Star Wars: Darth Vader by Greg Pak vol. 1 — Dark Heart of the Sith

With all of the “Star Wars” titles transitioning over to the post-”Empire Strikes Back” period, it’s unsurprising that Marvel has decided to launch a new “Darth Vader” series to go along with them.  The movie may not offer as ideal a jumping off point for such a thing as “A New Hope” did, but writer Greg Pak has found a good one by digging into Vader’s mind during his battle with Luke at Cloud City and his son’s subsequent escape.  You see, Vader is PISSED at the fact that Luke wouldn’t join him and rather than using that as a chance for some self-reflection, he’s decided to take it out on those responsible for hiding his son away from him.  His search takes him first to Tatooiine, then to Coruscant, and then to the remote planet of Vendaxa, where he comes face-to-face with someone that he never thought he’d see again.

By the time this is all done, Vader will be before Palpatine again with the Emperor admonishing his servant for wallowing in grief.  When I read this, I thought, “You know, he’s got a point.”  There are A LOT of flashbacks to scenes from the prequel trilogy as Pak tries to play up the Jedi Vader used to be versus the Sith Lord he is now.  While there is some novelty in trying to suggest that these movies had more emotional weight than we all know them to have, it’s eventually lost through overuse as it eventually feels like the writer is using them as a “cite to text” approach in his thesis statement.  In the end, it’s much as Palpatine states:  Five issues of Vader wallowing in grief.

It’s possible things could’ve been helped along with better art.  Raffaele Ienco illustrates these five issues and he can deliver the expected “Star Wars” look with an appreciable level of detail.  Unfortunately there’s a stiffness to his characters and action that saps the more dramatic scenes of their weight.  So while there are some scenes that feel like they should knock your socks off — like when Vader takes on a giant underwater sea beast — they don’t hit as hard as they should.  Still, I can see what Pak was getting at here even if the execution didn’t quite land.  I will say that Palpatine makes a convincing case on the last page to check out vol. 2 as he has his own plan to help Vader get his groove back.