Review: Vader Finds Padmé’s Resting Place in Marvel’s Darth Vader #5

Hello everyone! Hope all is well with all of you. It’s a great time of the month; we have some more Darth Vader to look into. I don’t know about you all, but I have really enjoyed this series so far. Greg Pak has done a fantastic job with taking what we normally relate with Vader (lightsaber, force choke, complete dominance) and taken us to a very pivotal point in his life. We all know Vader is in a constant struggle after turning to the dark side. Now, after finding out that Luke is his son, he is on a voyage to find out what happened to his beloved Padmé and who kept Luke from him all these years. Lets take a look at issue #5. Spoilers ahead…

 

 

This issue begins at the tomb of Padmé Amidala on Naboo. Vader has finally found her resting place and is accompanied by Sabé and his Imperial Forensics droid, Zed 6-7. Standing over her tomb, Vader begins to use the Force to remove the top layer. Sabé begs him to stop. We then see him have a flash back, one of Padmé smiling in the meadows of Naboo and one of him force choking her on Mustafar. He stops moving the tomb. Zed 6-7 begins to scan around the tomb and finds a “Med implant” that will lead them to Polis Massa, the last location Padmé was before she died. Sabé immediately begins preparations to leave but Zed 6-7 tells the Death troopers the stop them. Vader allows her to leave and instructs her to tell all of her friends to meet him at the location.

 

 

Vader and Zed 6-7 land on Polis Massa and make their way inside. This location was a former Rebel base that has long past been discovered and destroyed by the Empire. They discover the starport control room and search the data of arrivals and departures. They come across a holovid of a Naboo J-Type star skiff carrying Padmé, two droids, and flown by Obi-Wan Kenobi. Vader hears his name and has another flash-back on Mustafar. Vader and Zed decide that they should go over to the medical facility across the base to access Padmé’s records. At that point, they see a fleet of Noobian ships and various fighters come into view. They begin to fire on Vader.

 

 

Vader deflects all of the shots from the fighters and his squadron of Death Troopers begin flanking the ships by firing at them with gun turrets. The ships explode and crash left and right, and the ground force begins to fire their blasters at Vader with no success. He literally pulls a ship from the atmosphere and crashes it into the troops. During this battle, he has more flash-backs to Mustafar. Him choking Padmé. Obi-Wan cutting off his limbs. Pain. Hate. Anger.

 

 

After the battle, there are none left alive besides Vader, Zed 6-7, and some Death Troopers. They make their way into the maternity ward, but Zed is unable to access the core data because it has been destroyed. They then see a Midwifery droid in the corner of the room. Zed is able to access it’s memory bank. Zed unlocks it and they find a holovid of Padmé. They hear her call out for Obi-Wan. Zed 6-7 recognizes the name again and says that this Obi-Wan must have been important to her. That would be the last words that poor droid would ever say. Vader ignites his lightsaber and slices it in half. He continues to listen to Padmé speak. “I know there’s good in him”

 

 

Vader makes his way back to Coruscant. He goes before his master and is asked if he has settled all his business. Vader tells him that he has, but Sidious can feel his grief. He tells him that the Sith know fear leads to  anger, hate and then strength. Grief has no part of it. So he intends on having Vader start from scratch, with fear…

 

 

This issue is a part of Vader’s story that needed to be told. I’m sure that I am not the only Star Wars fan that wondered if Vader ever discovered what truly happened to Padmé. While reading, I noticed that Sabé didn’t seem to be with the group that got destroyed by Vader, so we may be able to assume that she is still alive at this point. Poor Zed 6-7 always had something to say and it finally got the best of him. He was the comic relief of the story but I think the next issue or two won’t be at all comical in any sense. We can see that Sidious is about to teach Vader a harsh lesson about being a Sith. I have really enjoyed reading this story because, like I said earlier, it isn’t your typical Vader story we normally see. Greg Pak is killing it!

 

Rating: 9/10

 

 

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Jacksonville,FL

Star Wars has always been a big part of my life growing up and now. Books and comics are my hobby when I'm not outside or watching the Eagles play on Sundays.

Brady Reed

Jacksonville,FLStar Wars has always been a big part of my life growing up and now. Books and comics are my hobby when I'm not outside or watching the Eagles play on Sundays.

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