Darth Vader continues his quest to discover the Emperor’s secret plans for the galaxy in Star Wars: Darth Vader #10 written by Greg Pak, art by Raffaele Ienco, colored by Neeraj Menon and lettered by Joe Caramanga
The penultimate chapter of “Into the Fire” (the series’ second story arc, featuring Darth Vader turning a punishment from the Emperor for his actions earlier in the series into a probe of some Rise of Skywalker narrative ephemera), this issue involves Vader, now in possession of a Sith Wayfinder, and the captive Och of Bestoon leaving Mustafar and heading for Exegol while pursued by the Imperial task force sent to keep Vader from breaking the rules of the Emperor’s intended punishment (to survive on Mustafar without using the Force, after the Emperor smashed up Vader’s robot legs and arm). It opens in media res, with Vader & Ochi stuck between the task force on one side, and some kind of Cthluluian one-eyed space vagina tentacle monster on the other.
The two differing foes lead to the two best sequences of the issue: the first, when Vader, in a Clone Wars-era Jedi starfighter takes on an exhaustively-large amount of TIE fighters, and the second, when the space monster uses its mental defenses (deployed through a cloud of hallucinogenic gas it generates) to, essentially, show Vader how he’s going to die. This is depicted through a series of hallucinations in which Vader relives his duels with Obi-Wan , before Obi-Wan becomes Luke, and Vader relives their confrontation on Bespin in The Empire Strikes Back, during which their positions become reversed, Vader has his hand cut off (echoing his fate in Return of the Jedi), Luke defeats Vader (by plunging his lightsaber into his chest, depicted via a stunning full splash page by Raffaele Ienco), and goes on to serve at the Emperor’s side.
Darth Vader is not a good person, but in order for readers to care enough to follow stories where he is the title protagonist, he needs to function as an actual character and not just a one-dimensional avatar of evil. Sequences like this, which dig into his mind and expose the vulnerabilities and fear which reside behind the dark mask & violent actions (and which also power his unrelenting drive, depicted throughout every chapter of this story), go a long way towards making the character, if not morally good, at least understandably human. Pak has interspersed the main narrative of this story over the last few issues with flashbacks to Vader’s past to similar effect, but the twist here, with Vader watching his son follow in his footsteps and take his place at the Emperor’s side, kicks it up another level (and continues this volume of the series’ running theme of exploring the impact of the “I am your father” revelation from Empire on Vader) .
Meanwhile, the dogfight scenes earlier in the issue serve a similar purpose, giving Vader the kind of heroic fist-pumping moments that are also a hallmark of engaging title characters (it is also appreciated when the prowess of Vader – and Anakin before him – as a pilot is referenced in a story). No one actually wants to see Vader succeed in, say, destroying the Rebel Alliance and turning Luke to the Dark Side, but by showing him succeed against tremendous odds in a traditionally-heroic way, the heroic itch gets scratched without breaking the character. By the end of the issue, the two experiences have so focused Vader’s fear and anger that he’s able to bend the will of a second tentacle monster to his as he marches on Palpatine’s Exegol stronghold, and he may as well be a dashing knight marching to liberate a castle, for as much as readers are invested by that point in seeing Vader succeed, which is no mean feat.
Force Facts
- Ochi of Bestoon, the Sith assassin Vader is holding captive in this issue, is the same person whose remains were found by Rey in Rise of Skywalker, which eventually led her to Exegol and the resurrected Palpatine.
- The still-unnamed Imperial administrator in charge of the task force attacking Vader in this issue is an Umbaran. The planet Umbara (aka “The Shadow World”) featured in a half dozen episodes of The Clone Wars, and Sly Moore, the bald woman at Chancellor Palpatine’s side through much of Revenge of the Sith, was also Umbaran.
- For anyone deeply invested in Star Wars galactic biology, the “Cthluluian one-eyed space vagina tentacle monster” is technically a Summa Verminoth, called by the Administrator “the galaxy’s greatest predator”.
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton
