The title of this article is NOT an error: D-Squad from The Clone Wars is being formed once again, led by R2-D2 of course, to help combat the Scourge affecting droids during the upcoming Dark Droids comic crossover! Regardless of your feelings of the D-Squad arc in the animated show, Dark Droids: D-Squad looks to inject a little humor amidst the darker, horror-themed tone of the crossover, while it’s great to see droids take center stage in a story where they are greatly affected. Read on for more details, like who’s on the team and its special backup story, below!
In case you are unaware, Dark Droids is an upcoming event crossover, where a mysterious droid revolutionary from the past is somehow involved as the aforementioned Scourge begins to turn droids all over the galaxy. I’ve had my reservations about another event (it’s the fourth since 2020) being so close in the timeline to Return of the Jedi, but the horror-theme and seeming character-focus of it have me interested to some degree. The crossover will consist of a 4-issue miniseries titled Dark Droids, the resulting crossover issues in Doctor Aphra (Vol. 2), Darth Vader (Vol. 3), Star Wars (Vol. 2), and Bounty Hunters, and lastly, now this Dark Droids: D-Squad 4-issue miniseries as well. It seems like a lot, but it’s about the same amount of content we had for the War of the Bounty Hunters crossover, as it had a series of one-shots accompanying the main story too. The way it’s set up (as it feels symmetrical with WotBH) gives me hope it’ll be the last event of the era and we’ll switch to a new timeframe soon, sometime early 2024.
D-Squad will be written by Marc Guggenheim, with art by Salva Espín for the main story and David Messina for the backup story. Said to pick up after the events of Dark Droids #2, D-Squad finds Artoo understanding the horrors of the Scourge in a very personal way (?!), and has decided to reactivate his old squad, albeit with new members, to help combat the evil corrupting droid-kind. The new squad consists of some surprises and interesting combinations I can’t wait to see finally interact: 0-0-0 aka Triple Zero and BT-1 aka Bee Tee, most frequently mingling in Doctor Aphra’s orbit since the 2015 Darth Vader/2016 Doctor Aphra series; 4-LOM, suspiciously without his partner and friend Zuckuss, who has been featured in Bounty Hunters recently; IG-88, who’s been flitting in and out of stories in this era; WAC-47, a pit droid who was part of the original D-Squad; and Chopper, from Star Wars Rebels, who is set to break out in the upcoming Ahsoka show in August. While Triple Zero and Bee Tee are often lovingly referred to as murderbots, Chopper has a kill count nearly as high as they do, so these grumpy and indignant droids banding together will certainly cause some issues and I can’t wait to see their interplay. Otherwise, it’s a really solid and interesting list of droids, and I just like the idea droids will get to be a focus in a crossover hinging on the fate of the droid-kind. I understand the hesitation when D-Squad is mentioned, as it seems people either hate their TCW arc or love it, though many of us fall in-between, as while it’s not my favorite, I can’t see hating it but I do wish it had been only 2 episodes instead of 4, though this is quite the different line-up and feels far more vital to the story at hand. Plus, Guggenheim proved he can make a really fun, action-romp adventure with the Han Solo & Chewbacca series and the early previews of the art look great, I think this will be a fun time in-between the heavier horror tone of everything else.
There’s also a 10-page backup story titled “The Book of Ajax,” which take threads from Guggenheim’s past work with Ajax Sigma, where we first learned about the droid revolutionary in the Revelations one-shot and later saw his processor buried by Han and Chewie in their eponymous comic, and link them to events in Dark Droids #1 (already a 70-page issue by Charles Soule). David Messina will offer the art for it and Guggenheim claimed it’ll explore, “…Ajax’s morality and the difficult balance he has to strike between what he feels he has to do as a revolutionary versus his obligations as a leader.” Hopefully the main miniseries has some time to explore a bit of this as well, as I’m curious how this crossover will all feel depending on what you all read.
Expect the first issue of D-Squad in September, as well as our reviews when it releases.
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.