Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Raffaele Ienco
Color Artist: Federico Blee
Cover Artists: Leinil Francis Yu & Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
Darth Vader has been tested by threats within and without for some time now. And he’s had it with them all. Hostile Imperials, would-be assassins, galactic threats, even his own master Emperor Palpatine. But now, Lord Vader has found a potential new asset in the Droid Scourge, and it has sets it sights on him as well. Read Star Wars: Darth Vader #41 to see who wins the battle of wills between Lord Vader and the Droid Scourge.
Review:
Last issue, Darth Vader sought to challenge and test his master, Emperor Palpatine, on the Galactic Empire’s own capital world of Coruscant. He attacked with his own private army of droids, he even allowed Scourged droids that stowed away on his ship to join the fray, believing all these chaotic factors would give him an edge. It didn’t as Emperor Palpatine proved not only his better in the dark side but also showed why he’s Vader’s master. To that end, Vader allowed a lone Scourged disk droid to implant its essence into his suit.
Now, this merger should have nightmarish ramifications for not only Darth Vader but the entire galaxy. Or at least, it would if there was ever any real danger of the Scourge overtaking Vader, but there isn’t. And this is where we get to the first flaw of the comic: there’s no real danger to Darth Vader, not even from the Scourge overtaking his suit’s systems. This also leads into another problem, that this doesn’t lead to anything truly interesting for Greg Pak to do, which is more of a consequence of this whole Dark Droids event than anything else. Granted, Greg Pak could have done something with this, especially the angle that the Scourge is genuinely pursuing Darth Vader above all others in the galaxy because he’s a cyborg and a powerful Sith. Unfortunately, it goes nowhere.
On top of that, Greg Pak introduces a new storyline at the end of the issue, one that I believe will also go nowhere substantial for Darth Vader. Essentially, he sets up a new secret Imperial faction plotting against the Emperor called the “Schism Imperial” whose objective seems to kill Palpatine and bring “order” at the time of this issue. And they’ve been watching live footage of Vader’s battle as they decide on whether to recruit him into their organization. The problem is we’ve seen this already play out in earlier story arcs of the series where someone tempts Darth Vader and/or his minions to switch sides or turn on the Emperor at least. But it never really works out, and Vader just ends up using and killing them. Ultimately, this story idea on its own doesn’t have much going for it, other than Vader has new enemies to manipulate and kill.
Now, with all of that said, there are a few good things in this comic, namely the art. In previous reviews I’ve criticized Raffaele Ienco’s art but here is where he excels thanks to the story in this comic actually lending itself to his type of art. As a result, Darth Vader not only looks good, his actions and the resulting combat that takes place in the comic is great to look at.
Final Thoughts:
Star Wars: Darth Vader #41 concludes this portion of Vader’s part in the Dark Droids event. After his defeat against the Emperor, Vader seemingly allows the Scourge to merge with him, but it’s a ploy from the Dark Lord to gain its power for himself. The comic doesn’t take the idea too far into any interesting directions, but we get some good art with Vader in action against the Scourged droids.