– Spoiler Review –
After not quite proving itself necessary or distinct, with stories often feeling much the same to showcase the titular Sith Lord’s might, I took a break and decided to review the final two issues of Darth Vader: Black, White & Red together, as one thing was clear after it ended: while the art was often great and outstanding, more Vader was not what we or this series needed.
“Hard Shutdown Part 3/4” Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Leonard Kirk, Inks by Mark Morales for Issue #4, Colors by Romulo Fajardo Jr., Lettering Throughout by Joe Caramagna
At the end of part 4 of “Hard Shutdown,” I didn’t feel like it warranted being the only tale to last all four issues, as its similar outcome to most of all the other Vader power fantasies throughout the miniseries and its increasingly less unique conflict didn’t quite make the stretch. All lumped together, “Tale” had a great start, using a fan theory for a bit of a surprise (though it’s not known if writers/editors knew it was only a theory) and a character having the ability to override Vader’s suit, but without following up on its fan theory thread and it unable to escape the familiarity of Vader’s previous fight against someone taking over his suit in the first Vader on-going, its wind left its sails too quickly. I enjoyed the Rogue One hallway scene with Vader, though appreciate its brevity and sparing usage even more, so closed in with a bunch of other stories showcasing Vader’s frightening control of the Force via his anger and hatred, his breakout antics in the final two issues of this tale didn’t have as much impact. At least Vader let Cyn live if only to kill him in a far more gruesome way than with the swipe of a lightsaber blade, giving Jason Aaron a chance to provide a quote along the lines of his work in Vader Down, but it still left me more with a shrug than any more appreciation of Vader and his might and/or his terrifying control of the Force thanks to his boiling embracing of anger and hate. One thing I said in previous reviews about this entire miniseries rings even more true now that it’s over: we’re at a Vader saturation point, especially in the comics, with stories like this.
Between issues #3 & #4, most of my problems with being able to discern what’s going on in some panels has been mitigated, as issue #3 doesn’t feature as many characters and Morales’ work in issue #4 adds a little more clarity. Either option, the way Cyn is drawn continues to be a highlight, as his segmented face is a constant reminder of why he’s here and why he’s fighting, while Fajardo Jr.’s choices on when to bask him in red or black instead of white fit with his anger over watching his plans fall apart. Vader in more white than normal in the final panels highlights how almost unscathed he is from the entire encounter, while the deadly little crabs in red are menacing as they climb their way towards a fresh meal.
“Annihilated” Written by Daniel Warren Johnson
Johnson’s artwork is the real draw for this story, as Vader’s systematic destruction of a Rebellion squadron and their transport ship has a very visceral, overstated style. I quite enjoyed the exaggerations, as it helped make a moment hit later in the story: when Vader has the transport shuttle come crashing down into the Rebel’s ranks on the ground, it’s a giant, tumbling carcass, red SFX for its death tumble to the ground crashing through the white clouds, the little troopers on the ground like small toys about to be crushed by it, while the next panel switches from the white background to an overwhelming black, the red SFX still piercing the sky, followed by the next panel where a small, little Vader still stands in the dust. He’s so small, though expanded in a chunky sort of way, like a statue, unmoving and unstoppable, but it shows how much size matters not because he helped bring such a big ship down. Vader’s final swing of his blade is like a quick scribble across the page, a flowing swing of the lightsaber, like the final move in a samurai sword fight, efficient and deadly.
“Diplomatic Immunity” Written by Marc Bernardin, Art by Stefano Raffaele, Colors by Andres Mossa
Story-wise, this was my favorite of the entire miniseries, as Bernardin focuses on a character in Vader’s shadow and we see through her eyes his might and terrible potential, allowing us to understand why she’d turn from Rebel spy to double agent if only to save her family. It’s not as outright haunting as Peach Momoko’s work in the first issue, but it still conveys a building sense of terror over his might and what she’s up against, so when he makes the smallest of gestures of what he can do to her and take from her, Lieutenant Sulaco sees no other choice.
Raffaele’s artwork showcases how little Vader has to do to bring down his enemies, be it the focus on his glove reaching out to the wall of rebel soldiers attacking them in one panel and him closing his fist and said wall crumbles in the next or how casually he walks and gestures towards a giant building in the distance and in the next panel it’s crumbled to the ground. These moments serve to make it clear how much restraint he’s using when he chokes Sulaco outside her family’s home, that if he really wanted to, she would be dead, so him sparing her says a lot to her about what to do next. Mossa’s colors, who it’s nice to see back after his time on the Poe Dameron run, play with the limits of the series very well, the red saturating panels where he commands the Force to destroy something, and later in the full panel look at Vader, the blade is glowing red, Vader all black behind it, and this overwhelming usage of color where most panels have been white gives us more of Sulaco’s POV of how unavoidable his might and power are.
“The Inhabitant” Written by Steve Orlando, Art by Paul Davidson
Falling just under “Diplomatic Impunity” in regards to story, I liked Steve Orlando’s script as it also took a different approach than some of the other stories by revealing the monster Vader must face was a simple organism that snaked its way into his brain. While there are still moments of Vader’s might shown within the vision this organism creates to destroy Vader from inside, which feel like any other story, that this is all inside his mind, using what this thing thinks he fears and feeding on it like fuel, all while he hangs rather helpless in his bacta tank, differentiates this show of might enough to keep it interesting; Mind over matter and all that! Plus, I like the idea of something so small getting so close to tearing him down, and it’s something now I’m curious to see who else it’s taken down over the years.
Paul Davidson’s creation, manifestation of the Ghymnon microscopic creature causing him to hallucinate, is a towering behemoth that looks to me like a mix of the xenomorph from the Alien franchise and like something from Fifth Element, and it’s very spiky, sinuous, hulking being that feels more like a virus than an actual creature. His sparing usage of red is rather excellent, using the white and blacks in a way that feels just like it hasn’t received colors yet, and so the reds are far more pronounced, like when Vader gets thrown in the spewing lava or comes out of it, dripping in it, slicing through the creature. When we cut back to the real world, outside of Vader’s mind, the way it’s so small, this little amoeba thing swimming in the bacta with him, is such a striking switch, as it’s now the one in red but seemingly way less harmless than Vader was when he was in red.
“Return to Hoth” Written by Frank Tieri, Danny Earls
I’ve long since thought, even after the special edition inclusion of more footage of the creature, Luke Skywalker wasn’t in that much peril from the wampa. Tieri’s conceit to get Vader to Hoth isn’t much, but having him battling a group of wampas shows how much I’ve come to underestimate these creatures, which injured him quickly and hound him relentlessly like he typically does to his foes. It was nice to have that change of pace, he’s the one backed into a corner from a relentless beast, and his ultimate victory nearly takes at the cost of his life, so it shows how big of a threat they were and how he, as unstoppable as this series has tried to hammer one, can be brought low even if it’s not Obi-Wan Kenobi or Ahsoka Tano.
One of my favorite things about the art by Danny Earls was his constant panel breaking, whether it’s Vader’s blade poking through them or cutting into another one, as it often linked up to him cutting off a wampa’s arm or stabbing it with his blade. It gave a sense of effort he’s exerting to overcome the onslaught of wampas, the might he uses to make a deadly strike, so when he keels over and falls over the edge of downed AT-AT he was using as shelter, readers can understand why, between the broken breathing apparatus and his effort, he would collapse. Earls’ work with the color scheme was also one of the better ones, as the sky often being red gave Vader’s flight from the wampas a frightening feeling, like violence hung in the air, but otherwise he used the color rather sparingly, so when it did show up outside of the sky in panels, it had greater impact, my favorite being when Vader’s locked himself in the AT-AT and the wampas are bounding outside, trying to come in, as it adds an ominous tone to the scene.
By the end of Darth Vader: Black, White & Red, I was most impressed with how artists worked within the constraints of the color scheme and was left curious what more in this style could look like with, well, any other character. Imagine this for Kylo Ren, a whole issue on Emperor Palpatine, Maul would almost be the most fitting, Count Dooku could have some memorable moments, while even Director Krennic could be a source of interest for more. I’d like to see the concept back, and while maybe Vader was the safest bet (even though Maul was right there) to ensure it could be feasible to revisit the idea, focusing on him just ended up feeling like more of the same and stole the art’s thunder at times.
+ “Diplomatic Impunity” & “The Inhabitant” offering something different
+ Plenty of awesome art and using the series’ limitations to their advantage
– Vader saturation point has popped
– Main story didn’t quite earn its special status
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.