– Spoiler Review –
Ends, the Age of Rebellion, does with the visage of an iconic, foreboding mask in Age of Rebellion – Darth Vader #1.
Before A New Hope, and even during the film, Darth Vader’s involvement with the Empire is the thing of spooky stories and whispered tales. The first Vader on-going comic answered how he went from being at Tarkin’s command in A New Hope to commanding his own Super Star Destroyer, but Age of Rebellion goes back a bit and finds Vader learning how to take command of the foot soldiers of the Empire. After Vader disobeys Governor Ahn during a mission, Ahn goes to the Emperor to complain, and ol’ Sheev gives his Sith Apprentice a(nother) test: listen to the Governor’s commands, to the letter, until you’ve learned your lesson; what that means is up to Vader’s interpretation. What follows is a series of increasingly outrageous commands from the Governor as he attempts to clean up his sector, placing Vader in the front lines of every battle. When the most ridiculous (even for Star Wars standards) command comes in, killing an ancient, giant space crab, Vader finds a way to learn his lesson.
By telling Vader to kill the biggest threat he can find, it gives the Dark Lord the wiggle room he needs, and he annoys the crab enough that it attacks the Star Destroyer and kills the Governor for him. Vader lesson was to learn when to wrest control of the situation, enforcing the Emperor’s will, specifically once those in the hierarchy begin to forget who they ultimately serve and abuse their positions. Through his helmet’s visor, Vader’s view on his past isn’t exactly rosy, tainted by his fall to the dark side, and all he can remember is being laid low in front of superiors and what they felt was best for him. In the issue’s best panel, there’s a splash of Vader kneeling throughout his past, as he kneels in front of Palpatine currently, and we see him as little Anakin being bossed around by Watto, some key moments in Revenge of the Sith, and even a more recently added moment from the second Vader on-going series, Dark Lord of the Sith, with Palpatine bringing the recently born Sith Lord in line by hitting him with Force lightning. Here Vader finally gets others to kneel to him, because as a Sith Lord he should command that respect, but he should also respect the military of the government he serves. This felt a little similar to Dark Lord of the Sith’s “The Rule of Five” arc, which deals with Vader learning a similar lesson and so do the Imperials within the military, right down to the fact he’s flying the same ship he had during that series (until he received Padmé’s ship as a torture gift from Sheevster).
Pak ends the Age of Rebellion on a good note here with Darth Vader #1, with it definitely being better than some recent Vader material I don’t even want to talk about, as it’s a succinct and biting reminder of the craftiness of Anakin/Vader. The Governor getting power happy and ordering Vader around on increasingly insane missions was believable, but even if the Emperor ordered his armored enforcer to take their orders, would anyone have been THAT big of a fool to not realize it would bite them back? I’ll have more thoughts on Pak’s “Age” in the miniseries review for Rebellion, but right now I feel like I enjoyed Houser’s Age of Republic better. While I wished the art teams had stayed a little more consistent for Heroes and Villains, but Ramón Bachs on art, with Stéphane Paitreau on colors, ended the “Age” with a bang, from Vader’s imposing figure in battle or approaching cowering governors, the epic, aforementioned splash page of Vader’s memories, or even the sneer on the Governor’s face as he sends Vader into the thick of things.
Here are a few other things:
- While Pak’s “Age” is over, his time with Star Wars comics is just beginning: beginning July 10, his run on the Star Wars mainline begins! If you’ve been keeping up with the solicitations, it sounds like a hella fun first arc (see: July, August, and September).
- Pak was interviewed over at Newsarama, where he talks about this issue and his upcoming work on the mainline series.
Age of Rebellion – Darth Vader #1 is solid Vader content in a sea of it, ending this “Age” on a solid enough note.
+ The splash page of Vader’s memories
+ Vader learning the lesson…
– …that he sort of already learned
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
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