– Spoiler Review –
After a nearly 5 month COVID-19 induced break, the third volume of the Darth Vader series returns with its third issue, picking up from one of the most compelling and intriguing cliffhangers in comics at the moment: Vader teaming up with Sabé, one of Padmé’s handmaidens, to avenge her death! And somehow, it gets even crazier and more exciting from there!
To say Vader has tons of baggage is probably the understatement of the century, so traveling to Naboo with a woman who served the love of his life, and looks exactly like her, could very well be overwhelming for the Dark Lord, especially after being rejected by his son. Memory lane comes crashing down on Vader, of the picnic at the waterfalls and pear slicing lunch, and it’s these panels of his memories, tinted red by his view of the world now, that continue to strike the right chord to make this such a compelling read. Two men strike from the dark, interrupting the Dark Lord’s memories, but Sabé convinces him to stop since they are her allies, one I had been curious about and the other quite the surprise. Queen’s Shadow, the novel from E.K. Johnston which showed how Padmé and her handmaidens converted from a life of a Queen to the life of a Senator, ended with a fun cliffhanger that saw Sabé and a Captain Tonra, one of the royal guards, off to figure out what happened to Padmé. We obviously already saw Sabé, but I had been curious what happened to Tonra, and now we know he’s alive and well, still fighting alongside Sabé. As for the other person with them? Gregar Typho! Faithfully by Padme’s side through the Clone Wars, he was last seen at her funeral, and teaming up with Tonra and Sabé makes tons of sense considering his duty was to protect her. After they convince Vader of their commitment to avenging Padmé, they take off to a secret spot they hid vital recordings stolen from her apartment on Coruscant. To get there, they must hop into an old bongo sub and of course Naboo’s giant predator fish attack them, calling us back to a part of the journey Anakin missed out on in the prequels. And when they finally arrive, the whole truth of everything going on takes the series up several notches and makes me so damn glad this finally came back.
Before we dive into that, I have to stop and take a moment to talk about how my brain was having a hard time remembering this story takes place post-The Empire Strikes Back with all the prequel-centric locations and people popping up. It’s the story that brings all these elements in, but really it’s the art team, Raffaele Ienco (art), Neeraj Menon (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letterer) which makes it work so damn brilliantly. It all starts with the striking opening panel, of Vader’s cloak billowing in the fields where he and Padmé shared time together on Naboo; never before have we seen Vader in such a place and his sharp, black figure feels entirely out of place on such a beautiful, serene world. Making sure the beauty of Naboo matches what we saw on film makes such panels so impactful, as Vader seems to intrude on every location he visits, making this feel like he’s in someone else’s story, not his own. Mixing in the flashbacks only heightens the prequel feelings, as does visiting the lakeside retreat and seeing characters like Sabé and Typho, plus the familiar water creatures attacking the bongo. Better yet, the mural in the hiding place, a recreation of the final shot of The Phantom Menace honoring the peace between the Gungans and the Naboo, which includes young Anakin. Honestly, Ienco and Menon have already been doing some fantastic visual work, but this issue serves to cement it from how they hint at Vader’s feelings with angles and colors, transporting us back to the prequels, and the action sequence in the water against the fish.
Speaking of that mural, as Vader smashes it so they can continue to recovering the recording, Sabé, Tonra, and Typho reveal their true mission. The recording was a ruse to lure Vader to them, as it only shows their pact to avenge Padmé’s death, and the hiding place is in fact their chosen place to take out Vader. But it’s not only Padmé they want to avenge, they also want to avenge the Jedi Knight Anakin due to his steadfast protection of the Queen for all those years. But why Vader? Last they saw Padmé, she was alive and headed to Mustafar and then, many years later, they find out it’s his domain (tying us nicely into the second volume of this series as it showed him building the Castle there), so they assume he’s the one who killed them both. He did, from a certain point of view, so while they all lied to him, he remains honest with them by admitting he did kill both Anakin and Padmé. So they lured him to a little dome, deep under Naboo’s water…how exactly do they plan on killing him? They activate some type of device that sends an even bigger fish (Qui-Gon was always right) straight at them all, ready to die if it means finally killing Vader! And that’s where the issue ends, the giant fish bearing down on them! Glad this wasn’t the cliffhanger we would’ve waited nearly 5 months for!
Here are a few other things:
- At the SDCC@Home publishing panel, they didn’t offer many reveals but they did provide an excellent tease at what’s to come in the next arc of this series: a tie-in into The Rise of Skywalker, somehow. Can’t wait to see what it is!
- He’s no Dr. Aphra, but the droid ZED-6-7 is providing so many good laughs, especially this issue. His little helpful hint to Tonra to run if he has the chance seems quite prophetic by the issue’s end!
- The wait for the 4th entry is thankfully not as long, it’ll be out August 12.
It’s still early, so now is the time to jump on another Darth Vader series bandwagon, as issue #3 furthers the compelling, psychological take on Vader in new and exciting ways.
+ The truth of Sabe, Tonra, and Typho purpose…
+ …and just how far they are willing to go!
+ Vader seems like he’s intruding into the serenity of the prequels
+ Once again, art team is what makes Vader’s intrusion so compelling
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.
DARTH VADER (VOL. 3)
Dark Heart of the Sith: #1 | #2 | #4 | #5 / Arc Review (by Chris)