Canon Comic Review: Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith #16

– Spoiler Review –

The Mon Cala’s home planet advantage is keeping the Empire from squashing them, but things don’t look as fortunate for King Lee-Char’s Jedi advisor, as death, aka Vader and the Inqusitiors, comes for him and his followers in Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith #16…but he seems to have a surprising trick up his sleeve.

In my review of issue #14, I had wondered if the people with Jedi Master Barr even were Force-sensitive, considering none of them had lightsabers and they all carried blasters, and if they were simply people who put their faith in a Jedi. Issue #16 reveals the truth is far murkier than expected, as the flashbacks here seem to point to none of these people being Force-sensitive and they were a group of people who didn’t buy the Imperial propaganda, putting their faith in a Jedi, but it seems that Jedi took advantage of them. Ferren Barr, emboldened by his Force vision of Mon Cala being at the forefront of the fight against the Empire, found wayward, disillusioned souls looking to fight the Empire and Mind Tricked them into following him. I’m still pretty sure he’s the one who had the Imperial Ambassador’s shuttle destroyed in an effort to spark the war to bring his Vision to fruition, and now knowing he Mind Tricked a bunch of people to be sacrifices in his stead, I’m 99% confident he did have it blown up because I’m sure he’s willing to do whatever it takes to see his vision through. As off-kilter as his Jedi morals seem to be, Barr has been nothing if not knowledgeable, having figured out on his own that Anakin Skywalker is Darth Vader, but it turns out his digging went even deeper than that and uncovered another secret which leads to an interesting bit of a twist ending: squaring off with the Inquisitors, all former Jedi, and their Inquisitor death squad troopers, Barr takes off the young clones troopers’ helmets and sends out a Mind Trick that has a very familiar ring to it: “Execute Order 66.” Sure, it puts him at risk, but I have no doubt Order 66 itself wasn’t terribly specific about friend/foe identification (IFF), nor were the Inquisitors around at that time, so this effectively turns the clones back against the Empire! Did not see that coming, not in the slightest, and what an exciting surprise it was! Barr is quite the wily Jedi, though I don’t imagine he’ll have enough tricks up his sleeves once Vader completes his temporary mission and comes for him.

On his way to end Barr’s existence, Vader gets a call from Governor Tarkin, fighting the good Imperial fight in the military skirmishes across the planet, about an idea for a quicker way to end the battle. Mon Cala has home planet advantage and they’re drawing out the conflict in ways that are embarrassing for the Empire at large, and troublesome for Tarkin and Vader if they can’t please their Emperor and bring the planet to heel quickly. Raddus, the Mon Cala who leads the Rebellion into the Battle of Scarif as seen in Rogue One, is employing a genius tactic where their merchant fleet ships’ shields are essentially creating an impenetrable fortress from which the Mon Cala can continue fighting behind (which recalls the power and look of the shield on the Raddus, Leia’s ship, in The Last Jedi). Tarkin suggests a new tactic: capture King Lee-Char and hold his life on the line to stop the Mon Cala resistance. While I’ve been guessing Lee-Char’s knowledge of Anakin being Vader (thanks to Master Barr) would get him killed and the Empire has been pretending to hold onto Lee-Char for almost 20 years as a constant threat, Star Wars issue #47 showed I was half-right, as Lee-Char is basically dead since he’s only alive thanks to machines. We don’t see it here, but I imagine the next issue of Vader will show us how he messes Lee-Char up enough to put him on life support. I really enjoyed the brief conversation between Tarkin and Vader, as it shows how shrewd he is not to upset Vader and figure out how to appeal to him, and with Tarkin offering to be in Vader’s debt, it’ll be very interesting to see when Vader takes him up on that offer (and according to the July solicitations, it’ll be in issue #18!).

The real names of the Ninth, Sixth, and Tenth Inquisitors are revealed this issue, another bit of knowledge Barr has managed to uncover/knew from his time at the Jedi Temple: the Sixth Brother is Bil Valen, the Ninth Sister is Masana Tide, and the Tenth Brother is Prosset Dibs (which some people, not me, managed to guess). The Tenth Brother’s name might mean something to those who ended up reading the Jedi of the Republic -Mace Windu series, as Dibs is a Jedi Master during the Clone Wars who grows disillusioned with the Jedi’s part in the war and takes it out on Mace, who brings Dibs in and stuffs him in the library to think about what he did. I was not terribly kind to the Windu miniseries and I mentioned in my review of the final issue, I could care less about what happened to Dibs after the series ended. This fate for Dibs makes a lot of sense, but goes even further to make my case for the series’ ending of Mace looking all heroic to be an ironic one, not a feel-good happy ending. While we know the Sixth Brother will survive Barr’s Order 66, as he has a date with Ahsoka as seen in her novel, I really hope the Ninth Sister survives so she can sass Vader another day, while I’m once again not worried here or there about what happens to Dibs/Tenth Brother. Not content to let Barr have all the reveals, the Ninth Sister shares one of their own: Barr isn’t a Jedi Master…he’s still a Padawan. Considering his tactics so far, I’m not terribly surprised he wasn’t an actual Master, but still only a Padawan and not even a Knight? That’s interesting and it makes me wonder why he never got any further.

That Charles Soule can continue to surprise issue after issue, always with a solid, action-packed, meaty story, makes him one of the best voices in Star Wars comics. And how he’s using all the details about the prequel era we’ve gotten through the films and animated series and weaving those things naturally into the story is a thing to behold. On the art, there’s only a slight change-up, as Java Tartaglia and Guru-eFX assist on colors, and their work fit well enough with David Curiel’s work so far there were no big differences besides a little bit more brightness here and there. And since Giuseppe Camuncoli (art) and Daniele Orlandini (inks) are still around, everything looks exceptional as always, like that panel of the Mon Cala ships Raddus has assembled, though the human faces still have too much of similarity to one another.

Here are a few other things:

On Twitter, Charles Soule took to announcing the next arc of the Vader series: “Fortress Vader,” which will uncover the story of how he gets his castle on Mustafar! We saw Vader bleed his saber crystal beneath the eventual site of his fortress and now we get the story of him making it, though Vader building a house doesn’t sound too exciting when it’s written that way. Soule got a little cheeky about the whole thing, responding to comments Vader stole the design from Sauron, why Vader chooses to build on Mustafar, and we should stay tuned to learn why it’s rather phallic shaped. However, I have zero doubts Soule and team will manage to make this one a helluva entertaining tale. On Soule’s blog, the weekly releases section for May 9 reveal that Barr’s Order 66 line was in his pitch of this arc from the beginning, while he talks a little about “Fortress Vader” as well.
It’s not important, but I am curious as to how the people of Barr’s group found him/he found them.

Jedi Barr shows research pays off as the “Burning Seas” arc crescendos in its penultimate issue, Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith #16.

+ *Record scratch* Execute Order what now!?!?
+ Tarkin smooth talking Vader
+ Raddus’ defensive maneuver

Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.

Canon Comic Review: Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith #16

+ Record scratch Execute Order what now!?!?

+ Tarkin smooth talking Vader

+ Raddus’ defensive maneuver

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+ *Record scratch* Execute Order what now!?!?