Review: ‘Darth Vader’ #36 – ‘Target Aphra Part II’ Pits Vader Against a Droid Army
The latest issue of the Darth Vader comic run takes a minute to explain just where the hell all those droids came from at the end of issue #35, and has some fun doing it along the way. There’s far more humor than you’d usually find in a Darth Vader comic, but while it is a tad goofy it works in the issue’s favor, as the story doesn’t have much else going for it.
There’s some stylish action but apart from that and the humor, this issue mostly treads water to fill time before the big Dark Droids crossover event next month. There is some connective tissue where Doctor Aphra is concerned, explaining why she decided to seek out Luke Skywalker after this encounter with Vader, but that’s it really.
Otherwise this issue is all centered around one single fight scene, mainly focusing on the build up to it from the droids’ end — some of them funny, some entertaining and some downright annoying — as they formulate a plan to take down Vader.
Honestly, the Dark Droids crossover event can’t get here soon enough. Darth Vader‘s momentum has stalled for far too long.
Spoilers ahead…
The issue starts off back in the droid city of Zee-Nine City Seven, a location we haven’t seen since its debut in #13 when Vader and Ochi were attacked by the annoying Droid Crush Pirates of Bestoon. One of those droids is giving a speech to the masses, outlining his plan to kill Darth Vader.
There are multiple droids in this space, including the equally annoying bounty hunter droid Gee-Ninety, a predictably funny B1 Battle Droid with an SB2 arm attached instead of its regular one, Triple Zero and Beetee-One, the detective droid Zed and Arex, the droid that served the Jedi who took the Barash Vow on Al’Doleem back in the 2017 run of the Darth Vader series. I enjoyed the inclusion of Arex, a genuinely interesting callback that I wasn’t expecting.
The last two droids are the most interesting here. Zed is the one who comes up with the plan to attack Vader, banking on him using up all his power in his first two salvoes against Gee-Ninety and other droids with kyberite shields that look a lot like bin lids, while Arex reveals that Vader is still using one of his legs in his suit. He believes that he can communicate with his leg to root Vader in one place, making him an easy target once his powers have waned.
There is plenty of humor and some amusing comments from the eccentric droids on display here and those chuckles were one of the few positives worth taking away from this issue. I even found Gee-Ninety pretty funny, as they play the bounty hunter as dumb, slow and even sarcastic later on. The goofiness of it all definitely made the issue more entertaining, which is good because the quality of the story takes a turn for the worst when we get to the actual battle.
The plan is smartly interwoven with pages showing the droids executing their plan smoothly, though Vader still seems able to rebuff their attacks with relative ease. However, the plan is derailed when he discovers his connection with Arex goes both ways, ordering the droid to attack its allies and derail the onslaught. I’m not sure how this works to be honest but perhaps it’s best not to think about it too hard.
The tide begins to turn and Triple Zero and Beetee-One both decide to betray their allies, intent on allying with the victor. Finally, Zed reveals that he was on Vader’s side all along despite previously claiming that he served Sabé now. His real intent was to deliver Vader a droid army for some reason. If it was explained in an earlier issue, I really can’t remember why Vader needs this army when he has an entire army of stormtroopers at his command already.
This lack of reasoning, logic and the droids’ undercooked betrayals make for good popcorn action but are not enough to make a good story.
Really, this is all one big set up to get a bunch of droids together for the Dark Droids event. Presumably they will all succumb to this virus that will infect a bunch of droids and Vader will have to destroy them all again for the third time this year.
Doctor Aphra and Ochi of Bestoon don’t have too much to do in this issue really, other than stand around making humorous remarks as the battle unfolds. They do have one useful interaction where Ochi points out that Vader is the most powerful being in the galaxy right now aside from the Emperor, so he thinks it’s best to stay at his side. Aphra is clearly concerned that the most powerful being in the galaxy right now wants her dead and takes note of Ochi’s claim that Vader seems to be worried about Luke Skywalker.
That seems to be the inspiration that leads her to seek out Luke and find the Jedi artifact that is supposed to make him more powerful in the Doctor Aphra comic right now. It’s a nice bit of connective tissue, though the last issue of Doctor Aphra had already connected the dots for us on this one.
The issue ends with Vader ready for the Dark Droids crossover with his own droid army. I have no idea if they’ll do anything creative with this situation that we haven’t already seen play out in this issue or the Jul Tambor arc a few months ago. We’ll have to see, but Darth Vader is in a bad place right now. Hopefully the crossover can pull it out of its funk, but I’m struggling to see how.
Rating: 4/10
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
