Canon Comic Review: Darth Vader #17 (Vol. 3) - War of the Bounty Hunters

– Spoiler Review –

Darth Vader #17 (Vol. 3) is the series’ final issue under the War of the Bounty Hunters crossover storyline, and with its last issue making it feel like it was rushing to catch up, this one wraps up all its current threads in a nice, but far too quick bow.

If you were just reading Darth Vader (Vol. 3) through the crossover event, then you’ve missed how some of the series’ parts of the larger story end, but reading both this and War of the Bounty Hunters #5 certainly help add better context to issue #17 and vice versa. For starters, Bokku’s ‘activation’ by Qi’ra, which comes as a final issue surprise if you were just reading that miniseries, is a fun moment which leads to a shake up in the Hutt hierarchy, but it came without context for the new Hutt character’s choices, and thankfully issue #17 provides an answer. How or why did Bokku, a Hutt, join up with Crimson Dawn, when the Hutts are already wealthy and feared and hold much power? Turns out Bokku felt like his station in the Hutt hierarchy, and how their power is already delegated, would never change or allow him a chance to grow, so he found the Dawn’s message of uniting with similar underdogs to take out the powerful very appealing. So appealing he’s willing to die for the cause, assuming he’s final act will be enough to take down Vader and help the Dawn get closer to their ambitions of creating an equal playing field. It makes sense from what we know of the character, but he didn’t receive much depth and thus the moment felt more like helping us understand the world the Dawn wants to create and less about the character himself, while it provides an opportunity for where this comic series can go next as Crimson Reign continues Qi’ra’s return trilogy in December.

Vader and Luke’s dogfight ends abruptly this issue, the Dark Lord called off by the Emperor himself to put the Hutts in their place rather let Vader kill Luke. This recontextualizes the Emperor’s decision as seen in WotBH #5, revealing it to be more of his ambitions for replacing Vader rather than keeping order in the galaxy. Vader understands the implications and acquiesces, feeling he’s instilled enough fear in his son but also gauging how much fear Palpatine has of losing power. How quickly this moment passes highlights my problems with the previous issue, as a series called Darth Vader didn’t focus much on the Dark Lord as he pursued Luke and even here, as important as Vader’s desire to kill Luke was the perfect avenue for his renewed anger after the humbling from Palpatine on Exegol, the moment and Vader’s acceptance/switch to the next goal gets a page before we’re done with the storyline before it ever really developed into more of a background diversion from the crossover’s main events. At the issue’s end, where Palpatine finds Vader’s subservience and lack of ambitions against him sufficient, Ol’ Palpy gives Vader the directive to hunt down Crimson Dawn’s spies within the Empire, but instead of flashing back to how Vader felt about facing Qi’ra (which this series never covered) and letting her go for his misguided pursuit of Luke, he takes on the mission almost like barely noticed he dealt with them already at one point.

With Sly Moore’s attempt to kill Vader via Luke Skywalker, or at least keep him alive long enough to try again when he’s more prepared, out of the way, her part of the story also ends, but with the Emperor caring so little about her choices he doesn’t even acknowledge her. Is her story in this series done or will she join up with Crimson Dawn to see if they can help her serve her Master who cares little for her? I’m not holding my breath we’ll get more and I felt like her story these last few issues didn’t offer much in the way of pestering Vader other than to ensure what we already know will happen happens. As for Ochi, whose Deadpool-esque development has made him more bareable than at the start of his time on the series, after Sly gets him to stop fighting for a bit, he takes her in for her punishment (or lack thereof). He then joins Vader on his next mission, tracking down the Dawn spies, with a special request by Vader to recruit the assassin’s guild he was with before coming to service the Empire, as they both know tracking down the traitors will require subtlety and not a large army. This leads to one of the more confusing aspects of the issue, as Ochi shows up to his old assassin ‘pals’ to find they have Qi’ra captured, somehow, despite no other series even hinting how or why she’d be captured compared to everything else we know about events going on at the moment, be it greeting all her followers or welcoming new ones into the fold. The issue doesn’t even try to explain it (a double, maybe?), so let’s just roll with it: Qi’ra’s there and he rescues her, killing the other assassins, and they share a Crimson Dawn maxim, seemingly revealing he’s on the Dawn’s side too. Considering he’s still in the service of the Empire up until his death, which we’ll read about next year in Shadow of the Sith, this is an odd swing for the character but could be interesting for the story. Did he join up because he already knows his death thanks to the creature on Exegol, so he figures he can do whatever he wants/could help bring them down to maybe prevent his death? How long has he been with the Dawn? He’s already on the main cover for the second issue of Crimson Reign, so we’ll learn more about what this all means for the character, but let’s just hope it’s entertaining and isn’t saved for CR instead of the Vader series.

The space actions scenes from the art team of Raffaele Ienco, Alex Sinclair as colorist, and Joe Caramagna as letterer are real stand-outs for me this issue, as they are bright, exaggerated panels that fuel the feeling of the chaos unfolding around the skies of Jekara. The epic one page of Bokku’s ship, with Vader on it, crashing into the Executor recalled the scene from Return of the Jedi as the giant ship falls into the Death Star II, as the little explosion feels insignificant, like a fly landing on a skyscraper, despite the vital person it nearly kills for the Empire; as little as the explosion seems to the Executor, I will say Caramagna’s SFX for the explosion, fiery and ginormous, helped to ensure it still felt like a big moment, as were his crash SFX as Vader tumbles in the crash ball to the surface of Jekara (which reminded me of the scene in Red Planet as they crash to Mars). I love the way the team presented Vader’s anger as he swings his lightsaber at the Hutts, the after images of his saber briefly remaining in his lenses like the flashes of a camera in one’s eyes. As much emotion teams have brought to Vader and his masked visage over the years in comics, I will say I’ve been even more impressed with the range this team brings to Ochi, as the angular facial features of the mask lean into his persona but they can be framed or drawn in such a way it provides other, less humorous or snarky connotations.

Here are a few other things:

Bokku’s last stand is made aboard a Hutt ship, but its interior looks different from how it was presented in WotBH #5; it’s not too noticeable and doesn’t ruin the moment, but it does stand out.
The series isn’t over quite yet, but it does take a break in January 2022…the last time this happened, it was so all the series could release at the same time for this crossover, so I’m assuming this might be related working around the events of Crimson Reign or so it’s out for another crossover, like whatever The Hidden Empire ends up doing for the comic-scape later in 2022 when it finishes up Qi’ra’s comic return trilogy.

Darth Vader #17 (Vol. 3) wraps up its portion of the War of the Bounty Hunters crossover and a few of its threads, though it’s so abrupt I’m looking forward to the series spreading its own wings again instead of trying to fit into the larger story as much.

+ Wrapping up several threads…

– …that didn’t always feel like they serviced its story as much as the crossovers’

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.

WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS CROSSOVER REVIEWS