Star Wars: Darth Vader #1

[nate_abril96]

If I had to pick my favorite character in all of a fiction, it would be...



Superman! But if I had to pick my second favorite character it would be Darth Vader. Ever since I was a little kid Darth Vader was always my favorite character in all of Star Wars. I mean do I even need to explain why? He's Darth Vader! So as you can imagine, Star Wars: Darth Vader #1 was a must buy for me. Is it a worthy story for cinema's greatest villain? Let's find out.

The story picks up after the first arc in Marvel's current Star Wars series. Darth Vader is on Tattooine for a meeting with Jaba the Hutt, and also kills two of his guards for daring to ask him questions about what he's doing here. Cause that's just how Vader rolls. Anyways, Jaba notes that Vader is a day early.



Vader tells Jaba this is a personal matter, and that it will end to his personal satisfaction. Jaba tells Vader to not even bother with his Jedi mind tricks, and tries to lure Vader toward his trap door to the Rankor. Fortunately, Vader is no fool. Jaba asks him whether he is "brave or foolish?" Vader's response:

"Are you?"

Jaba then dispatches his guards to take on Vader, but Vader (naturally) makes quick work of them. Jaba ask Vader to not be hasty. Vader then responds that Jaba is a fool for assuming that he uses mind tricks. After all, mind tricks are not of the dark side...



The story then flashbacks to one day earlier, where the Emperor is confronting Vader over the destruction of the weapons factory from Jason Aaron's Star Wars. The Emperor notes that he is disappointed in his failure, and brings up the destruction of the Death Star. He states that without the Senate to maintain order, and the Death Star to force it, the Empire is drawing closer to anarchy. As punishment, the Emperor places Vader under the orders of Tagge (the man Vader force chocked in A New Hope), and gives him his orders to visit Jaba the Hutt for a partnership. As they enter Palpatine's office, Vader notes a mysterious man...



Vader then recalls the events of A New Hope and his confrontation with Luke Skywalker, specifically that Obi-Wan gave him Vader's lightsaber. Vader tells his master, "Nothing to trouble yourself with..."
The story picks back up in the deserts of Tattooine, where Vader is having a meeting with Jaba's best bounty hunter...



Vader then orders Fett's "Chewbacca" (named Black Krrsantan) to hunt down the Emperor's new partner. He wants to speak with him. Vader then orders them to start immediately, as he has been delayed on this planet long enough, with the next page revealing that he has murdered an entire tribe of Tusken Raiders.

The overall story is okay for the most part, but I feel like it's covering old ground. I was not too familiar with Dark Horse's Star Wars, so can someone explain to me if there was ever a story of Vader seeking Luke after the events of A New Hope? Besides that there were parts I enjoyed. I particularly liked Vader force choking Jaba, and noting that mind tricks are useless to him as he prefers "force." I also liked the scene of Vader punishing the commander from the first story arc of Aaron's Star Wars, with the Emperor not impressed as they're bad guys who do this on a daily basis. What I was not happy to see was Bobba Fett. Bobba Fett, to me, is the most overrated Star Wars character. Although I did like that he has his own "Chewbacca." I was also not a fan of the art. I will admit that there are parts where it looks decent and straight out of the movie, but the action scenes are where it suffers the most. It feels too stilted and staged, and does not feel very dynamic. Overall I still prefer Aaron's Star Wars, and its presentation of Vader (even if his voice is off sometimes). It gives him better scenes of him being evil. I'm starting to get the feeling that Vader only works if he's the villain of the story, instead of the central focus. I don't know that's just me. Who knows? Maybe my opinion would change over time. I hope so.

Comments

[q99]

Rebellion-era stories around the main characters tend to run together in my head after awhile.

This is why I was disappoint that SW moved to Marvel- it looks fine, but the same type of thing I've seen a fair amount of.

[sagrada]

That is a real problem with this "period" in this fiction. Everyone seems to want everyone to have met each other, to have had adventures together, to shrink the universe until it's basically the size of a small nightclub.

"Hey kids! What if Darth Vader and Jabba the Hut MET AT SOME POINT?!?" I just...it doesn't matter, it's massively trivial.

[q99]

Yea, the best rebellion era ones- or at least, I should say, the ones that most interest *me*- are the ones that branch out more. Show other figures in universe at the time, and such.

[obsidianwolf]

There have been loads and loads of stories about how Vader found out about Luke over the years but I guess since the old EU is no longer considered canon. This is the new official version unless they do a movie or TV Series covering this period.

[q99]

The current official line is that everything is equally official, which implies no more stuff-overwriting-stuff.

Which, of course, means that when it eventually does happen, we'll get a multileveled canon again ^^

[ozaline]

Vader's Quest is the one that pops out in my mind... perhaps I'll post some of it later.

[nate_abril96]

So covering old ground basically? Got it.

[icon_uk]

I loved Darth Vader in the original trilogy, he was everything a villain should be, and I hate to say it, but 1-3 did NOT do a good job of building up the backstory of the incredibly scary guy in 4 through 6.

Regrettably, I now can't look at Vader (even with James Earl Jones magnificent voice) without seeing the whiny, petulant git that Anakin was in 2 and 3 especially (and I have to lay a lot blame at that for Hadyn Christiansen's performance... yes, it's clunky dialogue that probably not even Olivier could make work, but even so, his acting pretty much defines "wooden". (I'm sure he's a lovely bloke and and but...))

In fairness, 6's ending was not too great either, since I never felt that his heel-turn and decision to kill the Emperor was, however noble, enough to wipe the slate clean of all his other atrocities, and they were MANY.

If I can read this and just pretend that the prequel trilogy never happened, I'll be happy.

[obsidianwolf]

I was always disappointed that the eu didn't go the route I Think they should have with force Ghost vader. (somehow I doubt the new films will either)

I mean sure destroying the Emperor earned him a spiritual redemption but the reason Obi Wan and Yoda stepped in (per Lucas explanation) and helped him retain his ability to act/communicate in the world was he'd have to spend a few decades making up for what he destroyed by helping them help and guide his kids as they and the others worked to rebuild what his selfishness screwed all up.

[ozaline]

I find The Clone Wars CG series did a lot to repair my image of Vader, he was frustrated with the status quo for reasons other than lust or being a spoiled brat, nd his big heart nd charism made you not want to see him turn.

There is also an old rule of fiction, "any crime is forgivable as long as your cool enough." Especially if you die doing the right thing.

[reveen]

Well it helps that the actor isn't being being fed terrible lines from a bad director in the show.

I heard that the Revenge of the Sith book by Matt Stover really improves on the prequel too.

[azure_flame_god003]

To say that the novel repaired Anakin is an understatement. It added in a lot of factors: sleep deprivation, a more manipulative Palpatine, and dealt with his insecurities in a way that he was constantly looking to silence his own sense of weakness and helplessness despite where that ultimately got him.

[icon_uk]

Oh the Clone Wars series was great, it set up Anakin as a charismatic character with depth and complexities and was awesome... it's still the notion that this was the same character who explained to his girlfriend about murdering a tribe of Sandpeople with all the passion and emotion of reading the 432rd straight page of the phone book that took some doing.

Or that the passionate, fiery young man, with a sense of humour was the same one who turned to the Dark Side with a emotional equivalent of a dull thud.

If we didn't have the movies and just had the series, I think we might have had a much more interesting story, with much more dynamic leads.

I also tend to link to this in such discussions, which is a hiding to nothing, but is well worth a look:

What if The Phatom Menace was GOOD

What if The Clone Wars was GOOD

[ozaline]

Yeah, basically I treat the two cartoons as the only prequels now.

In Hayden's defense, I think in other films like Jumper, and Life as a House he does a decent if not stellar job. Anyone can look bad with horrible writing, and bad direction. Natalie Portman, said some directors got the impression she couldn't act from Star Wars, but she already had an acclaimed film to fall back on.

[icon_uk]

Alas, I think my other exposures to Mr Christiansen's career have been "Vanishing on 7th Street", a movie where you find yourself wishing the shadow monsters all the luck in the world because these people are pretty horrible. and "Shattered Glass" where he portrays that journalist who faked most of the stories he ever submitted, but we never get a single clue as to why again proabbly in part because of the writing, but also because he displays more emotion at all.

Perhaps I need to see him in a romcom... has he done one of those?

[nate_abril96]

For some reason the prequels did not destroy my image of Darth Vader as it did a lot of people. Of course, maybe that's because the prequels came out when I was still a little kid, so I don't hate them as much as other people do (but I do recognize that they are not very good films). When I was a little kid I saw Anakin as the hero (I don't know why but I did) of the story. I remember being a little kid and having no idea that the prequels were actually prequels, so it was a big shock when somebody told me Anakin was Darth Vader when Episode II came out. Thank goodness they told me that, because I would have been really terrified watching Episode III.

Also, I agree with you about him killing the Emperor. I believe that it should have been a little more complicated than that, with all the other soldiers expressing their hate for Vader except for Luke at the end of Jedi. Vader has a lot to pay for, for what he has done.

Funny thing is, the "face turn to kill the Emperor"

[chortles81]

Didn't even seem to me like that much of a face turn... much less enough to counterbalance what he'd done as Vader, or even before that as Anakin Skywalker. For example, when the Republic forces were routed from a planet and there weren't enough transports for both the clones and the planet's pro-Republic loyalists... Anakin chose the clones and Force-choked any loyalists who tried to stow on, stranding them under Separatist occupation.

Then the Rebel Alliance in their ignorance of this incident picked Luke Skywalker to lead a would-be advisory group to said loyalists' anti-Imperial successors...

[nyadnar17]

Fett is one of the few non-Force using badasses in the entire Star Wars universe. If for nothing else I would love him for balancing out the tendency of Star Wars to make all non-force users second class citizens.

[reveen]

I don't know, I'd take the Rogues, the Wraiths. Or hell if we're going pure movie just Wedge and Lando over Fett any day.

[nyadnar17]

Pilots are a bit different since there are so few force using fighter ace's out there. That said where any of them allowed to beat a Jedi in battle? Comics, Movies, books, whatever. Did that ever happen?

[cainofdreaming]

Jagged Fel might have... but it's been so long since I read those particular comics that I don't really remember much of them.

Pilots-wise I don't recall

[chortles81]

But the old canon reason for Jango Fett being the clone template was because he'd downed a dark sider before Episode II.

[sagrada]

I'd love if there were only a slim handful of Force-users, and they were like wizards. People who were often far from civilization, spoke in riddles, and existed to help the non-powered heroes get on with their space-adventure either as distant antagonists or remote and obscure sages.

That would be a problem with Star Wars stories' ability to depict scale

[chortles81]

The "many" Jedi wouldn't have seemed so plentiful had the prequels and associated media not continually focused on them with non-Force-sensitives being relegated to "a day in the limelight" stories.

At least the canon revamp means that most of the depicted Order 66 survivors' stories aren't current-canon yet.

[night4345]

Compared to the number of people in the galaxy Force users are exceptionally rare. Even Pre-Clone Wars there's only over 10,000 jedi. It's so insignificant to more than 100 quadrillion lifeforms in 70 million star systems just in the Galactic Empire.
As Obi-Wan says: "You must remember that there are over a hundred thousand inhabited worlds in the Republic, and there are now only a few thousand of us. Billions of beings have never seen a Jedi. Millions have never even heard of our Order. Or of the Force. When we do appear, we can be killers, but also healers. Thank the Force for that."

[sagrada]

That's true, though too easily abused as an excuse to focus on the handful of name-character force-users. Superhumans are a vanishingly small fraction of the population in their worlds too, but they take up a disproportionate amount of space. Even in Star Wars comics alone(JUST the comics) Jedi and Sith take up a huge amount of narrative real estate. I wonder if that and the superhero comic dominance in America have something common?

Of course, several of the most important main characters in the movies used the Force, and they did decide a lot of what happened, but still...that was THAT story.

[night4345]

The Force is what makes Star Wars universe unique and the people that can destroy small armies and control minds should justifiably have a big part in the galaxy. It's not like there aren't books dealing with the non-Force users (the Han and Lando trilogies, the Tales series, Fett novels, Clone soldiers novels, and the X-Wing series not to mention most of the 'Force user books' have plenty of plot points and subplots dealing with things happening elsewhere to non-Force users).

[reveen]

Ah yes, one of many post-prequel "Darth Vader is still way cool guys. You don't even know" comics. God knows Dark Horse couldn't get enough of those.

[sagrada]

Original Poster, you do not even want to KNOW how long-running and vast the Star Wars comic line's "Darth Vader hunts Luke Skywalker" plot line was. It spanned fleets, armies, hilariously silly intrigue, the destruction of several planets, dozens of Jedi and like five trips to Tatooine.

I exagerrate, but yes, there has been a LOT of ink spilled over how much Darth Vader wanted to catch Luke Skywalker in the comics.

[cainofdreaming]

It also gave birth to perhaps the skeeviest character in the whole franchise - Prince Xizor. Eugh.

[sagrada]

Ah yes, Prince "What is this "con-sent" of which you speak?" His death was no loss to the franchise, and I'm sorry it took so long to correct the error of his existence.

[nate_abril96]

So I guess I opened a can of worms?

[sagrada]

No, it's just a really well-trodden part of the old EU, especially in the initial novels and comics where it was the most obvious route of drama. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, just for example, had Vader chasing Luke(well, mostly the Mind's Eye) as part of its central plot.

To add to what sagrada said

[chortles81]

It's also really common in original trilogy period-set fanfic.

[night4345]

We prefer force.
Except the whole point of Palpatine and the Sith's deception was because force was repeatedly shown not to work.

[nate_abril96]

Yeah, and jedi mind tricks sound like something an evil person would do. I mean how sick is someone manipulating your mind to get you to do what they want? I admit there are a few little errors in this comic, but as a fun little scene I enjoyed that immensely.

[sagrada]

Well mostly it's only been Good People who use them for small, single-purpose things like "don't get arrested by the Evil People cops" or "convincing The Crime Lord to release some of my pals so we can save the galaxy". Not really Evil stuff. The problem was when it started to get overused in the pre-quels as a way to get around really basic problems that didn't require it, like scamming a Sleezy Merchant with worthless Core Worlds money.

It wasn't exactly behavior-modification.

I actually like that line in the context of a post-prequels Vader

[chortles81]

With the unspoken idea, if his mentality is inherited from Anakin (a situation that I find often lacking in fanfics), that Vader might think "because force is honest." It rings true to a Vader who stemmed from the Anakin of the prequels and the Clone Wars...

[cainofdreaming]

You can still prefer something, even if it's not the best approach most of the time.