REVIEW: DARTH VADER #3

DARTH VADER #3

Vader has had its ups and downs, but overall, it’s been a pretty good series. The reason it’s number three is because they rebooted the series to jump the timeline to after the Empire Strikes Back. This story began prior to the outbreak, so it’s been a while since the last issue was released. It must have been pretty good since after all of these months I still remember it.

Vader receives a mysterious visitor and he can’t believe his eyes. It’s Padme, but Padme is dead. Her demise came as a result of a broken heart at the end of the Revenge of the Sith right after giving birth to twins, winning her the mother of the year award. But we won’t talk about that tomfoolery. Let’s move on.

Thankfully, the writer didn’t decide to bring Padme back to life. Instead, the mysterious visitor is one of her decoy handmaidens. I thought this was a good twist and I could buy into it pretty easily. She is willing to share her information with Vader if he helps her track down Padme’s killer. He agrees.

Vader and his new ally travel to Naboo, which dredges up sensitive memories for him. This is a really nice couple of pages in regard to the art. Good work guys. The handmaiden, named Sabe, leads them to a room with a bunch of soldiers, whom Vader immediately attacks. Sabe yells for him to stop, that they are the queen’s former soldiers from the palace. Reluctantly, he lets them go. Gotta love Vader.

They take a sub through the undersea trenches, where they are practically killed by a giant gator-like creature. Though the sub is destroyed, Vader slices it in half. No breakfast for monsters today. They break through a wall to find an area where they locate a holo-device holding a message from Padme, but the droid deduces that it’s actually Sabe, pledging to find Padme’s killer.

Realizing too late that it’s a trap, Vader ignites his sabre. They accuse him of killing Padme and he admits it (though it might be true only figuratively). They zap his respirator with an EMP, just as a big monster comes down to eat them all. Uh oh.

The writers are doing a good job of keeping things interesting with a character, much like the Mandalorian, who doesn’t say much. Events seem to happen around him, and it’s how he reacts to them that feeds his character and the story. If you’re a Star Wars fan, definitely one to check out.

About Author

Frank Zanca

…began working in local television at the age of 22 when he became a Promotional Producer for Channel 9, the Orlando ABC affiliate. During this time he wrote and produced thirty-second spots for the newscast and syndicated shows such as Geraldo and Sally Jesse Raphael. Later he worked as a Production Assistant on NBC’s Gonzo Games and Dick Clark’s Sea World Summer Spectacular. Frank created and wrote his first comic book, which was distributed internationally under the name of Shadow Raven. For a number of years, Frank worked in Sales and then moved into Marketing where he became CFO and later President of two Independent marketing firms that were later sold for several million dollars. Recently Frank helped design Shadow Raven: the Combat Card Game, which was distributed internationally and has written the Shadow Raven novel (to be released next year). Frank is currently producing Shadow Raven: Fading Thoughts, a thirty-minute pilot, which is designed to become a feature film or television series.

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