"Star Wars: Darth Vader: Vader Down"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Star Wars: Darth Vader: Vader Down” as collected in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                It was a period of unrest in the galaxy. The Sith Lord Darth Vader, enforcer of the Galactic Empire, learned that it was Luke Skywalker who was the rebel pilot responsible for blowing up the Death Star. Vader was now more determined than ever to track down his son and turn him to the dark side. Luke, unaware that Vader is his father, fought against the Empire with the Rebel Alliance. New to the ways of the Force, Luke discovered the journal of Ben Kenobi and began investigating any information he could on the Force-using Jedi Knights and their ways. Through the underworld sources of his secret ally, Dr. Aphra, Vader received word of Luke’s location-the former Jedi temple of the planet Vrogas Vas…

                Vader flew to Vrogas Vas, where he encountered three squadrons of Rebel starfighters. Vader got into a firefight with them and took out two entire squadrons. Luke was with one of the Squadrons and rammed his starfighter into Vader’s Tie fighter. The two ships crashed down onto the surface of Vrogas Vas, and both Luke and Vader survived. Princess Leia of the Rebellion saw this as the perfect opportunity to take out Vader and ordered the Rebel soldiers on Vrogas Vas as well as a battalion of Rebel forces to go after them, a grouping she would be backing up herself. Smuggler and Rebel ally Han Solo, his companion Chewbacca, the droid C-3PO, and Leia boarded Han’s ship the Millenium Falcon and flew to Vrogas Vas. Doctor Aphra, along with her droids 0-0-0 and BT-1, fearful that Vader would believe Aphra had led Vader into a trap, decided to fly to Vrogas Vas to aid Vader. Luke and his droid R2-D2 discovered the Jedi temple, but as Luke was exploring it, he was discovered and rendered unconscious by Aphra and her droids. Aphra attempted to abduct Luke, but Han and Chewbacca found Aphra. Luke woke up, and he and R2-D2 were chased by BT-1, while Chewbacca was poisoned by 0-0-0. Han and Aphra were both attacked by wasp-worms. Luke managed to literally disarm 0-0-0. Luke, Han, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 managed to escape Aphra’s droids. Leia came face to face with Vader and ran. She found C-3PO and ordered him to find Luke and the others, then ordered the Rebel forces to fire on her location at her signal when Vader arrived. Luke, Han, Chewbacca and R2-D2 attempted to fly to Leia’s rescue in the Millenium Falcon but were rammed by the ship of the Wookie bounty hunter Black Krrsantan. Han told Luke to rescue Leia while he and Chewbacca handled Krrsantan. 0-0-0 and BT-1 found C-3PO and took C-3PO’s arms to replace 0-0-0’s missing pair. Vader found Leia, but the Rebel forces were taken out by Commander Karbin and his Imperial forces, who wanted to eliminate Vader and bring Luke to the Emperor. Karbin and Vader had a Lightsaber duel. R2-D2 gave Chewbacca the antidote to the poison. Luke was discovered by Karbin’s Imperial forces Chewbacca was defeated by Krrsantan. Leia had a chance to take out Vader while Vader was dueling Karbin but decided not to make the shot. C-3PO managed to stop Krrsantan. Aphra assisted Vader in ending Karbin. Vader stopped Luke from being abducted. The Rebels managed to capture Aphra and escape.

                Vader returned to the Emperor with the remains of Karbin and asked for a chance to prove himself. The Emperor informed Vader that the ore barons of Shu-Torun were rebelling against Queen Trios and that the Emperor required a full military intervention. Shu-Torun provided many rare metals and minerals and was an asset to the Empire and the Emperor required them to fight against the enemies of the Empire. Grand General Tagge insisted on the inclusion of Doctor Cylo in the mission. Cylo brought his creations Tulon Voidgazer and the twins Morit and Aiolinn with him. Vader destroyed a delving citadel, causing a conflict between himself and Queen Trios, where Vader established how their professional relationship would work. Vader placed a reward for the return of Aphra. Baron Rubix launched an assault on Queen Trios that Vader and the twins were able to fight off. Tagge and Cylo plotted against Vader. Vader went on an assault against Baron Rubix in a combat drill, but the ship went off course. Vader and his Stormtroopers and droid army fought Rubix’ elite troops and forced them into retreat, suggesting Queen Trios lead an attack. Queen Trios’ Chancellor Jooli tried to veto Trios’ order to lead an attack, and Trios had Jooli taken down as a traitor. The twins attacked Vader, and while the twins dueled Vader, Morit thinned the field, then escaped. Queen Trios breached Baron Rubix’ defenses and had him eliminated, setting up a new baronry. Vader’s adjutant Inspector Thanoth contacted Vader to inform him Aphra had been found.

                The Emperor informed Vader that Cylo had gone rogue and had to be destroyed. Vader confronted Thanoth, who revealed to Vader that Thanoth was aware of Vader’s machinations with Aphra and plans for Luke, revealing Aphra’s location on the Cosmatanic Steppes, before Vader eliminated Thanoth. Vader ordered 0-0-0, BT-1, and Black Krrsantan to return Aphra to the Executor, the Emperor’s flagship, and failing that, to silence her. Vader confronted Professor Thlu-ry to learn the location of Cylo in the Crushank Nebulae. Aphra surrendered to 0-0-0, BT-1 and Krrsantan. Vader boarded Cylo’s Whale Ship, where he was confronted by Voidgazer, who pitted Vader against Cylo’s cyberanimated Rancor. Vader defeated it, then turned Voidgazer’s own system against her, then destroyed the Whale Ship. Cylo attempted to steal the Executor. Vader disabled it, preventing Cylo’s escape. 0-0-0 and BT-1 rescued Aphra from the Executor’s holding cells. Cylo sent Morit after Vader and the two had a Lightsaber duel to the finish. Krrsantan assisted Aphra. Vader confronted Cylo, who shut down Vader’s cybernetics. Vader went through a mind trip, which enabled him to find the strength to reactivate, then he ended Cylo’s current body, but Cylo had emergency backups, ready to transfer his consciousness into should one of his bodies meet its demise. Aphra made her way to the Emperor’s chambers, where she revealed all the details of her alliance with Vader and his machinations, all save for the secret of Luke Skywalker. Vader confronted Cylo for the final time in his Whale Fleet. The Emperor had a discussion with Vader about what he thought of all of Vader’s dealings. Vader ended his alliance with Aphra. Vader then planned how to move forward.

                Okay, so we’ve got the plot synopsis out of the way, let’s go on to my input about this graphic novel. As my regular readers know, I always start with my own personal feelings about the book, and I will once again follow suit in this review. So, I will say that I found this book to be extremely enjoyable. I’ve already reviewed the “Vader Down” story arc in my review for “Star Wars: Skywalker Strikes” if you wish for a comparison piece. I highly enjoyed that story arc. The action was great, the story was exciting, the characters were used in the proper canon fashion. I love Doctor Aphra and her murder droids, I feel they add levity to the story. I like Krrsantan, I actually just recently discovered he appeared in the Disney+ series “The Book of Boba Fett” in live action, but he first appeared in the “Star Wars” comics. I enjoyed all the plot twists of who turned out to truly be allies and who turned out to be enemies. And I particularly marveled at the ending, which displayed just how dark Darth Vader could be if you crossed him. Darth Vader is a great cinematic villain, and a comic book series devoted to him solely is quite entertaining, something we never truly got to see on film, unless you want to call “The Clone Wars” about Anakin, but that series never truly displayed Anakin’s dark side the way this comic series has. In the two volumes released so far, the reader sees Vader make many machinations in his plot to first discover who destroyed the Death Star, then upon learning that this pilot was his son, he did everything he could to learn Luke’s location so he could turn his son to the dark side, and he would do absolutely anything he could to achieve this goal, no matter who he had to use or betray to do so along the way. I really loved the way Kieron Gillen depicted Vader in this series, and he highlighted this character so well. His ultimatum with Queen Trios was quite strict, and it showed exactly how in control of everything Vader was, considering how he placed Trios into the position she ascended to, and her reestablishment of the baronry was parallel to Vader’s actions, and her having Jooli out of the picture to get her way illustrated how much of Vader’s puppet she was, and I found her to be a complex character. I enjoyed watching Cylo’s descent further into villainy as the series progressed, especially his attempts at immortality and his creations. My big complaint, however, is my love/hate relationship with the artwork of Salvador Larroca. I’ve been conflicted with his art in the past, there have been times where I’ve really enjoyed it, and times where I’ve just been displeased by it. More recently, I’ve come to generally dislike it. There’s something in particular about the way he draws Darth Vader’s helmet that I dislike. There’s something about how he draws human faces that bothers me as well, they just don’t have a natural appearance to them. That said, the characters are portrayed by all the artists recognizably as their film counterparts. I would also love to see Doctor Aphra, 0-0-0, and BT-1 appear onscreen in a future “Star Wars” project. We have to also discuss the title. I’m a huge stickler on having the title of the graphic novel be appropriate to the content of the inside of the book. This book had three potential titles, “Vader Down,” “The Shu-Torun War,” “End of Games,” or they could have decided on calling it something else completely random. “Vader Down” and “End of Games” were the best of the choices in my opinion, and I do feel “End of Games” would have been a superior title, but “Vader Down” is an adequate title as well. I also mentioned in my last post that from then on, I would also be discussing the appropriateness of the cover as applied to the content of the book. This book uses the cover of “Darth Vader” #12, depicting Darth Vader with his hand outstretched superimposed over a Rebel squadron including the Millenium Falcon. This generally applies to the “Vader Down” story arc, which covers over a third of the book, so in my opinion, I feel like this cover is a decent enough choice for the cover. Going back to the inside content, as far as the story goes for this book, I really enjoyed it, but the art did fall flat throughout the majority of this graphic novel. But I will say that overall, I was able to find this a pleasurable experience to read and consume.

                Next up on our agenda of topics is accessibility. Now, I know there are some of you who are wondering what the heck I mean when I use the word “accessibility” like this, and there are some of you who have been with me for others of the seven or so dozen times I’ve done these reviews. If you’re not in the know, fret not, for I shall explain, and for those of you who already know what I’m about to say, please hang in there as I once again give my little speech. Anyway, in the case of a graphic novel, if I say “accessibility” I mean can a person who knows absolutely nothing about “Star Wars” purchase this book, read it, and fully understand everything they just consumed without having any prior outside knowledge of the source material. I will say that in this case, that is a relatively big no. This graphic novel continues directly out of both “Star Wars: Skywalker Strikes” and “Star Wars: Darth Vader: Shadows and Secrets” and not having read both is a major hindrance on understanding this graphic novel. On top of that, this graphic novel also requires knowledge of events from four of the “Star Wars” movies, “The Phantom Menace,” “Attack of the Clones,” “Revenge of the Sith,” and “A New Hope.” I don’t feel like anyone who is not a fan of “Star Wars” can read this graphic novel and truly appreciate it for all its complexities.

                Continuing on, we’re going to discuss one of the main purposes of these kinds of reviews: the numeric score. I know some of you come to my blog to know exactly how good I think a book is after I read it before they decide to spend their money on a costly investment such as a Marvel Epic Collection. I know I have at least one person (you know who you are) who comes to this blog just so they can hear about a graphic novel and not have to buy it to know the story, which is why I’ve tried to put a crackdown on spoilers compared to previous posts (granted the ending to this graphic novel really isn’t all that unexpected if you know “Star Wars” lore). Anyway, people come to this blog mostly to hear about these stories and hear my own personal opinion of the quality of these books more than any other topic in these reviews. So, let’s just get right on to it. I have a very simple system on which I score books on. My system goes from exact integers from one through ten. The lowest score I can possibly give is a one, and that means that this book is so horrible that every remaining copy in stock should immediately be removed, put in a large pile, and be ignited until all traces of it is gone from existence, and the print should be wiped from memory so this flaming pile of trash can never be reprinted. If I give a book a ten (which is highly unlikely), then this book is sheer perfection and I would not understand it if this book does not do well in sales and I’d honestly wish every copy would be bought off the shelves and reprints would be frequently necessary to get this gold mine into every home that it belongs in. I know those are extreme examples, and I’m honestly joking, I’d never condone burning a book, let alone wiping an entire piece of history from existence, and I also know my opinions are my opinions and not everyone is going to want to buy the same books that I buy. All that aside, I do not believe that this book was a flaming pile of trash. But I also don’t believe it was a gold mine, either. I will say that I feel like this book exceeded average expectations but did not live up to grand expectations. So, the score we’re looking at here instead is… drumroll please… a seven! This may come as a surprise to you and seem low, compared to how I’ve been praising this book, but in all honesty, the story was not perfect enough to get a higher score, and the artwork brought the score down a bit as well. I also preferred the title “End of Games” compared to “Vader Down.” I think the best this book could have hoped for was an eight, and I don’t think it was quite on that level, so I feel like a seven is an adequate score.

                Continuing on, we’re going to the topic of recommendation. In this segment, I will tell you two things. The first thing I will tell you is if I personally would recommend this graphic novel to you, my readers, or to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught up in conversation with me about this graphic novel. The second thing I will tell you is, regardless of if I would personally tell you to read this book or not, who do I think is the best audience for this graphic novel, moving beyond the obvious of “Star Wars” fans. So, in answer to my first question, yes, this graphic novel gets the Tim Cubbin seal of approval. If you are reading this review and even if you know nothing about “Star Wars” but want to read this book based solely on everything I’ve spent the past several hours writing, I say go for it. Or, of course, if you’re a diehard “Star Wars” fan, I’d say just go to your favorite bookstore, or comic shop, or online retailer, or local library if you’re lucky, and look for this book, I honestly think you would enjoy it. As for an audience outside of “Star Wars” fandom, if you love science fiction or action or space stories, this is a good read for you. If you like books about robots, this is a good pick for you. If you enjoy stories about villains told from the perspective of the villain that heroizes them, this book is perfect for you. And if you like stories where the villain is not actually the true villain, this book may be just right for you.

                Okay, I’ve been prattling on for a long time, I think we’re all ready to get on with our lives. There are a few things I do have to say before I click post. The first is that I have been doing this blog for five years now and have done over 170 posts. There is a lot of content on this blog. While the majority of this blog is reviews of Marvel Epic Collections, there is other content as well, such as a collection of short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so if you have the time, feel free to keep browsing on timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content. I’ve done over seven dozen reviews of Marvel Epic Collections. I have also done reviews of prose novels, manga, and comic book events as well. My current main focus is on Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase each one as soon as I can after their release and if possible, throw up a review at my earliest convenience after finishing reading it. I currently have in my possession “All-New Wolverine: The Four Sisters,” you can expect a review of that book by next week. If you enjoyed this review, there are plenty of other “Star Wars” reviews, so feel free to check out my reviews of “Star Wars: Skywalker Strikes,” “Star Wars: Darth Vader: Shadows and Secrets,” “Star Wars: Yoda’s Secret War,” and “Star Wars: Kanan: The Last Padawan” for more “Star Wars” content. I post on a very frequent basis, usually at least once a month, so check back often for more of my work. I don’t plan on stopping doing this anytime soon, I’m going to keep doing this until either my eyes, hands, or body fails and I’m incapable of typing any longer, so you can probably expect that won’t be for a long time. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!