– Spoiler Review –
Kylo Ren still wants to kill the past, but Darth Vader’s former attendant tries to show him the strength of it, taking the Supreme Leader of the First Order to…Tatooine?! Find out how he fares against the sands in our review of Legacy of Vader #2!
Realizing his warpath to kill the past hasn’t netted him what he’s wanted, a way to define himself on his own away from the legacies of those before him, Kylo Ren thinks it’s Darth Vader’s past, his idol, which he must destroy next. He started at Mustafar in issue #1, visiting his grandfather’s infamous castle, where he found Vaneé, Vader’s old attendant, somehow still alive and willing to offer advice, claiming Vader’s power came from his past, not despite it. To show the young Supreme Leader, Vaneé takes Kylo to Tatooine, the crucible of Anakin Skywalker’s youth and even of Kylo’s Uncle, Luke Skywalker. As Vaneé retreads the important bits from Anakin’s life on the planet, all gleaned from Emperor Palpatine’s extensive records on Vader, it was a surprise to see how little Kylo knew about his grandfather’s life, making me wonder how much Luke and/or Leia have ever found out or cared to find out. Did they know all this and didn’t share it with a little Ben Solo, focusing instead on the future or did they not learn/know all these details either? And fanboy Kylo didn’t bother to learn all this stuff, just focused on the Vader aspect of his grandfather, like the expectations of the galaxy forced on him? My absolute favorite part of the issue happens in these early moments, as once Vaneé’s done with his recounting, he assumes Kylo’s had a similarly tough childhood, hence all his angst and anger, and all we see are Kylo’s memories where a little Ben Solo is beloved by all those around him, riding on Chewbacca’s shoulders or having a dinner with Luke, Leia, Lando and more, only for him to claim he had it tough as well. There’s a moment later where we see Vaneé has an ulterior motive, giving Kylo’s target a heads up on his arrival, so I wonder if Vaneé knows Kylo’s had it easy and is just messing with him or not. Either way, nothing sums up Kylo’s reinvention of his childhood to fit his own narrative, manipulated by Snoke/Palpatine or not, better than this exchange.
While Vaneé is offering all these details to show how Vader’s past shaped him into the wicked dark sider he would become, all Kylo hears are targets for his desire to kill Vader’s past, his story, so there’s only Kylo Ren’s story. The first on the list is Watto, who owned Anakin as a slave when he was a child, but a visit to the junk dealer’s last place of business shows it destroyed. Kylo imagines Vader came back for his revenge, but Vaneé’s quick to shut down such fantasies, pointing out how insignificant Watto was to Vader by the time he’d have come back to do something like that, and saying Watto, if he is dead, passed away due to someone or something else.* Which leaves Gardulla the Hutt, still alive and thriving, as Kylo’s next target, which he zooms out to confront in a reference to Anakin’s search for Shmi in Attack of the Clones. This is where Vaneé, not following Kylo, warns someone of Kylo’s impending arrival, so is he talking to Gardulla or someone with her…have they been working together, somehow? There’s no clarity by the time the issue ends, but it does end with evidence Gardulla is very prepared for Kylo.
Like the first issue, we see Kylo’s unhinged and palpable power when he first arrives at Gardulla’s fortress, as he takes out TWO rancors in a series of swift moves which would’ve made Starkiller of The Force Unleashed extremely jealous. And even afterwards, he makes his way through her guards without any problems and has her dead to rights. Gardulla seems unprepared, claiming ignorance over who he is and why he’s even at her fortress, but her special bodyguard, a little creature that looks like a Huttlet but made of rocks, grabs Kylo’s lightsaber with the Force and chucks him backwards, allowing a guard to knock him out! While she claims what happened to Jabba is what prompted her to be prepared for those with the Force, if Vaneé did call her, then this was all a charade…is she playing a part in hopes Vaneé/Kylo Ren will reward her afterwards, as she bellows about making a comeback or is she unaware and Vaneé was contacting someone else? I bet it was Gardulla, as Vaneé was the one to tell the warriors in issue #1 to attack Kylo, so it would seem Vaneé probably does know Kylo’s cushy past and is trying to forge him the way Vader was, maybe on behalf of Palpatine and the Sith Eternal, now that Snoke is out of the picture?? Either way, Legacy of Vader #2 ends with Kylo in chains, Gardulla’s prisoner! I want to know more about this rocky creature, Vaneé’s plans, what Kylo will do about it once he figures it out, and what Gardulla has in store for Kylo.
On art remains Luke Ross and colorist Nolan Woodard, with Joe Caramagna lettering, meaning we’re in for more memorable panels and moments brought to life. My favorite page is the one where Kylo’s on the speeder bike, heading out to Gardulla’s, as it’s, at least to me, juxtaposed with some rather funny panels of Vaneé. Both Ross and Woodard must have put the scene in Attack of the Clones where Anakin’s speeding around, tracking down leads on his mother, on pause, as the panels here, from the angles to the coloring, evoke it so well, I swear John William’s “Duel of the Fates” popped out of the pages. Then there’s these little slices of panels where the mechanical Vaneé, his head tank up front, is holding the super tiny comlink in his giant mechanical clampy hands, spreading word of Kylo’s advance, with a off-green color to the panels, so at odds with the sunset look of Kylo’s, it’s undercuts his dramatics, much like Vaneé’s actions are undercutting Kylo’s arrival. One of my favorite images is when we first see Gardulla’s fortress, as it’s such a cool and weird design, where what looks like sand hardened and swirled, reaching out like roots to take over part of a building, or it’s actually roots from some type of vegetation on the planet, while the scale of the moment, with little Kylo standing before it and the big, lumbering rancors, which even look small against the fortress, make it seem all the more grandiose. A big part of what makes the trip down memory lane for Kylo work so well to point out how he’s lying to himself, (though I’m sure there was isolation and expectations that others/himself heaped on him) is one of the smallest parts of the double-page spread, where Vanee’s lingering insistence Kylo walked a path of pain is practically impossible to see due to Caramagna’s positioning, to highlight how far from the assumption Kylo’s childhood was. The images of Ben coloring and dressing up Artoo and Threepio are a delight, as well is him riding on Chewie’s shoulders, and having it all tinged in Kylo’s fractured memory POV, a red hue to it all much like in the Darth Vader (2020) series, presents us with how he’s letting his anger twist how he remembers these things. Lastly, that double-page spread of Kylo charging Gardulla’s fortress, taking out the guard and the two rancors, was a killer delight, with Caramagna focusing his sound FXs on the rancors’ actions, showing how much effort they are putting in, while Kylo has none to his movements, all graceful and efficient, from jumping on top of one of them and calling his lightsaber, still impaled in the first guard, to him, slamming it down into the rancor’s head, while even his slice of the other’s leg seems like easy work for him while it’s clawing slash SFX shows its angry, last-ditch efforts to stop what’s coming. Really great sequence here and I can only imagine we’ll be in for some great action next issue as Kylo frees himself from whatever Gardulla will put him through!
Here are a few other things:
- *Kylo imagining Watto’s death by Vader’s hands sparked lots of click-bait articles and fan response online when the previews first hit, with writer Charles Soule warning readers should wait for the full issue and having some fun with the reaction in his newsletter. The day before this issue released, Deputy Editor of io9/Gizmodo James Whitbrook shared a snarky reminder regarding this ‘news’ we’d all forgotten (despite the initial hubbub), I got involved in the fun thanks to the fortuitous airing of Attack of the Clones at the bar I was at with my wife, allowing me to pour one out for dear Watto. We’re now in Schrödinger’s Watto stage, as while his place is trashed, it’s unknown if he’s somehow still alive or not, so his fans will have to wait for an answer!
- I found it interesting how different Tatooine feels at this point in the timeline, as it seems more like a Mad Max world than it used to, given we’ve seen an abandoned Mos Espa, the trashed Watto shop, the Bootna Eve course in shambles, and now Gardulla’s wicked rock formation home out in the wastelands. What happened to Tatooine?! Rey’s visit there, to bury the past yet push it forward, at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, has no hints at such change, so I wonder when/if we’ll learn what all happened here.
- Really appreciated the thugs who come to mug Kylo and Vaneé on Tatooine reference the rumor of Luke Skywalker’s feat on Crait in The Last Jedi, as it shows how far and how much the rumors and legends have spread. Gives us a small, but nice understanding of the larger galaxy’s reaction to some of the events of the first two sequel trilogy films.
- It’s March and that means Women’s History Month is here and so are some rad new variant covers for the occasion! Betsy Cola’s Rey is stunning on this issue and you can check the rest here!
Legacy of Vader #2 may take us down memory lane, but what it tells us about those in the present is far more intriguing anyways, while it leaves one curious to learn what’s behind some new mysteries.
+ Exposing Kylo’s hypocrisy
+ Adding some new mysteries to string us along
+ Ross and team making us hear the music
– Leaves me hoping we’ll focus less on Vader, more on Kylo like this issue teased
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him and the website on Bluesky.
LEGACY OF VADER REVIEWS:
Reign of Kylo Ren: #1