– Spoiler Review –
Vader – Dark Visions #3 deals with a woman who has an obsessive crush on Darth Vader, and as full of problematic potential as that sounds, the issue unfortunately makes such concerns valid, making me uncomfortable and reopening the wound of the terrible decision to replace Chuck Wendig’s Shadow of Vader with this.
When I first saw the solicit for issue #3 of this series, I immediately felt uncomfortable. I left some faith to the creative team and prayed these issues would be like The Legends of Luke Skywalker, tall-tales which weren’t necessarily canon, but neither hope bore any fruit. The poor med-tec woman starring in this issue, unnamed the entire time, who has an odd obsessive love for Vader, to the point she’s looking for him to save her from her berating boss instead of gaining any agency of her own, dies when he stabs her in the gut because she gets to the core of Vader and his loneliness. Why did this story have to be told? Why did this woman, once again unnamed besides being called demeaning names like garbage or idiot, have to die? What purpose did this story serve to tell us about Vader, beyond what we already knew? Who thought this would be a good idea?
Much like the first issue makes Vader look like a savior/cool, even if the writer Dennis Hallum had other intentions, and the second issue told us Vader suffers no fools in his employ and getting worked up about his reaction only makes things worse, while this third issue tells us a man, who lost his wife and went out of his way to try to bring her back using arcane dark side methods, is lonely. What do all three of these things tell us? Everything we already know about Vader, and we’ve learned it in far more intriguingly or less problematically ways across other parts of the canon. The series this one replaced, Shadow of Vader, was more about exploring the effects Vader has had on others, from Willrow Hood (yes, the ice cream maker guy everyone runs around as at Star Wars Celebration) to the Acolytes of the Beyond, thus expanding upon aspects of canon we’re not only already invested in, but could show us what type of shadow Vader and his actions cast across the galaxy. From what we know, it was less concerned with altering Vader’s image, but showing us how his image was seen throughout the galaxy to different people, while Dark Visions has so far been less concerned about those that are affected by his presence but more how it reflects on Vader, going out of its way to try to muddle his image. We know Vader is lonely, and it makes sense he wouldn’t want others to know under the mask he’s just a sad, lonely man, but to have to show it to us by sacrificing a blonde, blue-eyed, unnamed woman who is problematically in love with Vader as a savior (again), just feels like a cruel way to do it.
I decided to give this series the time of day because at the end of the day, the creative team wasn’t at fault for Mark Paniccia’s egregious choice at bowing to Nazis and trolls over Chuck Wendig’s new series, but after Disney reversed course on a similar situation with director James Gunn, and now this is what we’re getting from the replacement series, I can’t quite give the writer Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum a pass anymore either. The art teams have been the only redeeming quality about this series, and this issue is no different, with art by David Lopez and Javi Pina, with Muntsa Vicente on colors. Say what you will about the main character’s dream sequences, but the art in the dream sequences is nothing short of magnificent. Most of the panels look like they’d be found at some art museum, from the majestic swirls of color to the romantic, posed quality. The rest of the art is not as beautiful, but it doesn’t need to be, as it’s a stark reminder of what reality looks like compared to dreams, so I appreciate the high contrast between the two art teams within the issue. But I can’t appreciate the story. Even if it’s, as some people have pointed out, a homage to Harley Quinn’s introduction/mad love for the Joker, which I see why some people might appreciate or like this issue because of it, but to me there’s nothing that can make up for what transpired within. It’s a bad look to me, simple as that.
UPDATE: I guess Wendig also had a similar idea for his third issue of his series, but instead of it being about a woman, it was about a man who represented toxic fanboys. Making it a man doesn’t make the idea much better, but making it about the toxic fanboys in the world instead of “women are crazy” certainly looks a hell of a lot better. In the end, the choice is yours, dear reader, if you could find something to like in this or not.
Apropos of absolutely nothing, my issue three of SHADOW OF VADER was about a toxic fanboy (a morgue attendant on the Death Star) who became obsessed with Vader. (And it didn’t end well for him. Er, obviously.) I thought it was good and I’m sorry you won’t see it! Onward we go. pic.twitter.com/kFCb2nQ2Ia
— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) April 24, 2019
UPDATE 2: It seems Hallum has responded to criticisms with the issue,as io9 points out, but it falls short considering the art doesn’t quite help with his arguments. As I said earlier, there are aspects of the art I appreciate, but the manic way the nurse is drawn is what doesn’t help matters at all.
Vader – Dark Visions #3 takes the series on a terrible, unfortunate turn and I don’t know if anything they do on this series can redeem what happened here.
– Not even some truly unforgettable art can save this problematic story
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
Vader – Dark Visions
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