Let me preface this by saying I am a huge Star Wars fan. I definitely don’t mean to brag, but when it comes to Star Wars I know more than anyone else I’ve ever known. I’ve read comics, novels, I’ve spent too many hours on the Star Wars Wikipedia site, just reading articles about characters, creatures, history, planets, events. I am a huge Star Wars fan. I’ve mentioned this in other posts, but growing up there were three franchises that I obsessed over. The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, and Star Wars. Those three franchises (albeit, I wasn’t AS into Star Trek as the other two until my teenage years) make up the building blocks of my imagination and creative self and so I hold them close to my heart. That being said… I may not have enjoyed the Darth Vader comics as much as I was expecting to. Before other Star Wars fans go berserk, let me try and explain this. I grew up in the 90s, I was introduced to Star Wars when I was 7 or 8, when the remastered original saga was being re-released in theatres. In 1999, The Phantom Menace came out, and looking back on it now, yes it was a cheesy film, especially when compared to the original trilogy, but I was also 10 at the time, and for me, the prequels were the films that encompassed "Star Wars" as I grew up. Don’t get me wrong, I love the original movies, and while they do a better job in telling a small, character-driven story, the prequels took that tiny universe of the original trilogy and opened it up. I loved the Jedi Order, I loved the Senate, the Galactic Politics, the myriad of aliens, it made the small world of Star Wars something much larger, and for that, I could almost overlook the terrible acting and scripts. When it came to the character of Darth Vader, I was never really afraid of him, people talk about how terrifying of a villain he was, but for me the Anakin Skywalker of the prequels was a much more terrifying and disturbed villain. Darth Vader almost felt like the lukewarm leftovers (maybe he needs another lava-bath). Actually, it wasn’t until Rogue One that I finally felt a little fear for the Sith Lord. As for the comics, I mentioned to an employee of Chapters one day that I was a Star Wars fan, and they told me that as a Star Wars, it was imperative that I read the new Darth Vader comics. Now… I’ve been shying away from anything “new” and Star Wars, because Disney took the expanded universe that I cherished SO much as a kid and teen and threw it in the trash without a second thought, or thinking about how angry it would make Star Wars fans. But I gave in, and thought I’d give them a read… and man was I bored. Maybe the story was dull, maybe I just find Darth Vader a little dull, I don’t know what it was. However I do know that these comics lacked the beautiful artwork of the Star Wars comics I grew up with (the Star Wars: Republic comics… which are no longer canon, because Disney is a destroyer of all things) and the fast-paced, action-packed stories therein. The Darth Vader comics introduces us to a smattering of new characters, all of which lack any interesting character traits, and all Vader does is threaten his way through every scene to the point where it gets a little boring. I was hoping to see some humanity brought back into Vader, but instead all we see is more quiet, brooding, simmering anger.
While these comics are skimpy on their characters, one newcomer, Doctor Aphra appears quite frequently. She is sort of the Vash of these Darth Vader comics (there's some Star Trek references for those ultra-nerds out there), she's an archeologist and arms dealer who teams up with Darth Vader to help foil the plans of Cylo, a cybernetically enhanced Human scientist, who along with his rag-tag team of cyborgs seek to replace Vader as the Emperor's right hand. While Aphra could have been an interesting character, she's another victim of the bad story telling featured in these comics, she's sharp and witty and never shuts up, but ultimately her motives are weak and if anything she's more annoying than interesting. However the one part of these comics that caught me by surprise, and that I actually enjoyed, was the end of her story. Basically it ends just how you would expect a partnership with Darth Vader to end, but there's a twist! Is it enough for me to recommend this series? No. But it was still a nice twist in an overly dull, pedantic comic. Am I biased towards these new comics? Yes. Am I bitter over Disney’s treatment of the Star Wars franchise? You know it. But I still went into the Darth Vader comics with an open mind, hoping to be shown something new and spectacular. These comics have received a number of great reviews, and I’m sure a lot of people and fans of the franchise love them, but they just weren’t for me… and that’s really all there is to it… I’ll stick with my Star Wars: Republic omnibuses… even though none of that matter anymore.
