Canon Comic Review: Darth Vader #16 (Vol. 3) - War of the Bounty Hunters

– Spoiler Review –

With the series skipping back to the present of the War of the Bounty Hunters storyline, Darth Vader’s hunt for Luke Skywalker intensifies while outside forces conspire against him once again, in a heavy action filled issue #16.

By starting off Darth Vader #16 (Vol. 3) after the events of War of the Bounty Hunters #3 and concurrent with issue #4, the series skips over his battle with Qi’ra to rightly focus on his hunt for his son, Luke Skywalker, but I can’t help but feel like some great opportunities were missed. With all the convoluted shenanigans of flipping back and forth in the previous two issues, the Darth Vader series did thankfully keep its focus on its own story, but it’s yet to be enough to make readers connect with Sly Moore’s efforts to stifle Vader from harming the Empire, as she thinks he’s destined to, nor does it expand more on Bokku’s place in all the Hutt intrigue, in fact it avoids even touching on the wider events leading into the character’s decision at the end of this issue. If you aren’t reading the main miniseries of the crossover then you miss out on Bokku’s whole beef with Jabba the Hutt and stirring the other members of the Council to defy Jabba’s orders to let the Empire take Han Solo, hence the giant fleet he calls in to attack them, while only reading this series make it seem like he’s only doing it because he somehow didn’t expect Vader to alter their deal; knowing he works for Crimson Dawn, thanks to last issue, doesn’t feel like it changes much to this story regardless of what you’re reading. As for Sly, she at least shows Vader’s recent strong man antics weren’t enough to stop her from still planning against him, as she does her best here to help Luke Skywalker survive his encounter with the Sith Lord in some dog-fighting action, but it’s hard to necessarily get behind her plans against him knowing the ultimate outcome anyways, especially as this doesn’t feel like it’ll change much of how we view Return of the Jedi or beyond.

I was also surprised how much time was spent with Luke and not Vader this issue, which honestly I’m kind of intrigued by because I’m hoping it’s almost like writer Greg Pak and Charles Soule (responsible for Star Wars {Vol. 2} and the whole crossover) switched characters and we’ll get more time with Vader in Soule’s series to offset the focus on Luke here. It’s not like focusing on Luke here is a bad thing, as he is the focus of Vader’s current obsession, though over the past few issues it’s felt less and less like Vader’s story, be it the focus on Moore, Ochi, or Luke, and the lack of the series’ trademark insight on critical moments for something as big as this, with how close he is to killing Luke. Instead we’re focusing on the battle between Ochi and Moore or the Droid Crush attacking Vader/assisting Luke, rather than more of the red-tinged flashbacks/thoughts, as how appropriate would a variant on the trench run in A New Hope be as Vader lines up Luke in his sights here, much like the Star Wars series had fun with an alternative take of their duel on Cloud City? The opening few pages offer Vader’s goading lines to Luke, what only drives Luke’s fear more, and it’s more of what you’d expect from the series, but it dissipates once the actual action begins and then it feels like we rush through their aerial combat to catch up to the current part of the overall storyline. I look forward to this series finishing up this business next month, especially since it sounds like we have an exciting new storyline as Vader switches his hunt to the Crimson Dawn as we inch ever so closer to Return of the Jedi.

I loved the opening few pages, with Vader tearing through the visage of Ben Kenobi or Palpatine tearing through Vader’s image, as if to highlight Vader’s words on how he won’t be the father Luke yearns for nor will he be the worst he has to face, excellent images as always from artist Raffaele Ienco, joined on colors by Jason Keith and Rachelle Rosenberg, with Joe Caramagna lettering. If an issue would be all or mostly all action, this is one of the team’s I would trust the most to do it justice, and they didn’t disappoint. The visual of the hooks sailing through space, latching onto Luke’s X-wing, and pulling him in was a unique and fun new way to do a tractor beam, while Caramagna’s large and lengthy SFX for Artoo’s wailing, the X-wing crashing to Jekara, or all the blaster fire exchanges replaces the lack of a soundtrack with the feel of the movies’ memorable sound effects for exactly these moments. One of the standout panels for me was Vader’s TIE practically sitting on top of Luke’s X-wing, the Droid Crush standing on the ship and blasting at Vader, be it the imposing feeling of Vader’s ship or just the bizarre and exciting image of the droids shooting from the X-wing, while the color team’s efforts give Vader’s ship the evil, sinister feeling with the red of his cockpit while Luke’s remains clear with a tint of blue, to highlight their differences. The battle between Ochi and Moore was also an action highlight, from the faded Moore in one panel showing the progression of her jumping away from Ochi to the bright, white blue clang of their blades.

Here are a few other things:

Glance ahead at December’s Star Wars comics with the latest solicitations, which is when Crimson Reign will now officially come out, the follow-up to the War of the Bounty Hunters crossover and part two of a Qi’ra trilogy of content!

Darth Vader #16 (Vol. 3) has tons of fun action be it feels like it’s now rushing to catch up to the crossover’s finale.

+ Art team delivers some spectacular action

– Feels like it’s rushing through this encounter/storyline

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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