Written by Greg Pak
Art by Raffaele Ienco
Published by Marvel Comics
Issue #16 of Darth Vader from the War of the Bounty Hunters series, starts and ends solidly.
Inside Darth Vader’s mind.
A frightening, complex place.
The use of reds and blacks coupled with the dream-like imagery is simply good storytelling, even if some of Darth Vader’s inner voice wasn’t very Darth Vader.
Going back to that moment at Crimson Dawn’s auction party when Darth Vader is about to cut Han Solo, frozen in carbonite, in half, I was anxious to read how another writer’s take on this event would unfold.
Sadly, I was disappointed.
The whole interplay between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker felt lacking and stilted, as with previous issues within the War of the Bounty Hunters arc. Neither character a faithful interpretation of their well-known on-screen personas.
And this is a first for me in the otherwise well-written Darth Vader title within series.
What was probably most off-putting this time around was a general lack of focus.
At this point in the War of the Bounty Hunter series, we’re bringing multiple threads together and the unintended side effect is lack of perspective.
Is this Darth Vader’s Issue? Luke Skywalker’s? Ochi’s? Administrator Moore’s? It tries to be all of them and falls short narratively. I keep going back to Darth Vader #14, an issue that was all about Darth Vader, but brilliantly told from Administrator Moore’s point of view. It worked in spades.
This issue felt like it wanted to told from Administrator Moore’s point of view again because her scenes were the truly compelling threads of the story. Her actions are well thought out and justified. At least to her. Her actions all centered around Darth Vader and tell us how important he is to the very fabric of the Empire itself.
Not to dismiss Luke’s importance to Darth Vader. It’s just that we know how things turn out in the end between Luke and Vader, therefore the writers have an infinitely more difficult challenge crafting a convincing story for us die hard original Star Wars fans.
The ending is truly spectacular. If we had never known about or seen Return of the Jedi, it would be tragic. It’s the fact that we’ve seen Return of the Jedi that makes the ending epic and begs the question:
How does Han Solo survive?
