– Spoiler Review –
After Doctor Aphra showed Darth Vader a way to control his sudden outbursts from the Force, a group of droids with revenge on the mind jumped the Sith Lord, leading to a winding, humorous Darth Vader #36 (Vol. 3).
I was thoroughly confused about the appearance of all the droids at the end of last issue, yet curious to see what the situation was…and the answer turns out to be both rather simple and yet very complex. After a bunch of issues largely setting their sights on the serious story with Sabé, these two issues combined are a great little palette cleanser ahead of the drama about to be stirred up by the upcoming Dark Droids crossover. Doctor Aphra is always a true delight and pairing her with Ochi gives her someone just as irreverent for the galaxy as she is and leads to tons of laughs, though the make up of Darth Vader #36 (Vol. 3), with its winding story bouncing between past and present, was such a welcomed change of pace that altogether it led to one of my favorite issues of the series. The issue starts with a flashback to Gee-Ninety, the big ball droid who has been against Vader, in his employ, and against him again over a chunk of this series, being put back together by a group of droids determined to take revenge on Vader for killing them in the past. The group is joined by murder-aficionados Triple-Zero and Bee Tee, who previously starred in Vader’s first series alongside Aphra’s debut and have been on and off again problems for the good doctor ever since, while ZED-7, who brought some great levity to the early issues of Vol. 3 and later fell under Sabé’s employ, is also somehow apart of the droid pact against Vader. The explanation for his presence, which Gee-Ninety is already concerned about, gets a little convoluted, and that’s just the beginning of this delightfully fun story. As the first part of the droid’s attack plays out against Vader, we jump back to planning a few weeks back to learn their next steps, and then see it play out in the present. The jumps back and forth allow for surprises and humor, and while a double-cross seemed inevitable, this structure helps keep readers off balance for when it’ll happen, resulting in a nice little surprise after so many well-thought-out ideas by the droids. ZED-7 was really working for Vader and the Empire while Triple-Zero and Bee Tee choose the winning side, because of course they do, resulting in a triumphant Vader with a new droid army at his beck and call. While this looks to make Vader formidable on his own, especially with the Zaly Shield to help direct his Force outbursts, it’s absolutely poor timing for the Sith Lord, as a Scourge, which he was totally warned about, is set to come for all things mechanical in the Dark Droids crossover starting next month.
As I mentioned earlier, Aphra and Ochi make for good comedy which writer Greg Pak delivers on, while it was interesting to see both of their reasonings for sticking by or fleeing from Vader. She slinks away during the droid attack, and so too do Triple-Zero and Bee Tee, not wanting to get sliced up by Vader again or do his bidding. Ochi mentions how Luke Skywalker won’t be able to defeat Vader and therefore not protect Aphra against the Sith Lord, which gives us the background for their adventures together in her series, though this reasoning was revealed in Doctor Aphra #33 (Vol. 2) just last month. Having Aphra, Trip, and Bee Tee all together again in a Vader series was neat to see after all these years, honoring where they all started 8 years ago, but it wasn’t this issue’s only nod to Vader’s comic past. One of the droids fighting against Vader was Arex, a Jedi training droid who was stationed with Jedi Master Kirak Infil’a while he took the Barash Vow, whom Vader destroyed and used to mend his broken suit, as seen in Charles Soule’s Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith series! It was nice to see this series honor all that’s come before in these little ways here, especially as, besides another miniseries or something, this will likely be the last Vader on-going (or at least, we can hope).
With droids looking to take a more prominent position in the comics thanks to the coming crossover, Raffaele Ienco, alongside colorist Federico Blee and letterer Joe Caramagna, showcase how they’ll be one to beat with showing their plight. There are A LOT of droids in this issue, many drawn by Ienco before, from the Droid Crush leader, Gee-Ninety, and some of the mishmashed droids, but Trip and Bee Tee are new. Regardless if they are new or old, Ienco provides great personality, be it ZED’s posture and head tilts, the little lines around Gee-Ninety’s head as it moves in surprise or anger plus the sharp and scary way his pincer is shown off grabbing ZED, to the creepy and unnerving energy of Triple Zero showing off his torture implements or revealing his true and dark nature as he switches sides. I particularly liked how Blee’s coloring for Vader and Trip is rather similar, as they are the same color after all, and the way he differentiates parts of Vader’s suit/Trip’s plating the same way sort of makes Vader look more machine than man in this issue, and it gives a deadlier edge to Trip, especially as Vader decimates every move the droids attempt. Ienco and team provide an extra edge to the issue’s humor and surprises, with a standout joke early being the Droid Crush speaker pointing out how replacement parts are never as balanced as the original and a B-1 Battle droid, head slightly hung down, says, “Tell me about it,” and we can see it has a giant B-2 droid’s arm on one side, looking comically large on it, and with Caramagna’s lower word bubble, I could practically hear their typical voice from the movies and games. When Vader turns Arek’s control over his suit around, somehow taking over the droid and turning it against its fellow fighters, as it’s swinging and attacking its friends, the panel of its betrayal is off-kilter, breaking at the edges, as if the droids’ fight against Vader is over and there’s no coming back…and a few short panels later it’s revealed how this was all part of Vader’s plan.
and gives the issue’s humor and surprises that extra edge
Here are a few other things:
- I’m splitting hairs and yelling at clouds here, but I didn’t like how the opening crawl said Vader tracked Aphra down to help him get the shield, and while technically he did come to her for help, she was the one who told him about it in the first place and this insinuates he already knew about it. Like I said, nothing major, but always curious why things get turned around like that in these crawls sometimes.
- Ochi called Aphra a librarian and ZED correcting him was gold, both because it shows how little Ochi cares and gives Aphra an added sense of importance in the galaxy.
- A plan to take down Vader through overriding his suit somehow has been quite a recurring theme, be it Dr. Cylo’s attempt in the 2015 Vader series, the main story of the Darth Vader: Black, White & Red miniseries (which I will review the final two issues of together later this month), and now here with Arex’s plan; doesn’t everyone know you have to go through his heart??!!!! It’s like they all needed to watch Return of the Jedi or something!
Darth Vader #36 (Vol. 3) continues an entertaining deviation for one of the series’ best thanks to a fun structure and great character appearances.
+ Loved the structure to help build up surprises and humor
+ Art gives droid war and comedy plenty of extra energy
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: #1-5 — Into the Fire: #6-11 — War of the Bounty Hunters: #12-17 — Crimson Reign: #18-22 — The Shadow’s Shadow: #23-27 — Return of the Handmaidens: #28-32 — Unbound Force: #33 | #34 | #35