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.
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