Darth Vader #16 Has Fun Moments, But Leaves Unanswered Questions

Luke Skywalker runs scared as Darth Vader runs roughshod over him in Star Wars: Darth Vader #16 written by Greg Pak, art by Raffele Ienco, colored by Jason Keith and Rachelle Rosenberg and lettered by Joe Caramagna.

Synching back up with the “War of the Bounty Hunters” crossover after last issue’s Ochi of Bestoon sidequest, this issue picks up where Star Wars #16 left off: with Darth Vader ordering his son to turn himself over to Vader or see the carbonite-encased Han Solo cut in half, and with Luke promptly turning tail and racing in the other direction. Bringing Luke into this series is always a tricky thing, because it tests the strength of the reader’s connections to Vader as the series’ protagonist. It’s easy enough to root for Vader when he’s fighting his way through the Emperor’s tests or batting aside the machinations of various Imperial functionaries.

Even when he’s obliquely plotting the downfall of the actual heroes of Star Wars, there’s enough distance to not threaten that connection. Yet as soon as Luke comes into the series’ narrative, the connection becomes tenuous: do we root for Vader, as we’ve done in the preceding fifteen issues, or do we root for Luke, for whom we’ve been trained to root for decades (possibly for the entire lives of some readers). 

Greg Pak does his best to help readers maintain their connection to Vader as the hero of his own story by painting Luke in something of an unflattering light. While Star Wars #16 did a lot to establish that Luke’s fears of facing Vader at this point in time are perfectly reasonable, here he just seems scared, not so much calling Vader’s bluff about killing Han as simply having no choice but to run (of course, Luke is running because he believes fighting Vader will result in the deaths of Leia, Lando and Chewbacca, so he’s not actually acting out of pure cowardice; it just seems that way). At the same time, Luke’s insistence that Vader doesn’t want to kill him, just turn him to the Dark Side, gives readers the coverage they need to continue to root for Vader on some level, as he’s at least not a physical threat to Luke’s life. In fact, he even rescues Luke at one point, after Luke runs afoul of the magnetic harpoons launched by the criminals in orbit around Jekarra. Logically, readers know Vader is the bad guy in this situation, but Pak is careful to stage this encounter in a way that gives Vader just enough room to continue to function as the protagonist of his own series. 

Meanwhile, down on Jekarra, Ochi is dealing directly with the machinations of Administrator Moore, who continues her attacks on Vader in the name of the Empire by setting the Droid Crush Pirates (previously arrayed against Vader by Ochi earlier in the series and last seen in issue #13) on the Sith Lord, who manage to both distract Vader and help Luke. At the same time, Moore battles Ochi, and tries to win Vader’s Girl Friday over to her side by suggesting Vader is only targeting Luke out of fear – fear that Luke will supplant Vader at the Emperor’s side (and thus that Vader is denying the Empire a potent weapon by targeting Luke).

This is the weaker section of the issue; while the attempt to create some thematic parallels between Vader and Luke is appreciated (“Is Vader as scared of Luke as Luke is scared of Vader?!?”), as is the return of the Droid Crush (one of those fun Star Wars-by-way-of comic-books bits this series dabbles in effectively), Raffele Ienco once again stumbles in depicting the action beats of the Ochi/Moore knife fight, with the characters’ physical relationship to one another and in space throughout the fight often muddy. Plus, with the narrative cutting back and forth between their battle and a dogfight between Vader & Luke in their respective ships (with the Droid Crush intervening between them), the Ochi/Moore material suffers by comparison: Ienco is much better at conveying the ship-to-ship action, and that sequence simply invites itself to more exciting, big screen-style action than the more mundane knife fight happening between Moore and Ochi. 

Furthermore, on a more macro level, the introduction of Moore’s assertion that Vader fears being usurped by Luke and Luke’s assertion throughout the issue that Vader doesn’t actually want him dead continues to muddy the question of what, exactly, Vader wants at this point in time. Coming out of “Into the Fire”, it seemed Vader had decided to team-up with Luke to destroy the Emperor; shortly thereafter, it seemed this was a misreading of that story’s climax, as Vader expressed in no uncertain terms his intent to kill Luke, with his entire involvement in the “War of the Bounty Hunters” crossover an attempt to draw Luke into a trap.

Yet here, it seems Vader’s goal is something more than merely killing Luke. Certainly, Luke could be wrong: the notion that Vader wants Luke to join him, not be dead, comes exclusively from Luke in this issue. Yet, there are plenty of moments where it seems like Vader could have killed Luke, and didn’t. And throughout this issue, Vader seems most intent on making Luke feel real fear, which is, of course, a path to the Dark Side. That makes Vader’s action more in keeping with a goal of turning Luke, rather than killing him. 

Certainly, at some point all this confusion may be rendered moot; the question of Vader’s relationship to Luke and what he truly wants is clearly intended to be a seminal question of this series, one which crosses the boundaries of specific story arcs. Hopefully that question will receive a definitive answer of some kind by the time Pak is done telling his story. Trying to discern the answer now, in the middle of that story, is likely a fool’s errand. Fortunately, the series is entertaining enough on the micro level, providing moments like the arrival of the Droid Crush or Vader charging after his fearful son, TIE Fighter guns ablazin’, that reading it remains enjoyable even as its overall arc remains unclear. 

Force Facts

• The magna-harpoons used by the gangsters against Luke in this issue reminded me a lot of similar equipment used to great effect in the first High Republic novel (both to help rescue stranded ships and as an offensive weapon).

Austin Gorton

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