Star Wars #14 - Marvel Comics

STAR WARS No. 14, March 2016

As the penultimate instalment to a six-issue crossover event involving the other “Marvel Worldwide” titles “Vader Down” and “Star Wars: Darth Vader”, this actual edition of “Star Wars” was presumably a complete nightmare to understand for any of its 118, 471 readers should they have unwisely decided to try and navigate the twenty-page periodical’s narrative without at least contemplating the comic’s ‘opening crawl’. Indeed, several of this book’s most dramatic moments appear to be based upon an intimate, almost encyclopaedic, understanding of Kieron Gillen’s take on “a galaxy, far, far away” rather than George Lucas’, and resultantly, the arrival of Commander Karbin, Chewbacca’s pasting at the hands of a Wookie bounty hunter and the villainous Doctor Aphra’s motivation for sparing Luke Skywalker, all arguably generate a sense of utter bemusement and suffer a significant loss of impact…

Perhaps the biggest example of this perplexity is the appearance of an imperial male Mon Calamari leading his own squad of stormtroopers. Surprisingly capable of wielding no less than four light-sabres, courtesy of “a cybernetic body inspired by that of the late General Grievous”, it soon becomes abundantly clear through the characters’ conversation, that Karbin and Vader have some significant history and would like nothing better than to see the other dead. But without an intimate knowledge of the Sith Lord’s own series, it’s intolerably difficult to know that the former Clone Wars commander has actually been “trained to replace Darth Vader” as Emperor Palpatine’s new apprentice, and that the leader of the Galactic Empire has actually actively encouraged such blatant treachery between his senior staff; “Today I take your place at the Emperor’s side! While you take yours in the grave!!!”  

Chewbacca’s decidedly one-way fist-fight with Black Krrsantan is similarly as mystifying, until Han Solo rather woodenly explains out loud (to no-one in particular) that the Millennium Falcon’s co-pilot has somehow got “who-knows-how-much Mandalorian Xenotox coursing through his veins”, and therefore needs a certain “useless trash barrel” to give him a “shot” in order to recover his formidable strength. Admittedly once illuminated, the previous few pages depicting ‘Chewie’ getting smacked about the Corellian YT-1300f light freighter makes perfect sense, but up until this point, the Kashyyyk-born smuggler’s utter impotence against his black-furred rival is both puzzling and perplexing.

For those who didn’t mind such backstory quibbles though, Issue Fourteen of “Star Wars” undoubtedly contains some superbly thrilling, action set-pieces; all of which are wonderfully illustrated by Brazilian comic book artist Mike Deodato. In fact, in many ways it’s a pity that this publication doesn’t focus more upon Vader’s literally glowing, four-page light-sabre battle with Karbin deep within the Jedi Temple on Vrogas Vas, rather than flit back and forth between the exploits of Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewbacca.

The regular cover art of "STAR WARS" No. 14 by Mark Brooks

Star Wars #13 - Marvel Comics

STAR WARS No. 13, February 2016

For those bibliophiles either unwilling or unable to purchase the preceding instalments of the “Vader Down” cross-title multi-issue story-arc, the “opening crawl” to Issue Thirteen of “Star Wars” provides an invaluable recap of the events that have caused Luke Skywalker to crash land upon the planet Vrogas Vas and subsequently fall into the hands of the Sith Lord’s allies. However as informative as this succinct summary is, it still then actually requires Jason Aaron to then script several more pages of clumsily worded exposition for those readers ignorant of the “Darth Vader” characters Doctor Aphra, Bee-Tee and Triple-Zero to acquire a basic understanding as to where Kieron Gillen’s creations stand within the series’ official canon.

As a result this twenty-page periodical is arguably already close to being a third of the way through before its overriding story-arc actually proceeds further forward, and Han Solo starts a particularly enjoyable ‘stand-off’ with the “foremost raider of lost weapons in the galaxy.” Such a frustrating wait is though, well worth it once the bullets start flying and Chewbacca angrily tears the arm off of the female archaeologist’s homicidal silver-skinned protocol droid; “What have you done, you fur-brained amateur-dismemberer?! That was my best dissecting hand!”

In fact the interplay between George Lucas’ Rebels and Gillen’s latest inhabitants of a “galaxy far, far away” is superbly written with its dialogue being both dangerously sinister and disconcertingly deadly, as well as impishly sarcastic and ‘laugh-out-loud’ fun. Certainly few of this comic’s 139,918 owners wouldn’t have at least smiled broadly as the Millennium Falcon’s hairy co-pilot brutally beats down an indignant Triple-Zero with the robot’s own arm, or smirked at the Corellian smuggler’s misplaced roguish confidence when he believes his opponent has taken “cover right beneath a hive of wasp-worms”, little knowing that he has done precisely the same thing.  

Sadly Mike Deodata’s artwork does take a little getting used to on account of the Brazilian penciller’s wonderfully detailed yet somewhat sketchily styled illustrations. Admittedly his “more simplified, photo-realistic and sometimes moody” drawings of the “foul-mouthed little astromech” Artoo-Deetoo and heavily weaponed Bee-Tee are superbly rendered, especially when Vader’s gun-toting automaton launches an impressive barrage of missiles and warheads after a fleeing Skywalker and Solo. But the former “Wonder Woman” artist’s lack-lustre and awkward-looking panels featuring Princess Leia and Delta Squad disconcertingly leave a good deal to be desired.

The regular cover art of "STAR WARS" No. 13 by Mark Brooks

Star Wars: Vader Down #1 - Marvel Comics

STAR WARS: VADER DOWN No. 1, January 2016

Despite being depicted as a mysteriously all-powerful villain during the original "Star Wars" motion picture trilogy, Darth Vader was never arguably imbued with any especially 'mind-blowing' abilities except the occasional force choke and manipulation of inanimate objects, such as some pieces of Cloud City machinery in "The Empire Strikes Back". Indeed, whilst on the 'Silver Screen', even the Emperor Palpatine, a long-standing Sith Master, seems to have been limited to nothing greater than a talent for discharging deadly lightning bolts from his fingertips. However, this situation seems to have somewhat dramatically changed since "Marvel Worldwide" started publishing a flotilla of comics based upon George Lucas' "galaxy far, far away" in 2015, with the "enforcer of the Galactic Empire" apparently receiving an especially impressive ‘upgrade’ to the point where during Jason Aaron’s “Skywalker Strikes” story-arc the black-armoured warrior was shown to be capable of bringing all the dreadful might of a gigantic AT-AT walker to its knees purely through his manipulation of the dark side of the force.

Somewhat disconcertingly Issue One of “Star Wars: Vader Down”, the second-best selling comic book of November 2015 having sold an astonishing 384,969 issues upon its release, undoubtedly ramps up the Sith Lord’s powers even further and in many ways actually portrays a ludicrously omnipotent Anakin Skywalker, who not only single-handedly takes “out a whole [X-Wing] squadron without so much as a scratch on his TIE [Fighter]” but also casually challenges “an entire company” of mobilised Rebel troopers. Considering the American author’s script is set shortly after the Battle of Yavin, it is hard to imagine just how so invincible a titular character could have allowed the destruction of the (first) Death Star to occur, especially when the Alabama-born writer has Darth nonchalantly destroy the airborne Y-Wing bombers of Gray Squadron courtesy of some well-flung pieces of debris; “Mother of Moons! Aaaaaggghh!”

Aaron’s narrative also suffers on account of the contrived circumstances upon which his cross-title event’s basic premise is based. Having conveniently “received word of Luke’s location” Vader surprisingly abandons “his secret ally, Doctor Aphra” and the rest of his formidable Imperial resources and rather naively decides to visit “the former Jedi temple on the planet Vrogas Vas alone…” Why would “the most dangerous man in the galaxy” and a supposedly keen strategist do such a reckless thing when he knows that his prey is part of the Rebellion, and therefore will almost certainly be accompanied by Alliance forces?

Sadly Mike Deodata’s artwork is equally as ‘spotty’ as this giant-size comic’s storyline. There is no doubting that the Brazilian’s pencilling for Darth’s epic space battle against “three squadrons of Rebel starfighters” is dynamically detailed; especially the sequence's double-splash pages and additional panels depicting the various X-Wing pilots’ reactions to the utter carnage the Sith Lord’s enhanced TIE-fighter is causing. But as soon as the situation momentarily quietens, and the book’s focus turns to Skywalker’s friends on board the Rebel Fleet, then the former Nineties “Wonder Woman” artist seems to really struggle to draw his figures with any consistency.

The 'Retailer' variant cover art of "STAR WARS: VADER DOWN" No. 1