Star Wars: Dark Times vol. 7 — A Spark Remains
After seven volumes, the stories of Dass Jennir and the crew of the Uhumele come to an end. Interestingly, this is the only “Star Wars” comic series in recent history where the writing duties changed hands over the course of the series. Dark Horse co-founder Randy Stradley took over from original writer Mick Harrison with vol. 5, but the series hasn’t suffered for it. Granted, Stradley’s skills as a writer are nothing to write home about yet he crafts a satisfying conclusion and a suitable showcase for the title’s real selling point: Doug Wheatley’s art.
For the first time since the first volume the entire cast is back together on the Uhumele. There are also some new additions in the form of Dass’ new girlfriend Ember and the insectoid Jedi Beyghor Sahdett. It’s Sahdett that gets the plot of this volume going with an audacious plan to cut the Empire’s might in half — all by assassinating Darth Vader. Meanwhile, the Dark Lord of the Sith himself is busy putting assassin/bounty hunter Falco Sang through his paces in order to turn the man into something he can use in his quest to find the last of the Jedi. Though Vader has tasked an officer with finding these hidden Jedi, the Emperor is aware of his pupil’s plans and making his own to deal with that.
Wheatley’s art has been a great selling point for this series ever since it began. The ultra-detailed look of his work was breathtaking to behold, and he perfectly captured the look of “Star Wars” while making the new additions to the mythos mesh perfectly with the old. Unfortunately, such a detailed style was ultimately not compatible with the plans for the issues of this title to be serialized on a monthly basis. I can only imagine that’s why Wheatley streamlined his style for vol. 5 to something significantly less-detailed but still eye-catching.
That trend is reversed somewhat here as there’s more to appreciate in the backgrounds of the various worlds the cast visits. We also get some nicely choreographed fight scenes once the lightsabers come out and Vader shows us why he’s a being to be feared. However, for all this talk about detail, it also bears mentioning that Wheatley is also quite good with the expressiveness of the cast. While making humans emote is easy, the artist makes it so that we can tell what inexpressive insectoid Jedi are thinking when the action heats up.
I wouldn’t say that Wheatley’s work carries the script and story. It certainly does elevate them, though. If Stradley has a weakness as a writer, it’s that he’s got a certain amount of clunkiness to work through when it comes to characterization and plot mechanics. You can see it in his overreach with the ending of the previous volume, and in things like Ember’s harpy-like reactions to Dass’ ineptitude at dealing with the fairer sex, as well as the reveal of who the hidden speaker was in the volume’s opening pages. Surely there was a better way to pull that off than in repeating the exact same pages from before.
Even with these issues, Stradley does craft an engaging story thanks to the ideas and twists it has at its core. While we all know that any attempt to assassinate Darth Vader is bound to end in failure, that whole bit turns out to be a clever bit of misdirection on the writer’s part as we find that Dass is actually one step ahead of the game here. The idea that the Jedi is closer in spirit to an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances is also played up here again. Even with his abilities, nothing ever comes easy to Dass as we see during the fight in the casino. Yet he always goes for the right choice, no matter how hard it is, and you can understand why that kind of ethic would win over Master Hudorra to his side later on.
On the other side of the equation, Vader comes off as an imposing force through much of the volume and a credible threat in the final conflict. There’s always the risk of undercutting the character’s standing as a when he’s used in stories as the main antagonist. Unless you want to have the good guys all die at his hands, it’s hard to carve out a satisfyingly upbeat ending without making the Dark Lord look just a little incompetent. Here, Stradley manages a good balance between these things as nearly everyone gets what they want in the end. I’ll also say that Vader’s “tutelage” of Sang is also good for a few dark laughs as the man winds up having to please the most imposing teacher of all.
Overall, “Star Wars: Dark Times” isn’t one of the standout titles in the franchise that Dark Horse has published. It certainly had its moments, but it never really surprised or really got the chance to dig into its interesting time period. What it did have was some always-impressive art from Wheatley and a cast made likeable and interesting by the efforts of its two writers. If you’ve already worked your way through the “Clone Wars,” “Legacy,” “Knights of the Old Republic,” and the other contributions by Johns “Ostrander” and “Jackson Miller” then this is certainly worth a look then.
(Best to look into doing that now before they all go out of print…)