Canon Comic Review: Dark Droids #3

– Spoiler Review –

As the Scourge makes a desperate attempt to take over the minds on non-droids by invading Darth Vader’s Castle, Ajax Sigma and his free droids make their attack on the entity, resulting in spooky and unsettling good times in Dark Droids #3!

Of all the places for this issue to open, a beautiful scene of a droid caught in a rainfall made up of diamonds certainly wasn’t on my list of ideas, but what it tells us about the Scourge makes it a great opening. The Scourge previously revealed it’s a constant struggle to avoid submitting to the overflow of information it gets from all the droids it has consumed, to focus its mind on the tasks at hand, its goal of figuring out how to make the leap from metal to meat, to consume all so there are no enemies left for it to fight, and it appreciating this memory from some random droid is our first glimpse of what that looks. Not only does it need to focus its attention on its efforts to take over non-humans, but it wants to put most of its efforts of concentration on its coming attack of Darth Vader at his castle on Mustafar, but when one has such beautiful memories droid programming won’t allow its original viewers to enjoy or appreciate, it’s an example of the Scourge’s might and intent not to give in. And it gets tested even further when not only is it conducting more and more experiments, Ajax Sigma launches his attack while the attempt to take Vader begins as well. Despite its failure with Vader, it being able to decimate Ajax’s forces and conduct the experiments which finally lead to a breakthrough speaks a lot to the vastness of its control and resources, while showcasing only the Force seems to once again (as the Sith locked away the Scourge long before) be its main weakness. With it being able to make the jump from metal to meat, as we see in the closing pages when a Quarren-headed droid awakens with the Scourge’s purple eyes and three very familiar characters to fans of the other series are revealed to be lost to it as well, will it find a way to combat the Force? How can anyone hope to stop it if it does? But as it takes over more and more, including organic minds, will it be able to fight the desire to give in to the torrents of information overload? With the stakes raising now that it can take over the minds of cyborgs, this issue leaves me absolutely curious how and where this will all go next in its final two issues (and in the stories of the other series too).

Vader regaining control of his connection to the Force couldn’t have come at a better time for the Sith Lord, as the Scourge’s attack comes for him in his weakest state, as it takes over the guarding DT-series sentry droids and then drag Vader from his bacta tank. Readers get a good sense of why the Scourge is so eager to make the leap to organics and gain access to the Force with Vader’s show of might despite his lack of armor, as controlling his lightsaber through the Force and later breaking all the attacking droids with his mind as well, even the little vector disc that makes one final, desperate attempt, makes it easy to see how the Sith stopped the Scourge before. On the flip side, I was saddened to see Ajax and his group, so righteous in their cause to protect their fellow awakened droids from the selfishness of the Scourge, fail in their attack, including the quick destruction of their cool, strange ship they put Gertee’s mind into. They certainly put up a good fight, but it’s quickly over as some are consumed by the Scourge, revealing the Second Revelation secrets to their greatest enemy. Ajax’s survival is promising, even if he’s stuck floating in space for the time being, as it leaves the story open for him to reach out to other parties to help fight for his kind and the fate of the rest of the galaxy. Will we see him in other series, reaching out for help, or will that be in the next issue of this main series? Only time will tell and we won’t have to wait terribly long, as this all wraps up in December.

Seeing Magna Tolvan out of the three Scourge cyborgs was such a great, yet frightening moment for this big time Doctor Aphra series fan, as the most recent issue of that series had her about to explore a Scourge-filled Rebellion ship, so things obviously don’t go well; also, seeing her in this main miniseries takes me back to the time Kho Phon Farrus made the jump to Hidden Empire, as it’s just a joy to see characters like both of them recognized during a big event. We just saw Beilert Valance, also in the issue’s final page, being handed over to the Scourge in the Bounty Hunters, while Lando’s been trying to help Lobot in the Star Wars series, with us last seeing them surrounded by Scourged droids and facing down Jabba’s rancor, and it’ll be both saddening yet interesting to see how Lobot gets when he’s Scourged. Will there be lasting effects for those who have been Scourged when this is over? Will they remember anything their bodies did under the direction of the Scourge? Or will it be like it never happened for them?

Not only were there some beautifully done panels, but also tons of great designs across the board which the art team of Luke Ross, colorist Alex Sinclair, and letterer Travis Lanham absolutely deliver on. For starters, how about the look of the Scourge 01, the reimagined Star Destroyer it took over earlier in the series?! You can see the base of the original design in there, but it’s all spiky, with additional layers and adjustments to its hull, glowing purple all over, as is the color associated with the Scourge. It’s a spooky, unnatural design, much like the Scourge itself, and speaks to how it keeps wanting more, the spikes reaching out randomly, looking to grab or snag anything that gets near, while the additions give a sense it’s not happy with how things are, taking and building over instead, while the randomness of the overall look fits with his fractured attention on its many plans. The Scourge 01’s design sensibilities makes reusing concept art of General Grievous (thanks, Liam!) for the Scourge’s body even more fitting, as that artwork lends itself to something/someone far more chaotic than the droid General turned out to be and the Scourge is exactly that in all that it does. Sinclair does a great job around Ross’ work, as the all black body of the Scourge’s form, with little diodes of purple in the center and for the eyes, looks just as detailed as the giant Star Destroyer, with my favorite effect both of them accomplish is the wires over the Scourge’s back which make a cape-like structure, as it says a lot it took the time to ensure its body had something like it. In Ajax and team’s incursion, the initial few panels as they float through space to board the ship, Ajax spurring them on, feels like a reverse abduction scene, as instead of going up into the scary ship, they are going down into one, as their disc-like Gertee ship gives flying saucer vibes while the bright spotlights complete the picture, and it’s this glow from Sinclair which gives Ajax and team an almost divine or unstoppable appearance against the dark, cold look of the Scourge 01’s interior. With Vader and his destruction of his attackers in his weakest form, I adored that the series made a callback to his meditative form first glimpsed in Soule’s Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith series, which showed Vader body with filled in with swirling black and red and white spaces where metallic limbs are, which was again referenced recently during Luke Skywalker’s own meditations to heal a kyber in Soule’s Star Wars #35 (Vol. 2), who had a blue body instead. In this issue, we see Vader’s armor-less, limbless body rise, with the missing limbs filled out in stark, flaming red, as well as his eyes, while his main body is in black, which leads to a panel where Lanham’s sound FX crackles alongside Ross’ work showing the droids breaking apart at the seams and Sinclair’s work making the Force an extension of his body with the red and black background exploding behind him. Once Vader takes out the remaining disc vector droid, the final panel with him is sort of silly but also is a whole mood, as Vader is slumped against the wall after all his efforts, the droids in pieces before him, and it just feels like a giant sigh of relief on his part.

Here are a few other things:

• Still hasn’t tried to tackle droid sentience terribly much, but holding out hope Ajax’s failure and the Scourge’s ability to enter cyborg organic minds could lead to some of that being discussed in the final two issues/other series in the crossover.
• I’m always thinking about Star Wars Outlaws, but the more story I read set in this era, the more I keep thinking about how/if the game will include mentions of the big stories happening in all this era’s crossovers. I’d love it if ND-5, the BX-series commando droid who teams up with Kay Vess, gets Scourged briefly and there’s a bit of a horror-section to the game or something like that.
• NYCC is happening over the coming weekend, as of this publishing, so I’ll be interested what they’ll talk about in regards to Dark Droids and the future of Star Wars comics during the Oct 15 panel. We’ll have a rundown afterwards on the Manor!

Dark Droids #3 commits even more fully to the horror, setting up for a big final two issues as the Scourge takes the leap it needed to maybe consume forever until there are no enemies left!

+ Delightfully horrifying designs

+ Making the jump to organics raising stakes

+ Vader’s efforts against the Scourge

– Trying to hold out hope for more droid sentience discussion

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.

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