– Spoiler Review –
Captured by Gardulla the Hutt, will the Supreme Leader of the First Order be tamed or unleashed? Find out in my review of Legacy of Vader #3!
Chained and tortured with electricity, Kylo Ren, the newly self-appointed Supreme Leader of the First Order, remains Gardulla the Hutt’s captive. He’s defiant, as one would suspect, yet when his belief he’s been held for days turns out to be false, as Gardulla claims it’s only been a few hours, things aren’t looking good for the new Supreme Leader. Gardulla’s little Force-sensitive Rock Huttlet friend cautions her about killing him, reminding her they were told only to break him, so while it didn’t seem totally clear last issue, I have no doubts now Vaneé, Darth Vader’s old attendant, helped facilitate Kylo’s capture. The why behind this is a giant, yet elusive question for now, as I couldn’t ascertain a hint one way or another how Vaneé feels when he finds out the results of Kylo’s captivity later in the issue; is he doing this on his own or is he working on behalf of someone, like Darth Sidious/Sith Eternal? Gardulla listening to the Rock Huttlet to go easy on Kylo sets a chain of events in motion, maybe as Vaneé intended and hoped, or maybe the opposite of what he was looking for, as she injects a hallucinogen into the chamber holding Kylo, prompting a vision of Darth Vader. Despite how little Kylo knew of Anakin Skywalker’s life last issue, which offers questions about how/why he’s not educated on the subject (like I was wondering in my previous review), the fanboy of his grandfather’s darker times spills out when Kylo watches Vader slice through some rebels. Vader reacts to the fanboy-ish way Kylo speaks to him, pointing out he did everything alone, and it’s enough for the young dark sider to latch onto, to use himself, and fuel his rage-filled escape, exploding the chamber he’s held in.
What follows is a very Vader-esque bit of revenge, but done in the Kylo way, where he brings down Gardulla and her Rock Huttlet friend. I appreciated the scene of General Hux’s response to Kylo’s orders and a subordinate’s concerns about them, as Hux knows either outcome will work in his favor: if Kylo dies in the bombardment on his location, then his problems are over, and if he lives, then at least he can’t face retribution for not following orders. While it’s not a direct interaction between the two, Charles Soule’s writing of their dynamic already makes this scene work so well. When Kylo calls Vaneé, the old attendant doesn’t give anything away regarding his part in Kylo’s capture and Kylo, if he suspects, doesn’t seem to suggest it either, but Vaneé does reveal the next step in their journey: Naboo! Given Naboo is all about Anakin and Padmé’s time together, aka very not being alone stuff, it seems like an odd choice since Kylo admitted this whole ordeal taught him he’s alone and he benefits from such “purity,” even though he did think back to Rey in the Throne Room scene from The Last Jedi during captivity. I’ll be intrigued to see how this all shakes out, learn more about Vaneé’s ultimate goals with Kylo, and how this will all build into the Kylo we see in The Rise of Skywalker.
It’s not totally clear how long of a hiatus he’ll have, but Luke Ross takes a break after this issue, so how about we dive into the goodies we got from him and the team of Nolan Woodard on colors and VC’s Joe Caramagna lettering! My favorite sequence kicks off once Kylo busts out of the torture chamber, as the artwork carries the storytelling with many moments where it reads more like showing than telling us the depth and breadth of Kylo’s violence in getting his revenge and killing the past Gardulla represents. After the shocking blues and darkness of the previous page as Kylo feeds off the electricity and explodes it outwards, the dusty Tatooine exterior, with pleasant blue skies and a few clouds, feels like a shock, a switch so sudden it doubles as a showcase of his might in this moment. He storms off into the sands, heading back to Gardulla, and on the next page he faces a canyon krayt dragon along his travels, but instead of showing us how he takes it down, the next image we focus on is Kylo wearing its hide as a poncho, brandishing its teeth as weapons, and using the new digs to take out some desert dwellers and take their comms. We don’t need to see how he takes down the dragon, we got some great action sequences in the first two issues anyways, and this makes his trek across the sands all the more impactful and his abilities all the more impressive feeling. The next showcase of this comes after the sequence on the Finalizer, where Hux and the Lieutenant debate Kylo’s orders, as we get a panel of Kylo rushing Gardulla’s fortress before we flip the page, which has Kylo exiting the fortress, lightsaber in hand, dragon poncho gone, and the dead littered outside, saying all that needs to be said about what he did inside. It’s punctuated by the Finalizer’s strike on the fortress, the explosion billowing in the background, and Caramagna’s first sound FX since Kylo’s screaming explosion in the torture chamber, making the whole sequence feel like a silent film to some degree, Kylo’s theme from the films now playing over his actions when you think back on it,
Here are a few other things:
- Much like how Tatooine seemed abandoned and forgotten, even the Boonta Eve Classic course in disarray, it looks like Naboo, at least where we saw Anakin and Padmé spend time together in Attack of the Clones, looks cracked, broken, and unkempt. Naboo was still a shining jewel in the time of the High Republic, even with a Nihil occupation, and while it suffered damage due to the Empire’s Operation: Cinder after the Battle of Endor, how and why have parts of it been left to decay like this would be interesting to learn.
- Maybe the little Rock Huttlet didn’t die and we’ll get to see them again, as I’m hoping to learn who and what the heck they were!
- Over the weekend after this publishing, we have Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025! I won’t be there (couldn’t make it work on multiple levels), but I’ll be updating the Manor with news at it comes in! There’s a Publishing Panel on Saturday, April 19, at 2:00pm JST, which is 12:00am CST on April 19 in the States. We could learn details about upcoming issues in Legacy of Vader there, we’ll see!
- We do know the next two issues will keep Kylo on Naboo, so we’ll see how much longer he’ll stay there either thanks to news from the panel or the solicitations for July next week!
Legacy of Vader #3 lets Kylo Ren take center stage and showhis own might as he works through his connection to the past and his desire to break free.
+ Fanboy learning a necessary lesson and exploding with his own power
+ Lovely sequences by art team telling us all we need to know about what we don’t see
– Mystery is interesting but too vague so far
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him and the website on Bluesky.