SWNN REVIEW: Marvel’s Star Wars: #14 Vader Down Part 5

sw15coverWe are very near the end of the Vader Down event, and it has not disappointed.  This week we have been given the final two issues of the battle unfolding on Vrogas Vas.  The story by titular writer Jason Aaron and Darth Vader writer Kieron Gillen has not slowed down to let us catch our collective breath.  This penultimate issue is no exception.

 

When we last left Darth Vader, he was in the middle of talking about killing Princess Leia.  Then, a Star Destroyer, a bunch of Stormtroopers, and Mon Calamari cyborg Commander Karbin showed up to crash the party.  Looks like they weren’t coming in as reinforcements.

sw15aThat’s right!  Karbin is movin’ on up.  I’m hoping Vader will bring back a little bit more of his…um…groove that we saw in the earlier issues.  And by groove, I mean Darth Vader doesn’t take shit from anyone.  He doesn’t take it from nebbish inspectors, Moffs, and certainly not a robot with a fish for a head.  I suspect Karbin is barking up the wrong tree here, because Vader’s had a pretty rough day and does not seem like he’s going to take shit.  No matter how many lightsabers they have…

sw14bOh, hello.  Remind you guys of anyone?  If there’s anything that Grievous taught us it’s that the number of lightsabers you have does not matter when you know how to use one.  Quality over quantity, but it’s nice to see the writers and artists having a little fun here.  Let’s leave that for the moment and hop on over to the cover story of this issue…a Wookie fight.

sw14cBlack Krrsantan is not laying down for anyone.  I’ll admit, the pages devoted to this Wookie fight are pretty silly and over the top.  After the Chewbacca series I think all us Star Wars comic readers are a little burnout on large lettering that consumes most of the vertical or horizontal perimeters with Wookie-speak.  I wish Jason Aaron and Kieron Gillen could have filled the number of frames devoted to this senseless beatdown of fur with something of a little more substance.  It doesn’t help that the artwork in this issue is some of the more washed out in the series.

sw14dSince The Force Awakens waltzed itself into the Highest Grossing Film of All Time-ville, I’m going to assume all of you reading know where we find Luke Skywalker in that film.  If you have not seen the film yet, stop reading now because I’m going to talk about it.  I’ll fill the gap with one more picture before we go there, just in case.  If you are an SW fan that has not gotten to see The Force Awakens, please get yourself to a theater and do it soon, because I think these spoiler warnings for that film are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

sw14eLuke has been hanging around this Jedi Temple.  It appears to be an ancient one, perhaps not as ancient as the presumed FIRST Jedi Temple he occupies later in life, but one that has been vacant for some time.  It’s pretty cool to see Luke communing with Obi-Wan about the journal entries he’s been reading.  I don’t want to get too far off the topic here, but it looks like the next issue in this titular series will be another Obi-Wan interlude, and I can’t get enough of it.  Obi-Wan just popped up here to tell Luke that, despite it being great he’s hanging around a Jedi Temple, he may be in over his head.

sw14fStormtroopers have tracked Luke to the temple.  Skywalker is under siege, but little does he know, two unlikely allies in the form of sadistic droids Triple Zero and Beetee, are waiting in the wings.  You can see here that Beetee is doing his thing, taking apart troopers left and right to make sure Vader’s prize, and Aphra’s key to getting back on the Sith Lord’s good side, is kept alive and unharmed.

sw14gYes, Darth Vader, truer words have rarely been spoken.  It’s nice to see that Vader brought his lightsaber to a lightsaber fight.  Pretty much all that thing attached to his belt has been doing the last few issues is stabbing Rebel scum and ricocheting blaster bolts.  Commander Karbin looks as if he is about to learn that cyborgs aren’t always the most reliable ones to send in against a Sith Lord.

sw14hHere’s where I’m a little confused.  Just how big is this Jedi Temple on Vrogas Vas?  The little bit of Anakin that lives inside the walking tomb of himself hears voices from the past calling out to him.  The first two, spoken by the late and great Qui-Gon Jinn, were never directly said to Anakin.  It’s interesting that echoes of the past can call out to the Force-sensitive being they relate to.  I imagine we are going to be learning a lot more of what it is to become one with the Force or how Force-sensitive beings experience moments of the past.

sw14iKardin lives, and all the principal characters are left with their fates hanging in the balance.  I included this frame as the wrap-up to this review because, I dunno, it’s pretty cool.  Again, the weakest point of this issue is the pixelated looking art.  I’ve become less and less crazy about the art by Mike Deodato and Frank Martin Jr.  It’s not terrible, but certainly doesn’t hold up to some of the other amazing art we SW fans are being spoiled with in the comic universe.

The Darth Vader wrap-up, Part 6, is out today as well.  Fellow reviewer Hard Case will be covering that, but I’m going to assume if you purchased this issue, you picked that one up as well.  This issue does a nice job of setting up the events that follow in that issue, but really doesn’t standout on it’s own.  There’s nothing bad about it.  It serves it’s purpose as a page-turner and I guarantee you that you will immediately jump to the next issue once you finish this one.

In case you are just tuning into the Vader Down event, here’s a breakdown of where you need to start and end below.  It’s been a great ride and I can’t wait to see the next event Marvel has in store for us.  Oh yeah, and the next Star Wars, #15, is an Obi-Wan Kenobi interlude, so make sure to pick that up!

 

IMG_0779

+ posts

Kyle Larson lives in Portland, Oregon. When he's not running trails, he's reading and writing.

Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson lives in Portland, Oregon. When he's not running trails, he's reading and writing.

7 thoughts on “SWNN REVIEW: Marvel’s Star Wars: #14 Vader Down Part 5

  • January 7, 2016 at 5:09 pm
    Permalink

    LoL, I wanna be a writer for a Chewbacca Comic. AAARRRGGGHH !!!!

    Issue 74, aagh.MMRFF
    Issue 112, AArragh.
    Issue 229 AAArrGhHH!!

    🙂

  • January 7, 2016 at 5:23 pm
    Permalink

    I would have liked they switched the issues, as in part 6 would be Star Wars 14. As of this moment, the artwork in the Darth Vader series just can’t compare with the artwork in Star Wars ongoing.

    • January 7, 2016 at 7:43 pm
      Permalink

      I love the smooth coloring and lighting in the Vader series, but I prefer the overall art in the Star Wars series, especially Immonen’s work. Larroca’s strange approach to perspective and his use of “squiggly lines” to signify movement and Force-action in the Vader series always throws me.

      • January 7, 2016 at 10:07 pm
        Permalink

        Exactly. Just compare the depictions of Karbin in both series. Something’s ‘off’ in the Vader series..

  • January 8, 2016 at 2:20 am
    Permalink

    I was nervous after the previous issue because it felt like they were cramming too much into this arc, but this issue and the final Vader down never felt like there was too much. Very impressed with how it ended.

Comments are closed.

LATEST POSTS ON MOVIE NEWS NET