– Slight Spoiler Review –
We’re close to Halloween, though do we ever need an excuse for IDW’s annual fright-fest from writer Cavan Scott and artist Francesco Francavilla in what is being billed as the final installment of the Vader’s Castle series, Ghosts of Vader’s Castle picks up on last year’s surprise ending in its framing story while bringing the (fun) scares the series is well known for in a droid-zombie tale! Things are shaping up for a grand finale to the spook-tastic series!
At the end of Shadow of Vader’s Castle Vaneé survived the little Mustafarian’s explosives and a disembodied voice spured on Vaneé to rise up again and help bring Darth Vader back, teasing this year’s entry. Ghosts of Vader’s Castle has the series’ traditional framing story which picks up that thread, as the story begins with a haunting page of Vader’s Mustafar Castle, Vaneé speaking with the same voice from the last issue through a mystical green portal, reminiscent of the portal Vader opened thanks to Lord Momin when first designing and building the Castle (as seen in Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith’s “Fortress Vader”), though I’m wondering if it’s really Darth Vader speaking to his servant because last time the voice mentioned Vader so he would’ve been speaking in the third person, which doesn’t seem very Vader. Either way, it seems there’s a plan hatching regarding bringing back the Dark Lord, which maybe means we’re finally dealing with what the Acolytes of the Beyond were up to, and I’ll be curious what it would actually mean for Vader to return…whole, as a ghost, or a shade of his former self…or someone else, as I mentioned before? Vaneé and his machinations aren’t alone in the framing story this time, as Milo Graf, grandfather of Emil Graf (who was the main star of the backup stories in IDW’s Star Wars Adventures {Vol. 1}), alongside the family’s rusty and grumpy droid Crater at his side, are sifting through the ransacked remains of the Graf family library recently vacated by the Empire. Chatting with Lina Graf, the star of the opening Tales from Vader’s Castle, their convo fills in some details on the timeframe and reference her trips to Mustafar, but she ends the chat because she has to meet with General Syndulla. Then Milo tells Crater, aka us, not the traditional tales were used to, but rather a dream he’s been having; changing to the conceit of dreams adds a little freshness to the Vader’s Castle formula, even if it’s in the final entry, as it might allow for more grandiose and strange stories than we’ve gotten before. How Milo’s part of the framing story ties into Vaneé’s schemes remains to be seen, but the first hint comes in the surprise ending, which I won’t quite ruin here, but suffice to say it makes one wonder how or why Milo dreamt what he did.
In Milo’s dream, it’s centers on Anakin, Padme, Jar Jar, Threepio, and Artoo heading to an out of the way planet that’s gone dark but the Republic at large doesn’t seem to care about in the middle of the Clone Wars. As they investigate the abandoned town, devoid of any beings besides droids, they quickly run into the scary problems: the droids are possessed, almost as if zombies, though they can’t be killed! It leads to some fun sequences, from Anakin trying to destroy a zombie Threepio or Jar Jar trying to help by cutting off Anakin’s mechanical arm, that brought lots of laughter and few scary moments as well. I had a lot of fun with the zombie droid story, especially since it was a dream, as it doesn’t quite end like we’re used to the tales ending, clean and everything back to normal.
For the framing story, freaky master himself Francesco Francavilla returns and it’s worth it alone for the first page, the moody, overly spooky, and imposing view of Vader’s Castle on Mustafar, waves of lava crashing beneath it. I’ve always enjoyed his penciled work, as it looks like someone sketched it so frighteningly good right then and there, while the styling gives it a scratchy, frantic feel with some impermanence mixed in, as if it’s someone telling these scary tales in picture form but they could erase them and steal the stories away forever. The way Francavilla mirrors the opening page with the last one only adds to the sinister surprise and hinting deeply at their connection. As for the story set in the prequels, Megen Levens art and Charlie Kirchoff’s colors adds a delightfully spooky yet campy feeling to the zombie droids story, as while the faces and droids don’t differ much from the on-screen appearances, the slithering wires shooting out of the infected droids, allowing Threepio to repair himself, is both wild and entirely scary. The colors look weirdly washed though, especially compared to Francavilla’s vibrant but dark palette, so I’m wondering if this was on purpose and I’m missing the influence on some previous zombie content, or something else, but it’s not terribly distracting and doesn’t affect overall enjoyment of the fun tale. Shawn Lee provides lettering throughout, with one of my favorite SFX’s being Artoo’s switch from friendly to zombie, colors changing to mix with the off-color green used for all the infected droids. As always, it’s the art that makes these stories come to life and both teams succeed.
Here are a few other things:
- The Graf family is receiving quite the expansion throughout canon, as their involvement with the events that shape The High Republic era have recently started to come to life. Wish there had been a Crater appearance!
- Speaking of the High Republic, one of the many off-handed mentions to the era includes reference to the “Nameless Purge,” which is an Easter Egg with loaded potential after the events of Scott’s The Rising Storm.
- When Anakin’s name is first mentioned, it’s spelt Anikin, which messed with my mind for a moment since he’s technically shortened to Ani all the time, so I’m curious if this was a mistake on purpose or just an honest one.
- I loved that Editor Heather Antos referred to herself as Horrified Heather; great way to stick with the theme! I just hope she keeps editing Star Wars comics and these rumors about IDW losing the license don’t pan through.
Ghosts of Vader’s Castle #1 is a wonderfully spooky and fun start to what might be the last of the Vader’s Castle series. Halloween came early this year!
+ Dream retelling offers new lease on spooky tales
+ Framing story’s little surprise
+ Zombie droid dream was a lot of
– Washed out colors
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.
VADER’S CASTLE SERIES:
Shadow of Vader’s Castle (one-shot) | Return to Vader’s Castle (miniseries) | Tales from Vader’s Castle (miniseries)