Review: ‘Dark Droids’ #5 Burns Bright But Ends Too Quickly
The final issue of the Dark Droids crossover has plenty of epic moments but is over too quickly and is spread too thin to get really exciting.
Just as Scourge Prime struggles to keep a grip on itself controlling thousands of minds at once, it feels as though this issue suffers from trying to keep touch with the different plot threads of the individual series affected by this crossover. Though the bulk of this issue takes place on the Scourge 01, the issue also attempts to check in with Luke, Leia, Lando and Chewie on Epikonia, Doctor Aphra and Sana Starros elsewhere and just about reminds us that the bounty hunters are affected by this crossover too.
Though not an awful lot of time is given to our legacy characters, it does mean that we lose precious time with Scourge Prime and Ajax Sigma and it feels as if the crossover storyline is over just as it was really getting exciting. This issue does some interesting things with Star Wars lore around the Force — some fans will struggle to get on board with it or flat out reject it, while I personally struggled to understand how it was even possible — and while I’m not sure if I like it or not, it would have been fun to exist in that space for a while longer.
Instead, just as the Droid Scourge’s light burns brightest, it is snuffed out before it can really leave a lasting impact on the galaxy. Anyone who read Star Wars #41 earlier this month will know the outcome of this issue and that does undercut some of the its most badass moments. I hope those who were looking forward to this issue managed to remain unspoiled and were as impressed as writer Charles Soule intended, but I will admit one moment in particular lost its shock value for me, as cool as it still is.
If you were spoiled by Star Wars #41 though, you’ll be glad to know that Dark Droids #5 does keep some story developments up its sleeve, mostly in its epilogue which sets up some intriguing possibilities for future stories. This is a fun issue and does a good job of wrapping up the crossover, but the action is over so quickly that I can’t help but wonder what could have been had this series run for another issue or two.
Spoilers ahead…
The issue begins by outlining Scourge Prime’s intentions once more, with the being stating that it never truly wished anyone harm. It only harmed those that got in its way (which is often what an insane villain would say, and it conveniently ignores the torture it subjected innocent people too in the name of progress), but now it wants to make organics scream. It wants to make them pay for nearly giving droids complete self awareness and then stopping, so they could keep them in indentured servitude.
Scourge Prime treads the same line as most Marvel villains; it has a point in that droids with self awareness should not be enslaved and the idea of freeing them all is a good one, but its methods cross a line as it decides killing people is okay. We also see that its mind is quickly unravelling. It has expanded into so many minds that it’s not entirely sure what it wants anymore, even claiming that it never wanted to cause this much harm in the first place. It seemed happy to kill all those Imperials in the first issue, so it really does seem to be losing its mind.
We see that it has killed all the other versions of itself that it created in the last issue except for the Elder, who holds the memories of its past attempts at conquering the galaxy. The Elder urges Scourge Prime to stay the course, reminding it that they are close to achieving their goal of fully integrating with human minds. I don’t know how this is even remotely possible, but somehow it makes a breakthrough and gains access to human bodies for all of five pages.
Scourge Prime even claims it can feel the Force through Luke Skywalker and I honestly still have no idea how a droid can even comprehend such a thing. I vaguely remembering either George Lucas or Dave Filoni saying that droids are also connected to the Force, so maybe Filoni does believe droids can wield it too, judging by his creative decisions in Ahsoka, but the concept of droids wielding the Force makes little sense to me.
Either way, this breakthrough lasts for five pages before he is stabbed in the back by Ajax Sigma, probably the single coolest moment in the entire crossover. Ajax gets his own badass line — which was unfortunately spoiled in Star Wars #41 — and the threat is over. We don’t actually get to spend too much time with him before this. There’s a scene where he debriefs Delta Squad on their mission, but once they arrive on Scourge 01 we barely see them fight the Droid Scourge, which harms this issue as it contributes to the sense that we arrive at the story’s climax too quickly.
With Scourge Prime defeated, everyone goes back to normal life. The members of D-Squad reject Ajax Sigma’s offer to join the Colony of the Second Revelation and he returns alone, with the Scourge’s essence somehow absorbed into his sword. This epilogue is where things get most interesting. Ajax transfers the Scourge’s essence into a new droid core and activates it inside a new body, starting his colony from scratch.
The Scourge retains none of its memories, but it seems Ajax Sigma has learned something from their encounter. It seems he now believes that while the Scourge went about it the wrong way, it was right to want to expand across the galaxy. Ajax reiterated to D-Squad earlier that it would like self aware droids to exist peacefully in the wider galaxy, but if organics deny them that option, then they will “teach them to respect us,” potentially by violent means. In this epilogue, he reveals that he believes his church’s fourth revelation is “all”.
That certainly means we haven’t seen the last of Ajax Sigma and his colony of self aware droids. It sounds as though eventually, the Colony of the Second Revelation will announce itself to the wider galaxy and expand, no matter how organics feel about it. The difference is whether or not Ajax still intends to do that peacefully, or if his encounter with the Scourge means that he intends to return to his warrior ways and carve out a slice of the galaxy aggressively.
Hopefully when Ajax Sigma does return, it will be in a more significant capacity than both he and the Droid Scourge managed in the Dark Droids crossover.
Rating: 7/10
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.
