Vader – Dark Visions technically should’ve never existed, because in a perfect world I would be writing about Shadow of Vader instead, but we live in an imperfect world. Despite that, I figured I’d give this replacement series a shot, as it was a different, varied, and lauded creative team stepping in, so what could go wrong with a similar concept? It became apparent far too early that everything could and Dark Visions was never able to step out from under Vader’s shadow, both literally and figuratively, leaving us with the most disappointing series from Marvel to date. In a perfect world, I probably wouldn’t have to write that statement.
Whether you’re aware of the debacle or not, to understand the difference between a perfect world and the one we have, we have to discuss Chuck Wendig’s firing from the Shadow of Vader miniseries, its subsequent cancellation, and replacement with Dark Visions; I’ve covered it all before, but it’s impossible to move forward with this review and keep it honest without discussing what happened. In a cowardly, despicable move, Marvel Star Wars Editor Mark Paniccia bowed to Nazi/alt-right pressure thanks to a bot attack to fire Chuck Wendig from his latest series because Wendig stands against Nazis in a very vulgar, but understandable way (because Nazis are plain terrible, full stop). Considering Paniccia still follows a notable ComicsGater on Twitter, this shouldn’t have been a surprise, and it followed Disney’s precedent of firing James Gunn due to a Nazi campaign because he too spoke out against them. That Gunn was eventually rehired and Wendig was not, plus his series was replaced, shows you just how bad Paniccia wanted to sleep in the bed he made for himself instead of doing the right thing. Once Dark Visions was announced to replace SoV, with a similar vision but new creative team, I should’ve known this situation wasn’t going to get any better, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and hoped the creative team could do something with the concept that would help ease the blow of events. It started disappointingly, but alright, and then issue #3 was released, a perversion of an idea from Wendig’s series, and I felt like an absolute fool for giving it any benefit of any doubt. A series born from an absolutely terrible choice turned out to be terrible; the writing was on the wall and I didn’t even see it. But in the end I wasn’t surprised, because even though there was a new creative team, they were doomed to failure since Paniccia was still involved, the very existence of Dark Visions his attempt to show he didn’t need Wendig or his series. If it isn’t obvious by now, his attempt failed.
Before I get into the specifics of the issues themselves, I’ll talk about the only redeeming and interesting aspect to the series: a fantastic spattering of artistic talent, though it too had its problems, which is tied mainly to issue #3, something I’ll talk about later. Here were the art teams for each issue: Issue #1– Paolo Villanelli (art) and Arif Prianto (colors); Issue #2 – Brain Level (art) and Jordan Boyd (colors); Issue #3 – David Lopez and Javi Pina (art), with Munsta Vicente (colors); Issue #4 – Stephen Mooney (art) and Lee Loughridge (colors); Issue #5 – Geraldo Borges (art) and Marcio Menyz (colors). Paolo’s work on the kaiju vs Vader battle was rather spectacular, capturing a sense of scale similar to a Godzilla flick, and he gave us the gorgeous image of a Vader riding a space horse, while the heroic looking Vader in some images is more of how the kid in the story viewed Vader, but regardless it felt uncomfortable to see Vader in a “heroic” visage. Issue #2 was probably my favorite art-wise, as Level really toyed with the usage of panels and space on the page, with some panel layouts making a Star Destroyer or simulating an asteroid field in a far more effective manor than I ever felt was possible, while the absolutely visceral image of a Star Destroyer tearing through the throat of an exogorth (aka the space slug seen in The Empire Strikes Back) will forever be seared into my memory. Mooney and Loughridge in issue #4 brought dogfighting to life expertly. And Borges ended the miniseries with some truly spooky, frightening images, including Vader’s helmet morphed into an unmasked Predator. Unfortunately, as enjoyable as most of the art was, it was all already tainted due to one single issue, but more on that in a moment.
Beyond the art, what about the stories in the issues themselves, how did they stack up and fulfill the purpose of this replacement series’ mission? Dark Visions was meant to reveal Vader through the eyes of those who have encountered him, be it directly or indirectly, and how those people could take him to be a hero or the ultimate villain. While the first issue managed to show how someone could see Vader as a savior, considering he freed their planet from the grasps of a kaiju only because he had to so he could survive his time there, issues 2, 4-5 all had a very similar through line on how the protagonists saw Vader: as someone to fear. Each one feared him for their own reasons, but showing Vader as someone to fear, no matter if it involved hallucinogenic plants or unique panel styling, is not anything new or interesting for the character. Fear permeates most of his original trilogy appearances, his Rogue One hallway scene, or players can even feel it themselves in some recent VR experiences. One has to simply look at the two 25-issue run comics for a little more nuance and intriguing character development, and how letting someone survive dealing with Vader, aka Doctor Aphra who stars in her own series now, could lead to more interesting avenues than him killing everyone. In fact, besides the child in the first issue, everyone else perishes in one way or another, making an already repetitive and uninformative look at Vader feel like a boring, drawn out, Rogue One hallway scene; Yes, it is possible.
But the real lightsaber in the gut? The literal lightsaber in the gut to issue #3’s unnamed female protagonist, the issue which made this already terrible situation far worse than necessary. Not only is issue #3’s resolution and handling of its Vader obsessed medtec cruel and lacking anything important or interesting to say about Vader nor the type of relationship/types of fans it depicts, but it’s also a perversion of Chuck Wendig’s idea for the same numbered issue of his series. Whereas his idea was to tackle toxic masculinity, a pervasive problem only enhanced by the anonymity of the internet and is a problem tied to those who wanted Wendig gone, Dennis Hopeless Hallum’s instead mocks female fans and their power fantasies, though he’s tried to say otherwise. But from the art, which depicts the unnamed woman as manic and crazy in the real world and makes her power fantasy dreams come off empty, to the absolutely cruel and unnecessary ending, there’s more evidence against Hallum’s defense than for it. Then artist David Lopez said some problematic things about his work, like the nurse is, “…fun at first and insane in the end,” or how the doctor seems negative, “…but at the end you understand him better,” which I can confirm you don’t and he’s still an asshole at the end. It is far too obvious the only woman involved in this comic was Yasmine Putri on a variant cover, making the lack of Heather Antos in the editing realm feel even more pertinent. I’ve already spoken a lot about this in my original review, but now I point you to some brilliant thoughts from the female fans this affects the worst: First there’s the absolutely salient Twitter thread by Katie, a co-host on Wampa’s Lair podcast, where, among tons of examples of how debasing this issue is to female fans, points out how Kylo Ren can have Vader’s helmet and worship him but this woman keeping mementos is crazy, hypocrisy writ large; Then there’s Amy Wishman Nalan, who joined Comics with Kenobi #113 (her part begins in earnest at the 51 minute mark) to offer some great points, like how this chastises women who fangirl over villains or how the story lacks empowerment despite using imagery of just that from The Phantom of the Opera, which it could’ve offered empowerment by being about the unnamed woman gaining agency from her obsession with Vader and taking down her berating superior, among other great insights; Kate over at The Mary Sue points out the hypocrisy of marketing so much Vader material and now this comic seems to say only male fans can be Vader/villain-stans; while Marie at The Star Wars Review understands Vader’s final action, she can’t find anything very redeemable about the issue’s portrayal of its protagonist. Not every female fan was upset by the issue, and while a good portion of male reviews seemed to enjoy it, not everyone did either, though it’s easier to see more backlash than not in the overall reaction to the issue. Because of the third issue alone, I cannot recommend this series in the slightest, though the drama beforehand should’ve been enough to signal nothing good was coming our way.
Besides an unavoidable section in my upcoming 2019 year-in-review, this is the last I want to talk about this series, as it’s a stain on an overall rather solid Marvel takeover of the comics and, as I said at the beginning, in a perfect world no one would’ve had to waste their breath/time/or reputation on it.
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
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