– Spoiler Review –
With Sabé’s return, the third volume of Darth Vader comics feels refreshed, as her mere presence puts the story in hyperdrive and sets up for more interesting confrontations that delve into Vader’s psyche, allowing Darth Vader #21 (Vol. 3) to push through this somewhat meandering arc.
Sabé’s back and she means business! She’s after Darth Vader and won’t even let fellow Crimson Dawn stooges get in her way, forcing both Administrator Sly Moore and Ochi of Bestoon to bend to her will and expose what they know about Vader in return for Sabé not exposing them. Both immediately think she wants to kill Vader but Sabé’s smarter than that, looking for a way to both understand the information she gained on Polis Massa and use him against the Empire. It’s truly refreshing, as the introduction, and lack thereof building them up, of the Revengers/Assassins group has felt like the story spinning wheels again like it did during the War of the Bounty Hunters crossover, without much forward momentum on Vader’s hunt for the Dawn/bringing Order to the Empire. Sabé kicks it all into hyperspace by manipulating ZED-7 and Ochi/Sly, forcing Vader’s hunt to intensify and bring allegiances to light, igniting Darth Vader (2020)’s story and bringing more personal and interesting interactions to the forefront for all the characters involved. To force Vader’s hand, Sabé introduces a very specific list of Dawn collaborators in the Empire, the one Beilert Valance and team picked up two issues ago, though not everyone on her list are members of the Dawn, while a specific grouping of Imperials is on there because Sabé knows how he’ll react when he finds out what they did. Turns out a few Imperials were involved in a skirmish with Sabe’s old faction, the Amidalans, wiping them out (it’s not totally clear this is a separate incident to the one in issue #4 and #5 or not, but the timing and Vader’s lack of knowledge would seem to suggest it was a separate encounter), so she’s getting revenge by making the Imperials purge one another, but it’s also something Vader will follow considering his…history with the group and its members, so it’s all part of the bait. Sabé says she wants to use him to bring more chaos instead of the order he promised his Master, but we also know she’s learned about Luke Skywalker’s connection to her dearest friend Padmé, so is her ultimate goal to try to protect the queen’s legacy, her son? I look forward to seeing her goals and how she attempts to use Vader to accomplish them, though many have tried to use him before and failed, unless their name was Palpatine.
Ochi tells Sabé Vader already knows about her planted list so she uses that her advantage, boldly telling him to use it to draw Vader to her. So Ochi launches a plan, confronting General Romodi about the supposed Dawn members amongst his crew, essentially hinting they’ll continue going after his Imperials despite both of them knowing they aren’t Crimson Dawn agents, which sets up for a showdown with Vader’s new team of misfits and assassins. Ochi sends them to kill the remaining officer involved with a slaughter of the Amidalans, and Vader gets a whiff of this and intervenes, believing the remaining Amidalans dead, while also exposing Ochi’s secret, as Romodi had a force waiting for the misfit group to protect his officer, sowing more chaos than order in the Empire. It’s interesting to see Vader’s reaction, his anger over the potential death of the Amidalans, as his time with them, with the handmaidens, with Sabé, certainly brought the pain of Padmé bubbling to the surface, so in a way he almost wants to protect them after what he did to his wife all those years ago. While Ochi runs from Vader, it’s all orchestrated to some extent, as Vader already knew of his duplicity and Sabé wanted Vader to find her anyways, which is where the issue ends, Anakin meeting with Sabé again. Whereas she opens this issue looking to use him, he claims he’ll use her again to come after Crimson Dawn. Who’s playing who will be a fun game to watch as this series continues, hopefully with this storyline between these two staying in the forefront.
There’s a steel-like, determination to Sabé as she goes about achieving her goals and artist Raffaele Ienco etches that across her face, her steely gaze doing more work than even ZED’s electrocutions to scare Ochi and Sly, and it never comes off as one-note due to Ienco’s work and Alex Sinclair’s colors, playing shadows across her face in what feels like a reference to her “Queen’s shadow” moniker and to show some darkness, hardness has creeped in for her in the years since Padmé’s death. I don’t quite understand how they do it, from his stances or the angle he’s drawn, lots of Ochi’s personality comes through in the artwork, from his running from Vader like some type of cartoon character to his, why yes Vader I totally meant to lead you to Sabé as an agent of the Empire, which Joe Caramagna helps make land with the exaggerated word bubble. One of my favorite panels was the one of Vader standing atop his TIE, a shadow falling across the sunny, beautiful world Sabé’s hiding out on from his dark, foreboding visage, which recalls the gorgeous panel of him standing in the fields of Naboo earlier in the run. I also appreciated a lot the clarity for the assassin/Revenger character designs, even if some of them die here, as it’s now clear Ankala is supposed to be Indigenous coded, though the team’s take on Valance is a little strange, probably because he doesn’t have half his face off.
Here are a few other things:
- Several of the assassins and Revengers died this issue, though I honestly forgot who was part of which group at this point, due mostly to the lack of character development afforded them so far. So I wasn’t sad to see any go, but rather a bit happy as we can narrow down the cast and focus on get to the goods between Vader and Sabé!
- It was neat to see the Death Troopers a little earlier in the timeline, the ones Moff Gideon will use a few years from now to capture Grogu/be destroyed by Luke Skywalker.
- If you want a little more history on how Sabé found out about Anakin and Padme in the first place, and what it meant for the two of them, once so close and so connected to almost be one, make sure you read Queen’s Hope on April 5 (we’ll have reviews then of the book!).
Darth Vader #21 (Vol. 3) makes Sabé’s interjection into the story a refreshing flashpoint for the future of the series.
+ Sabé’s return already paying dividends
+ Ienco and team’s steely Sabé
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.
DARTH VADER (VOL. 3)
Dark Heart of the Sith: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 / Arc Review — Into the Fire: #6 | #7 | #8 | #9 | #10 | #11 / Arc Review — War of the Bounty Hunters: #12 | #13 | #14 | #15 | #16 | #17 — Red Revenge: #18 | #19 | #20