JELENA’S REVIEW OF DARTH VADER #24

DarthVader24 - Cover

Story by Kieron Gillen

Art by Salvador Larroca

Colors by Edgar Delgado

 

  • Vader is lost in his inner mindscape, lost in visions of the Force!
  • Is he truly more machine now than man?
  • Or can he fight his way back from the brink?

 

When we left Darth Vader at the end of the last issue, Cylo has disabled his mechanical suit and seemingly incapacitated him. Cylo is certainly under the impression that he defeated Vader. Even without the rest of the Saga, we could have known that he was going to regret that illusion.

 

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Vader finds himself reliving events from his past: the duel on Mustafar, the duel on the Death Star and his last encounter with Padmé.

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While part of him that used to be Anakin desired death and blamed Obi-Wan for not killing him, Vader has no such desires. In his eyes, Obi-Wan made the mistake when he left him alive, allowing Vader to get revenge and rob him of his own life. Interestingly enough, a part of him still regrets killing his old master. Anakin and Vader duel. Vader is victorious and leaves the scene while Anakin screams “I hate you!”.

 

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The final encounter is with Padmé who urges him to turn away from his path and stay with her. Vader wins again by choking Force apparition as he did in the real life. Vader effectively rejects his old life again and wakes from the Force vision. Using the Force and strength of will, Vader raises again much to Cylo’s short-lived surprise.

 

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After Cylo-V’s death, another clone – Cylo-VI – wakes up and escapes the Executor. Vader reports to the Emperor who tells him to tie the loose ends and return quickly because they have much to discuss.

 

With Vader in pursuit of Cylo-VI, the Emperor gets the unexpected visitor – Doctor Aphra.

 

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There is so much to unpack in this short issue. First, Anakin side of Vader isn’t completely gone. It seems that, while Anakin’s presence is still weak, he is still part of Vader’s personality. It is hard to say if Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padmé are simply Force visions or are the regret, self-hatred and grief emotions that Vader still feels deep down. In any case, it seems that Anakin appears whenever Vader is weak and he has to fight to rid himself of emotions that are not hate or rage. Effectively, it seems he has to kill part of himself over and over again.

 

It is interesting to experience the Force internally and from the Sith side. With the way Story Group explores the Force and its influences in the new canon, hopefully we will see more of it in the future.

 

Like with the previous cyborgs, I hoped that Cylo’s end would be more gruesome, but it seems that effectiveness is Vader’s motto. But, when Cylo-VI woke up, I threw my hands up in the air. Are you kidding me?! How many of these there are? I have never cheered for Vader more in my life.

 

I cannot make up my mind if Aphra is brilliant or utterly insane, though I am leaning towards the latter. Think about it, what does she have to offer Palpatine? She can disclose the fact that Vader learned of the existence of his son, Luke Skywalker, as well as everything else he did since Palpatine brought cyborgs into the picture. I find it hard to imagine that Palpatine would be grateful and even if, by some miracle, he was, Vader will not react to betrayal well. Why she didn’t take the opportunity to run and take Leia up on her offer, I would never know. I hoped otherwise, but I am afraid that we will see the end of Aphra in the last issue.

 

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I can’t help it, I adore Larroca’s art. He always draws very naturalistic and expressive faces, but the likeness to the characters from the movies was incredible. Delgado’s colors make Larroca’s pencil come to life – Vader was never so badass as emerging from the lava.

 

We are coming to the end of Darth Vader run. While comic had its ups and downs like most comics do, it was a genuine pleasure to follow the Dark Lord of the Sith on his infamous adventures. In addition to little insight into Vader’s mind and his relationship to Palpatine, Kieron Gillen also gave us several new, unforgettable characters: Doctor Aphra, Triple Zero and Bee-Tee.

 

Let’s hope that Darth Vader ends with the bang, because both the character and the story deserve that. The end comes in…

 

THE FINAL ISSUE:

 

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Darth Vader 25 Variant Cover by Salvador Larroca

 

It has all built up to this! Vader’s trials against Cylo’s creations! His machinations against the Emperor! His covert missions with Doctor Aphra and her murderous droids! All comes to fruition in an oversized 40-page issue by the stellar team of Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca! You won’t want to miss this ending!

 

Happy reading!

 

 

 

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Staff member, comic and book reviewer. Cheers for the Light Side, but would drink with Grand Admirals.

Jelena Bidin (LadyMusashi)

Staff member, comic and book reviewer. Cheers for the Light Side, but would drink with Grand Admirals.

24 thoughts on “JELENA’S REVIEW OF DARTH VADER #24

  • August 10, 2016 at 10:32 pm
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    I thought this issue was superb. The journey within Vader’s mind was just great.

  • August 10, 2016 at 11:23 pm
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    Like with the previous cyborgs, I hoped that Cylo’s end would be more
    gruesome, but it seems that effectiveness is Vader’s motto. But, when
    Cylo-VI woke up, I threw my hands up in the air. Are you kidding me?!
    How many of these there are? I have never cheered for Vader more in my
    life. <Same thing I said for the Palpatine clones

    • August 11, 2016 at 2:07 pm
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      Dark Empire. The beginning of the end for the old EU. It was a great comic book. But then they made it part of the continuity. And the cheese got under way in earnest. Ugh.

      • August 11, 2016 at 3:10 pm
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        Dark Empire was the WORST. UGH.

  • August 10, 2016 at 11:39 pm
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    This makes me yearn for a remake of the PT… Vader is just so epic. I want his fall to the dark side fully realized. I know it’ll likely never happen… only time can make such a thing possible. Maybe 30 years from now…

    Those are some epic panels.

    • August 11, 2016 at 12:06 am
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      Never happen.

      • August 11, 2016 at 2:40 am
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        That’s why I said something as far as 30 years. Almost anything gets rebooted after that long. Just you wait 😛

        Especially since that’ll mean it’s been 46 years since they debuted.

        • August 11, 2016 at 4:11 am
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          I think Lucasfilm will always hold George’s work as sacred.

          • August 11, 2016 at 6:10 am
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            They didn’t hold his story ideas for episode VII sacred. 😉

          • August 11, 2016 at 3:07 pm
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            Because that’s how the creative process on a movie works. Lucas submitted a treatment (Rey came from that, BTW) and they expanded on it and kept some things and not others. As was their right to do.

            There is a massive difference between making a new draft of a treatment and erasing one of his movies from canon.

            Your comparison is way off the mark.

          • August 11, 2016 at 9:04 pm
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            i know, that was mostly in jest. it was like they had to take his old ideas(the prequels), but they sure as heck weren’t going to be married to his new ones. and lucas still grumbles about it to this day.

          • August 11, 2016 at 10:10 pm
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            Yeah, I can understand how it can bother him. But for $4 billion, they more than paid for the right to do what they want haha.

    • August 11, 2016 at 1:13 am
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      TCW helps here, big time.

      • August 11, 2016 at 2:39 am
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        I did like about half of the TCW. Sometimes they really nailed his volatile state. Plus his relationship with Ahsoka was much better than his with Obi in the PT. I just wish they had settled on tone before they started the series because it veers all over the place lol.

    • August 11, 2016 at 2:20 am
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      Just read the novelizations of the films, everything is a lot more fully realized and you can imagine that everyone’s acting and line delivery are amazing. I quite enjoyed most of the prequels, but at this point spending millions of dollars and years of production to redo them would be serious overkill

  • August 11, 2016 at 12:07 am
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    A look, another prequel reference. I thought Disney had banned all prequel stuff…

    • August 11, 2016 at 1:05 am
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      Mmmh…

  • August 11, 2016 at 12:26 am
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    Stuff like this makes me yearn for a Vader centric film or at least a novel.

    • August 11, 2016 at 1:11 am
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      Or a tv-serie, why not ?

    • August 11, 2016 at 2:42 am
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      To much yearning going on here 😛

  • August 11, 2016 at 1:08 am
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    Is the severed body of Anakin Obi-Wan’s throwing in lava ? It’s cruel.

    • August 11, 2016 at 1:58 am
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      Well, he asked for it. 😉

  • August 11, 2016 at 7:05 am
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    Why is Vader covered in nacho cheese?

    • August 11, 2016 at 12:48 pm
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      It’s the cheese left over from AotC.

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