resolved as quickly as they are in other stories, but just having the awesome image of Dooku, shooting out lightning, otherwise looking like Dracula from a scene out of the Hammer Horror films he starred in, is worth the asking price alone. Now if only they can find some way to have Dooku singing heavy metal Life Day songs to reference Lee’s heavy metal Christmas albums…
Issue #3 – The Briar Witch (Art by Corin Howell, Colors by Valentina Pinto)
The tale of two sisters, eerily reminiscent of Frozen (which was on purpose*), made for an intriguing witch tale in Star Wars, but a focus on young Han and Chewie took away from their backstory. I’m also a little disappointed there weren’t a few more jokes about Han getting old from the weird magick within Emerald Witch’s vines, but it was a freaky turn of events that definitely left me wondering how he was going to be de-aged! And of course Chewie is the hero, saving Han’s bumbling butt, so that always makes for good content. I also felt like the ending to this one might be the most tragic, especially considering it’s nowhere near the happy ending its inspiration, Frozen, had.
Issue #4 – Night of the Gorax (Art by Robert Hack, Colors by Charlie Kirchoff)
Be it Last Shot earlier this year, some Forces of Destiny antics, the creepy game mode in Battlefront II, and now “Night of the Gorax,” Ewoks are officially having their comeback and it’s been absolutely glorious. In fact, before the final issue even dropped, I felt confident enough to call this one my favorite (though that one won out in the end), as its art was the spookiest of the bunch, including skulls on pikes and other more mature-leaning details I was surprised to see. The Gorax itself is freakishly big and truly frightening, and it feels larger than life, while learning a bit more about Ewok society and some of the main fluffy teddies we met in Return of the Jedi was a nice touch! This issue’s framing story also helped, as it ramped up the tension by finally introducing Darth Vader to that part of the series, setting the stage for a big finale.
Issue #5 – The Fearful Finale (Art by Charles Paul Wilson III, Colors by Michael Devito)
The final issue, while not having the most intriguing of the ‘tales,’ is the best issue overall due its ability to weave in all the ‘tales’ so far to help our heroes survive their encounter with Darth Vader. While I was less worried about Lina, considering this whole framing story is her recounting these events, the overly-nervous Skritt sure seemed like a goner. But Skritt learned the most from the tales, taking inspiration from Chewie and the Ewoks, overcoming his fears to save the day and get the crew, minus Gee-Three and Hudd, off of Mustafar alive. It was actually quite the fun, exciting sequence of events, including Skritt blasting away at the castle with an AT-ST, and it nicely tied the series together with the various tales within. The final line, where Lina wonders if their escape was actually part of Vader’s plans all along, sowing fear of his name and the planet across the galaxy as they tell their tale, was the true black icing on the spooky cake, and my favorite part, as it gave even the framing story an ominous feeling at the very end.
Cavan Scott managed to create spooky tales that all legitimately had some frights to them but could easily be digested by the Adventures‘ all-ages audience, a hard task that he constantly makes look easy. How he managed to pull all the stories into a meaningful lesson for both the characters and the readers was an awesome touch I wasn’t expecting, and I appreciate how it could help younger readers, frightened of scary/horror things, maybe find a way to be less frightened by looking for what the scary stories could actually teach them. Derek Charm’s art is definitely cartoonish in the framing story, but he adopted a darker palette of colors and it works to great effect, never being too dark but making bright colors spooky and horrifying. Lettering is all thanks to Robbie Robbins, who produced some freakish growls and howls to amplify the horror aspects of the art and story.
Here are a few other things:
- If there’s one thing that disappointed me, it was how only the framing story and the final story were actually “from” Vader’s castle, as just like the “Tales from Wild Space” in the main Star Wars Adventures, tales are from the place they are being told, not necessarily actually in Wild Space or Vader’s castle. This was more due to my expectations than anything else, so it wasn’t that major of a disappointment, but one nonetheless.
- The main covers from Francesco Francavilla were a sight to behold when revealed at SDCC earlier this year and they were the biggest selling point for me to pick them up from the LCS.
- Now that we’ve had an all-ages horror comic, I’d be curious to see what ‘tales’ might be shown in a more mature environment…but let’s avoid it being like Red Harvest and Death Troopers from Legends.
- *Peek behind the curtain of these horror tales with Scott as he walks readers through how his script comes to life on the finished page.
- I’m surprised they allowed a character to be killed, but it really added to the horror of Vader’s castle, even if Hudd’s death happened off-panel.
- Itching for more content about Vader’s Castle? There a plethora of options these days: go from all ages to adult and experience the tale of how Vader built his Castle in the excellent final arc of Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith series, “Fortress Vader“; Get that $400 hiding under your pillow out, Vader is coming to VR in Vader Immortal, a VR series designed specifically for the latest Oculus tech!; put together your own tales from Vader’s castle with a nifty LEGO set.
- It’s the little things that are both appreciated but often overlooked, but I adored how the credits listed which pages contained art from which artist, something Marvel has failed to do in past issues with multiple artist.
Tales from Vader’s Castle is great fun for any Star Wars fan, especially those looking for some good SW-themed horror.
+ Vampire Dooku, Ewok deep-dive
+ How the final issue ties it all together
+ Generally great, spooky art
– Only one tale is actually “from” Vader’s castle
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
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