Canon Comic Review: Dark Droids #4

– Spoiler Review –

Issue #4 is the penultimate issue of the Dark Droids miniseries, and while it doesn’t quite seem like the end should be so near, the escalation of the Scourge’s plans and inevitability of such actions pushes us towards what is sure to be an interesting finale.

As the Scourge makes its push from metal to meat, finding a way into cyborgs while still trying for full organic takeovers, the overwhelming load of information it’s processing has led it to fragment various parts of its personality into droids of its creation. There’s a case to be made the Scourge, and now its personality variants, are a little too chatty throughout, as while the discussions each issue of its purpose and goals are interesting and eventually offer a potential way for this all to end, it begins to weigh on the main miniseries where it makes it feel like other aspects aren’t getting enough attention. There are all the connecting stories to pick up those threads, and they have been doing exceptionally well at it over the past few months, but I couldn’t help but feel readers who only pick up this main miniseries for the crossover will feel left out on certain aspects, especially with the galaxy’s/familiar characters’ responses and more from Ajax Sigma and how he fits into everything. Regardless, there’s plenty of interesting developments writer Charles Soule packs in the penultimate issue, drawn in an unnerving manner Luke Ross has perfected over the past few issues, with the most interesting aspect being the potential way for this to all wrap up.

As the Scourge discusses the way forward with his personified personalities, the Warrior, the Scholar, the Elder, and the Child, it’s revealed he’s moving faster than the previous two times he’s been activated, owing a lot of the speed to the Spark Eternal’s integration into its programming. However, they are all worried it’s not fast enough, especially if full organics continue to elude assimilation, but they have plans in motion, specifically using Epikonia, a galactic relay for the galaxy’s communications first seen in Star Wars #40 (Vol. 2), and its resources to further spread itself. On Epikonia, droid update discs are built en masse and the Scourge has infiltrated the facility to sneak its core programming seeds into a high-priority patch disc, to be distributed across the galaxy even faster than its previous efforts, also something we saw in the final few pages of Star Wars #40 (Vol. 2) as the ships with the discs take off (as they do in the final pages of this issue as well). Spearheading this incursion are the Scourged Lobot, Magna Tolvan, and Beilert Valance, who round up the city’s population for further experimentation (also seen in the other comic) as the discs are sent off to parts unknown.

Beyond concerns with the speed, or lack thereof for its expansion from metal to meat, the Scourge reveals to his personalities he’s unsure of what they are doing, even regretting it, wanting to stop murdering and destroying and not make the whole galaxy into itself. The Child, which contains many of his fears and worries, is the one who brings this to the forefront via reminding the Scourge and the others about Ajax Sigma and his attack last issue. He’s a sentient intelligence like the Scourge and by taking over more and more minds, including eventually organics, they are destroying and murdering these sentient lives to become everything in the galaxy, and the Scourge wants to stop being this murderer, this destroyer. The Elder, who is supposedly the original Scourge before melding with the Spark but knows in the end these fragments are really just all the same entity, puts an end to the Scourge’s concerns about being a destroyer and trying to blame others, like the Spark, by reminding him they’re hungry and they will eat. The Scourge destroys the Elder bot, despite not wanting to be a destroyer…and then agrees, they have to eat, sending the disc updates out into the galaxy. Does the desire to stop this, to stop destroying sentient life, open the window for how Ajax Sigma and others will be able to finally stop the Scourge? Or is it just one of many ways to end this reign of terror, as many forces, regardless of allegiance, team up to bring it down? Regardless of the answer, it was fun to see these different personalities for the Scourge, as while him speaking through other droids in succession was visually intriguing, it was getting a little rote, and having him create these avatars for facets of his personalities changed things up a bit considerable.

Speaking of Ajax Sigma, we check in with him at the Second Revelation Colony, about to awaken another droid to be “visioned” but his failure with his attack and loss of the others cause him to abruptly halt the process. He’s defeated, unsure of the way forward, until a few visitors arrive: D-Squad! In a moment we’ll surely see more of in this month’s Dark Droids: D-Squad #3, R2-D2, Triple-Zero, an un-Scourged BT-1, IG-88, 4-LOM, and QT-KT have come to recruit Ajax to help them fight the Scourge, and their visitation, requesting his help to save droid-kind, reawakens his belief in the Second Revelation’s tenants and he agrees to join them! There’s going to be A LOT for the finale to cover, and I’ll be interested how complete it’ll feel on its own and how much the other series will fill in any remaining blanks. Which reminds me, there’s a big heads up for December’s issues, as Star Wars #41 (Vol. 2), which comes out early in the month, will spoil the ending to Dark Droids #5, which arrives later in the month. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are little hints of how it ends in the other issues as well, considering Dark Droids #5 is the last issue to come out (alongside two other connecting issues on the same day), but Soule has suggested waiting to read SW #41 until DD #5. I’ll be reading and reviewing SW #41 when it releases, so I’ll be sure to mark a big spoiler warning.

Each issue, artist Luke Ross, colorist Alex Sinclair, and letterer Travis Lanham attempt to outdo themselves it seems and they are successful once again. A great page signifying this is the one where the initial update discs are seeded into droids on Epikonia, which plays out in a bunch of little insert panels of droid faces lighting up with the Scourged Purple (needs to be the next Crayon color!), which bisect into a panel where tons of organic beings are being accosted by these newly hostile droids, a very chaotic panel covered in a moody, dark purplish-blue. Next there are more insert panels, red defining their backgrounds as things escalate and further violence is implied, all of which cut into the final panel of the page, haunting shadows of droids in the background, hauling organics with them, while in the forefront is a Super Battle Droid carrying an unconscious human. It’s such a spooky, efficient way to showcase how the Scourge spreads and carries out its plans, without a word or sound FX in sight because it’s almost scarier without any sound. Since DD #3 followed Ajax’s attack on the Scourge One, the contrast in scenes featuring the Second Revelation and the Scourge went missing, something I really liked in DD #2, but it’s back, albeit briefly, in this issue! It’s exceptionally used here, jarring once again, Sinclair’s colors really making it feel like two different worlds, this bright, clean, shiny look makes it feel like a heaven of sorts, this perfect place for droids to exist, while the page before is one of the darker ones aboard Scourge One, as the Scourge itself is mostly black, it’s purple diodes on its chest not seen, the light of the Epikonia covering him in shadows, an oppressive feeling for a place full of droids. Lanham has been directing our attention and speed across the pages and I like how, compared to when we were jumping through lower-level droids for the Scourge delivering its ruminations and dialogue, he chooses to go for thick, blocky dialogue boxes for the Scourge and its personified personalities, as it gives them far heavier weight in his mind’s preferences than the other droids in the field. We’ve seen the droids do nasty stuff to the organics lately, but in this issue we see the reverse, which starts off with two stormtroopers being nervous around even a GONK droid and destroying it, which just looks ridiculous and sort of funny, but it grows dark quick as droids are being lined up for firing squads or having a hacksaw taken to them, which shows how quickly panic can lead to unnecessary or excessive violence, which Ross and team really feel almost sickening to look at despite everything that’s been done to organics through the series so far.

Here are a few other things:

• It feels like we’re scratching at the surface of droid sentience and rights, but not going much further beneath, one of the things I was worried about, though I’ve certainly have been enjoying the event so far, and continue to hope we’ll truly dive into before this all wraps up.
• There are warnings for reading this issue before reading Doctor Aphra #38 (Vol. 2) {which we’ll have a review for soon and I’ll update} as to avoid spoilers for its events, but honestly, I didn’t feel like the reading order mattered too much, though there is a last page reveal which I was surprised to find in Aphra and not in the main miniseries. The fact it was allowed to show up in Aphra validates how closely these teams work together and want to let each series shine.
• I was glad the news of the Scourge’s infection was being spread, as it seemed impossible at this point there wouldn’t be more information about it out there. The fact most of the populace of the galaxy might not be aware and the Imperials are hiding it while trying to take out any and all droids to prevent the spread gave me some flashbacks to how the COVID-19 pandemic was dealt with initially.

Dark Droids #4 sets the stage for what should be an expansive finale, while seeding tidbits of hope amongst its delightfully bleak pages.

+ Scourge’s personified personalities

+ Art team finds new horrors

+ Potential way to stop it’s endless hunger…

– Feels like finale should be two or more issues away still

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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