Darth Vader in Jabba's Palace

Impressive !....most impressive 

see details here.

Darth Vader Comic Book 1 to 6 - Review

Today I would like to write about something really stunning : 

The MARVEL StarWars comic book . DARTH VADER. 

This is something I was really dreaming of: see the evolutions how the most iconic villain of all times. 

The comic scenario is from Kieron Gillen (Young Avengers, Iron Man) and the drawings are from Salvador Larocca (various X-Men series and Iron Man).

I read the french edition "DARK VADOR TOME 1" (I am definitely sorry for the deformed name....) that includes albums 1 to 6 of the US edition Darth Vader (2015).

The story takes place between the battle of Yavin and the battle of Hoth. As a consequence in the opening Darth Vader is found under extremely high pressure from the emperor that considers him the unique responsible of the Yavin disaster. Now Vader has to gain again trust from his mighty master. Darth Sidius reduces him has a "weapon" of the admiral Tage (actually the one that Vader force shocks on board of the Death Star...). Rapidly we follow the dark lord in his own parallel plans and it is so brilliant ! His main scope is to know who is the boy that destroyed the death star and how to find him. 

Now some interesting aspects : first of all, it is a new opportunity to see Darth Vader is action. And we can find what can see in the Episodes 4 to 6 : very rigid, short and precise sentences,  no mercy and a simple and efficient brutality. Considering is return on screen in Star Wars Rebels, fan are really happy to see him so often !

... but actually the "worst villain of the galaxy" is far from being alone and we discover other very bad characters that could be even worse than him ! (more on Tome 2) 

Secondly, the drawing and staging quality are so good that you can really feel being part of the scene! (I found myself thinking of the breath and the deep voice of Vader while reading his lines).

I really like also that the books are full of references to the past movies including also Anakin previous life. It gives a new dimension that even before Luke helps him to come back to the light, Anakin is not completely dead inside him and he recalls a lot of his past. Moreover the comic is using a lot of the prequels and the clone wars and this is a good sign for me that prequels are finally accepted.

Off course, the book is full of the dark side : hate, betrayal,  selfishness, envy... ... everything that is contrary to what you will find in the other Starwars books or movie or TV shows that are mostly focused on heroes of good. So this comic is definitely expanding the universe of the dark side of Star Wars. It is also deeply explaining the very difficult, and always at risk, relationship between Sith master and apprentice.

A further example of the fact that this comic shows the bad side, is related to the 2 Droids that are part of the "crew" of Darth Vader secrets activities : a humanoid droid and an astromec that are looking similar to C3PO and R2 but they are extremely violent and sadistic ! 

Last but not least, we are introduced with Asphra : the Archeologist, droid and weapon expert. This is new job in the StarWars world. She is a girl with unknown past that seeks the galaxy to find bad stuff like mass destruct weapons or dangerous droid IA. The relation with Vader is ok till he has use of her and she knows that her life is always in danger. Vader will not hesitate to kill her or let her being killed if he sees the need.... I do not know yet if we can make a parallel to the relationship Anakin-Ashoka but I think it will turned out to be exactly the opposite of it. 

Off course, a limit of the series is that Darth Vader cannot die but for sure the "game of thrown" he is playing with other Empire bad guys and even with the Emperor is very very interesting.

Aftermath book, A journey to Starwars the Force awakens, review

Aftermath, written by Chuck Wendig

The book in conical and the cover announces a “journey to” Ep VII and this clearly why I was interested in reading it.

It is the first book of the Aftermath Trilogy : Aftermath, Aftermath: Life’s Debt, Aftermath: Empire’s End (July/2017)

Scenario takes place just after the battle of ENDOR in a galaxy in chaos between the reminiscence of the fallen Empire and the birth of the NEW REPUBLIC and crime syndicates trying to exploit the situation.

*** warning : Spoiler inside ***

My expectation of this Trilogy is to bring clues of the raise of the First Order and Snoke, the choice of Leia to turn back to rebellion instead of being a politicians of the new senate and last but not least the story of Luke trying to start a new Jedi order. I am even opening to here about Jakku battle and characters!

Well, nothing about this ! Or better said, not yet.

The story is introducing new characters that are interesting due to the fact that most of them are connected by battle of Endor:

• Norra: A rebel pilot that flew inside the Death star 2 during the destruction
• Jas: A bounty hunter present on the Endor moon
• Sinjir: An Empire Officier present during the battle on the Endor moon
• + a kid, a crazy droid and a rebel special force fighter.
• Old characters like Wedge Antilles and Admiral Ackbar have secondary roles.

Interesting to notice that No force Sensitive’s are present.

Then we also discover new Imperial high ranking officers (Moff, Admiral, Emperor adviser…) that are making a meeting in order to try to decide the way the remaining forces of the Empire have to be reorganized and what should be strategy.

Last key character is kept in shadow: The Operator. This book nearly just refers to him with very few details at that point. At this point no link between the Operator and Snoke can be established.

The whole story is linked to this meeting and the main action takes place only in one location.

In order to widen the story the author has created “interludes” chapters that are describing facts of the fall of the Empire and the start of the New Senate of the republic. Mon Mothma is nominated supreme chancellor and the politics has a clear way of stopping the war by dramatically reduce the army forces and seek for peace by use of the democracy. This is a good link to the EPVII that introduces Leia as the only one taking serious the First Order menace in a Republic that is unable to counteract to the threat.  An other link is provided by a description of some smugglers sealing Darth Vader light Saber to some unidentified characters (Knights of Ren?). This is putting some bases of the story of the famous saber (I am talking of this saber : here)

The story line is extremely full of action and fights… and to my mind there are not enough pauses to reflect on the characters and story è this is a key missing fact that is a major aspect needed in star wars. Moreover every story needs the conspiracy dimension, but it is not in the center of the story. Indeed, only the last lines are opening the whole story and we discover what is really behind the famous Imperial meeting (I will not make spoiler).

An other aspect of the action scenes is that there are many KILLS that are not really necessary. It shocked me a bit that some storm-troopers (by the way quite inefficient) are just exterminated by the rebels with no real need. This is not really the “light side” way of the war.

The overall model is very similar to StarWars Rebels (TV show): New characters with special abilities are forming a crew that helps fighting the Empire.

So overall I did not like the book very much but as a fan I will for sure read the continuing in order to get more information on the story, the characters and the larger plot.

Give me your comments. See you after the next book.

May the 4th be with you