– Spoiler Review –
Darth Vader #22 (Vol. 3) finds the Dark Lord playing both sides to achieve his goals for order within the Empire…but is it really the Sith Lord who’s using everyone or is someone else using him?
Ochi and Sabé, operatives for the Dawn with their own motives, are in Vader’s sights now and he takes them to Naboo to face the monsters which have risen in the place of the sando aqua monster he killed in the opening arc of the series, as a way to coerce the truth from them and show them how he plans to proceed with bringing order to his and his Master’s Empire. For Ochi, he tries to bumble his way through it, going with the flow in hopes to always stay alive, like he said last issue, and Greg Pak has made it such a humorous display I’ve really come around on the character since he was first featured in the series/barely seen in The Rise of Skywalker. But for Sabé, she’s not bumbling through anything, making it work for her goals as she goes, so the monster-on-monster action doesn’t quite faze her like it does Ochi, staying resilient, defiant, and finding a way to turn it to her advantage. She knows he wants order and, as his display of monster-on-monster fighting becomes clear, how he wants to use both sides of chaos to create order without having to lift a finger himself, she decides to help him use the Dawn. It’s much more than that for her though, and while her help manages to both wipe out a Dawn cell and part of General Romodi’s forces, her game has only just begun. The issue ends with quite the stinger, where Sabé’s answer to Vader’s inquiry if she fears him goes in a direction I was not expecting: her response is both a question and almost a threat, both to herself and Vader, as she asks him why she should be afraid of Anakin Skywalker!! She’s certainly learned enough information from working with Vader before and from ZED-7 on Polis Massa to likely connect the dots between the man she knew as Anakin and the machine before her as Vader, but Raffaele Ienco’s art seems to suggest she’s not totally certain and is interested to see how he answers. From the solicitations, it’s clear it’s not with his lightsaber, so I can’t wait to see where this goes.
This poor group of characters, the Revengers/Assassins plus Valance, get stuck in the middle of all the maneuvering and double-dealings, bait for Romodi to come where the Dawn will be to strike at him. There’s still not enough about these characters to connect them to readers, at least for me, so their plight here gave me some hopes a few more might be gone after this, but while they all survived thanks to Ochi, they fear Vader now instead of respect him, so they’re figuring things out. I’m still not totally clear on why Vader has picked Romodi to come after, beyond him and his forces striking a group of Amidalans, as mentioned last issue, so maybe that’s it…Vader’s dark heart has enough in him to care about their fates, considering how he failed Padme in the past? Either way, between the months for issues, I’m losing the plot a little bit but at least it’s been interesting.
The range Ienco displays this issue reminds me of why he’s been such a good artist for this series, and Alex Sinclair’s colors complement and fill out his vision, while Joe Caramagna’s lettering either adds to the chaos or lets a silent or big moment sit, unperturbed. Ienco stirs up a monster frenzy, as two new dangerous creatures of Naboo make themselves known, one looking like a blue dinosaur spider and other these teal-ish worms with horns, some very unique designs that are both creepy and fascinating. Caramanga’s SFX in the monster battle makes it feel even more chaotic than the swarm Ienco draws looks, with screeching and hissing from all the creatures filling up panels. Juxtapose that with the final page, the name Anakin Skywalker hanging literally in the air between Sabé and Vader, the green background highlight the imposing figure of Vader’s gaze down on Sabé and her wide stance showing she’s ready for any reaction he might have, with the details Ienco provides on her face, like I said earlier, hints she’s not even certain of what she’s saying but is eager to see how he responds, if her deduction is correct. One of my favorite panels is the corpse of the sando aqua monster, and while that might sound weird to say, it’s how imposingly large it looks, even dead, as the Imperial shuttle flies towards it, while the flock of birds circling its gaping maw, picking on its remains, a stark reminder of what it looks like when you cross Vader.
Here are a few other things:
- If you want to learn more about Sabé’s past and what she all knew about Anakin and Padme, then look no further than the Queen Trilogy, where it’s finale just dropped earlier this month: Queen’s Hope.
- The comics world is having some stability issues again that have brought out some delays, which I’ve been trying to keep up with in my solicitation posts. For more of the Darth Vader series, the next issue doesn’t drop until June 1 (originally supposed to be out in May), with issue #24 hitting June 15, but that might change as well. Hopefully these delays don’t get too out of hand like they did in 2020 or like IDW’s last year.
Darth Vader #22 (Vol. 3) has characters playing characters, Vader thinking he’s using everyone and Sabé feeling like she’s truly in the control of the situation. How well that goes for both of them remains to be seen but Sabé’s continued presence makes it worth sticking around to find out.
+ Sabé’s big question at the end
+ Ienco and team’s breadth of action and quiet
– Losing the plot/a little too convoluted for its own good
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 | #21