– Spoiler Review –
The handmaidens out to rescue one of their own have made a drastic choice to do so: join with Darth Vader. How will this partnership end? And is there a way out for them after the dust settles…or will they even want to leave? Found out in our review of Darth Vader #31 (Vol. 3).
The issue starts with one of the series’ trademarked glimpses into Darth Vader’s mind, this time showing the heartbreaking collapse of his relationship with Padmé when she comes to him on Mustafar. But this time…it goes differently and it’s clear this is how Vader must replay it in his head, how it should’ve gone, over and over again whenever he gets stuck thinking about it. Being around all of her handmaidens, often hard to decipher from Padmé herself due to their looks and mindsets, is trudging up memories and thoughts like this. At the end of his thoughts, as he relives how it really went, he claims this time it’ll be different and the rest of the issue is him, in a somewhat complicated manner, doing his best to bring about a different outcome than what happened with Padmé on Mustafar. It tells us how much he still believes everything he said then, how confident and assured he was of his power and his ability to convince his wife, that he’s going to try again 5 times over with all the remaining handmaidens. He’s had far more time with Sabé, hence why she’s chosen to team up with him time and time again now, so he’s forced to initiate a dark side crash course for Rabé, Dormé, Eirtaé, and Saché by putting them in sticky situations to both prove their own strength to themselves…and how useful he could be on their side.
Like Palpatine did to him, Vader, with the help of Sly Moore* for some reason, presents each handmaiden with what they’ve desired…and tells them he’s the only one who can truly provide it for them. I appreciated this moment a lot simply because it slowed down for one moment and let us actually get to know the handmaidens a smidgen, because not everyone who reads these comics have read books like Queen’s Shadow to get to know them, while it finally allowed the series to acknowledge the queer relationship between Saché and Eirtaé, which I was worried would go the whole comic without ever being mentioned or hinted at. As great as it was to learn more about them, Vader simplifies their desires to be about safety or power, the power to remain safe and protect those they care about, which he says only he can provide. They want him to show them he’s good for it and Jul Tambor’s forces, who has captured Sabé and is trying to kill Vader for what he did to his family, conveniently strikes…so he pushed them out to deal with the army alone at first. They do a good enough job clearing out Jul’s droid army, but it’s a difficult fight without Vader’s might, especially since there are still more ahead about to attack an innocent-filled village. Vader claims this is their weakness, as Padme turned him down over similar concerns, with Dormé realizes he means to show how powerful they will be combined by going into battle to save these people with them. He definitely assists, but he’s Vader and he’s got a far more willing handmaiden to save first: Sabe, so he leaves them to be a distraction as he moves in on Jul’s location.
After all this talk from Jul he knows how to defeat Vader, it looks like he might actually have the means to do it, sending hundreds of little Gee-Nineties out of the bigger one to shock Vader, bringing the Sith Lord to his knees. But it doesn’t last long, not because of Vader’s doing, but because the handmaidens have caught up and bring the drone swarm to an end so they can get through to save Sabé. Jul flees of course, so it was a little disappointing for him to get away and not actually show off any other of his methods beyond this semi-productive one, but it leaves Vader to have his drama on with the handmaidens. Freeing Sabé as Vader recovers, the handmaidens haven’t been convinced joining Vader will do them any good since he sort of used them to get to Jul, so they push for her to join them again, leave Vader behind. He doesn’t want this to go like it did on Mustafar, as he stated from the opening of this issue, so he strikes out, holding the other handmaidens aloft in a chokehold, offering his hand for her to join him. The fact we are unsure of Sabé’s choice, even despite her negating Vader’s orders and not killing Jul, is either a great show of Vader’s work on her or her commitment to seeing whatever plan she has in mind for him…and I’m at least intrigued to see where this goes.
After some great issues by Luke Ross and team, Ibraim Roberson takes over on art, joining colorist Federico Blee and letterer Joe Caramagna. Roberson’s work feels like a halfway point between Ross and the series’ usual regular Raffaele Ienco, so it fits in really well what’s come before while being distinct in several ways. I really liked the atmospheric effects Roberson brings to the table, like the handmaidens kicking up so much dust in their battle with the droids they get lost in the dust, their fates unknown, and somehow the dust feels like it hanging over the panel, obscuring the view, not that it is part of the panel, while later Jul gleefully looking at his drone swarm’s electrifying debut has a sense of reflection and depth that almost makes it jump out of the panel. Blee’s colors really help these panels, the distinct outfits for each handmaiden helping us tell them apart, the bright color to the droids attacking, consumed by the smoky greys and browns, only shadows now with a slightly darker coloring, and then the sudden jolt of their vibrant appearances again accentuates their ability to clear the fog of war; while the bright jolts of electricity, overwhelming in the panel with Vader being shocked, create a reflective effect in the panel with the closeup of Jul watching in glee as his plans are working. A full page panel is my favorite of the issue and a lot of it comes from Caramagna’s placement of Vader’s continued box word bubble, way off in the upper right, making his statement about showing them all they need to see from him so simple and matter of fact, compared to the absolute chaos unfolding the page below it. Vader and the handmaidens ride speeder bikes, Vader high above them, slicing into a Clone Wars era LAAT carrying Jul’s droids instead of clones, the handmaidens dodging the insane amount of fire from the giant droid army marching their way. The scale of the fight against them is immense and, like I said, his words way off at the top make it seem like it’s no big deal what he’s about to do. One of my other favorite images from the team is in the very beginning, as Anakin is shouting in rage, the actual events of Mustafar playing out around him, the pieces of Vader’s suit materializing on him, covering him up, only adding to Padmé’s final words to him about how he’s going down a path she cannot follow.
Here are a few other things:
- *Last we saw Sly Moore was 10 issues ago, revealed to be a Crimson Dawn agent, having joined at some point, conspiring with Sabé to help make Vader contribute chaos to the galaxy in the guise of the order he so cherishes. Is she…still a Dawn agent? Is she still aligned with Sabé? Did I forget she was even in this series again? I can at least answer that last question, though the others will help make sense of the why when, and if, they are answered.
- This on-going series, at least hitting issue #36 later this year according to writer Greg Pak, is the longest Vader run yet. I discussed the pros and cons of it in my 2022 Star Wars comics year-in-review, and the option of going without more Vader in the comics for awhile…and then they announced the upcoming miniseries, Darth Vader: Black, White & Red. It’s intriguing enough concept and brings an interesting suite of creatives…but it’s still more Vader.
- As you can see above, the Black History Month variant cover for the series features Jannah from The Rise of Skywalker, who I hope we see more of sometime in the future. And in March, the Women’s History Month variant will feature, surprise surprise, Sabé!.
Darth Vader #31 (Vol. 3) see the fight for Sabe’s soul reach its apex as the handmaidens and Vader plead their cases.
+ Vader offering his hand again…
+ Latest art team is another win!!
– Jul just kinda cutting and running
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 — Crimson Reign: #18 | #19 | #20 | #21 | #22 — The Shadow’s Shadow: #23 | #24 | #25 | #26 | #27 — Return of the Handmaidens: #28 | #29 | #30