Alejandro's Reviews > Star Wars: Darth Vader, Vol. 4: End of Games

Darth Vader’s final volume!


I got this storyarc on its single comic book issues but I chose to make the review using this TPB edition to make a better overall review. The story is set after the events of “Star Wars IV: A New Hope” but before the events of “Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back”. This TPB edition contains from the title of “Star Wars: Darth Vader” #20-25 in its new Marvel Canonic run, including an art gallery featuring all covers (even variants) of the whole title’s run.


Creative Team:

Writer: Keiron Gillen

Illustrators: Salvador Larroca & Max Fiumara


THE WAYS OF THE SITH

A long, long time ago, there were many Sith. We rose up against the simpering light… We warred with the Jedi… and lost as we also warred amongst our own kind. For a thousand years we have kept to the shadows, not afraid of the Jedi… but ourselves. – The Dark Side is powerful. It is too powerful. The weak will meekly stand in regimented orde. The Sith… One Master, one Apprentice. No more.

The Dark Lords of the Sith are many things, many of those are despicable, but no one can’t deny that the “Rule of Two” has some insightful logic, and even in a philosophy that embraces the treachery, still there are rules to follow, since while the apprentice can kill his/her master, he/she will do it until the master would be unable to teach him/her anything more, and the master is entitled to kill his/her apprentice if the pupil isn’t able to learn and/or doesn’t follow orders…

…but what is following orders in the ways of the Sith?

You’ll learn that things that in any other structure that could be seen as improper behavior, in the Order of the Sith is precisely what a proud master can expect (even to demand, in a tacit way) from his/her apprentice.

After all, none Dark Lord of the Sith is immortal (not for lacking for trying but even...), so…

…each master must choose wisely the right apprentice, obviously powerful, strong in the Force, but that’s just evident requisites…

…the right apprentice must possess not only vision, but ambition, if the Sith truly wants to prevail, to remain in power, to preserve their legacy.


VADER’S VILLAINS

What are you running from? – It can’t be that bad.

Lord Vader has plans, many plans, and even he can’t do everything by himself.

That’s why in this epic run, you meet the secret little army of rogues, willing to do anything, if the pay is enough…

…or if Vader can motivates them to do his biding.

Dr. Aphra, a human female with a deep knowledge about arqueology and droid’s programming; the insidious droids, 000 (Triple-Zero) and BT (Bee-Tee), respectively, a protocol droid (with knowledge of six million of killing techniques) and a blastodroid disguised as astromech (with a vast supply of weapons); the bounty hunter Black Krrsantan (a huge Wookie of dark fur); and a battalion of good ol’ Battle Droids (those “roger-roger” skinny ones from the Clone Wars).

This unlikely band of sassy raiders are resourceful, deceitful and…

…adaptable…

…since not all the time, the members of this merry gang will be in the same side!

Even fighting each other if money or higher orders are in between.


WHAT’S LEFT IN VADER’S ARMOR?

How could you do this?

You were a child. – I am well accustomed to killing children.

Children. Words have power. Words have impact.

And that’s why in Star Wars: Episode III – The Revenge of the Sith, the writers used the word “younglings”, to avoid an upper age rating, since you may not be aware, but certainly there are things you can “say” in a book (or in this case, a comic book), that you can’t get away in a theatrical film, not if you want to keep a “PG-13” rating (but of course, if you see how successful was Deadpool in 2016 with an “R” rating, I don’t know why most movie studios are so pussy about doing films as they deserved to be).

So, when you read the lines, that I quoted in this review’s section, you know without a doubt how low fell the soul of Darth Vader, that by the way, one should wonder how the heck he could be able to unite with the Force in Return of the Jedi, since honestly I don’t think that even with the Pope’s absolution, a Catholic person can kill so many children (not “younglings”), and still able to cross the Heaven’s Gates, oh no, no siree.

I don’t blame Luke’s goal to save the soul of his father, after all, he is a naive idealist farm boy, who never met his dad, and obviously he wants to do the right thing, he wants to believe that there still something good inside Vader’s armor…

…but sometimes, certain people should be punished, not only in this life, but in the other one too, when they commit certain kind of unforgivable crimes.

But don’t get us so ahead in Vader’s story.

In this title, I am glad that the creative team decided to give it an “ending” to the comic book’s run, since any good story (even a good story about evil) should have a closure, and you know that the creative team were able to pull out their goal that was to show how the Vader of A New Hope became the Vader of Empire Strikes Back, that for the casual eye can be seen as the same character, but the keen eye can tell you that it’s not the same character, he must passed through certain trials, he must adquire certain knowledge, he evolved, he changed, and here, you know how and why.

After all, there is a reason why the central character in a story shouldn’t be sloppily called “hero” but instead “protagonist”, since Star Wars showed us how a villain can be the main character of an epic adventure.