A few fun moments highlight another issue in which the Governor Tauntaza plotline lumbers along in Star Wars: Darth Vader #27 written by Greg Pak, art by Raffele Ienco, colored by Carlos Lopez and lettered by Joe Caramagna.
Any issue following in the immediate footsteps of last issue’s near-camp ode to Darth Vader’s intolerance of sand starts at a disadvantage. And there certainly is an air of letdown to Darth Vader #27, as the series returns to normal, and a narrative that feels like its been going on for a long time (the “evil Governor and her pseudo-World Devastator” plot is long on its own, and it’s just one part of the larger “Vader and SabĂ© will they/won’t they” plotline that’s been running even longer; remember when Valance was part of this book?). Yet Darth Vader #27 isn’t entirely without merit, in part because writer Greg Pak manages to channel a little bit of the previous issue’s energy into the issue’s immediate plotline through a couple of especially comic book-y moments.
Darth Vader #27 picks up with Vader returning to his erstwhile allies with the rescued SabĂ© and Kitster (who rightly acknowledges he was mostly rescued just by dint of being physically near SabĂ© when Vader intervened last issue). But when the previously-arranged turbolaser strike from Vader’s orbital Star Destroyer fails to destroy Governor Tauntaza’s planet-eating facility (it just absorbs the energy from the blast to become stronger itself), Vader must once again go into the fray to destroy it by hand.
This leads to the first bonkers-fun moment of the issue, as Vader walks into the path of the mobile facility alongside the astromech droid M7B. As the facility is designed to consume organic life and convert it to energy, Vader’s (mostly) machine state gives him a leg up as the facility drives over M7B, at which point Vader orders the droid to launch his lightsaber, concealed inside the droid, like Luke’s lightsaber and Artoo in Return of the Jedi, up into the bowels of the facility. Vader then uses the Force to send it careening around inside, like a cocktail stirrer made out of a laser, wreaking maximum havoc along the way.
The second comic book-y sequence comes shortly thereafter, as Vader ventures inside the now-damaged facility and Governor Tauntaza dons a Lex Luthor-style battle suit, powered by the facility, to fight Vader one-on-one. Artist Raffele Ienco continues to struggle with presenting smoothly choreographed one-on-one action, but the design of the armor, complete with a big ol’ cannon on one arm, is meticulous. While a bit stiff, the resulting fight between Vader and Tauntaza cosplaying as Obidiah Stane at the end of Iron Man is nevertheless fun. But, of course, Tauntaza ultimately gets away, because this is the storyline that will, seemingly, never end.
As she escapes, she uses the technology of her facility to suck all the power from Vader’s armor, leaving him a motionless shell, barely clinging to life. At this point, Darth Vader #27 becomes the inverse of the previous issue, as SabĂ©, leading a force into the facility through the openings made by Vader, must decide whether or not to save his life. To say that she ultimately does so is technically a spoiler, but barely â we know this isn’t the end of Vader.
It is still compelling to see SabĂ© wrestle with the decision, and the reality of what Vader has become compared to her memory of the little boy who fawned over her mistress (we even get the increasingly-common visual shorthand for “Anakin as he was, Vader as he is”, with one of Anakin’s eyes visible through a cracked lens of Vader’s helmet as SabĂ© weighs her options). It is ultimately PadmĂ©’s belief in the goddess still inside Vader that prompts her to save him, but this in turn sets up the big twist ending: M7B has dug into Governor Tauntaza’s files and discovered, just as she cryptically taunted during her fight with Vader, that Tauntaza is taking orders directly from the Emperor.Â
SabĂ© is of course ecstatic, believing this information will prompt Vader into direct action against the Emperor, thereby justifying her decision to save his life. But this reveal lacks the punch it’s meant to have. We’ve been down the “Vader vs. the Emperor” road at least once before in this series, if not more. And I’ve already been fooled once before into thinking such a conflict would lead to some kind of reckoning between the two that could contextualize the events of Return of the Jedi, only to have it force Vader once more into a subservient role.
Maybe Pak is finally going there, but I’m gonna need to see it to believe it. For now, the most appealing thing about the reveal is that it means, perhaps, we are entering the final stage of this storyline (though now we are left to deal with dueling narratives, the fate of Tauntaza and the repercussions of the reveal of Palpatine’s hand in her actions, suggesting maybe we’re not all that much closer to its end, after all).Â
While not as fun as the previous issue, there are ultimately still things to like in Darth Vader #27, from M7B’s Artoo moves to the battle suit to SabĂ©’s dilemma, and even the way SabĂ©, Ochi, the forensic droid ZED-6-7 and M7B are coalescing into dark mirror versions of his son’s friends Leia, Han, Threepio and Artoo (a dynamic previous volumes of this series leaned into as well via Doctor Aphra, Triple Zero, etc.). Yet those parts are greater than the whole of the issue, which still seems to be treading water even as it sets up an issue-ending reveal meant to energize the narrative.
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
