Star Wars: Darth Vader by Greg Pak vol. 6 — Return of the Handmaidens

Pak’s run on this title has been uneven, to say the least.  While the first volume didn’t impress, the second one did, and the quality has been seesawing back and forth between these posts ever since.  Never quite good enough to stand alongside previous “Darth Vader” series, yet never bad enough to get me to give up on it entirely.  Which brings us to vol. 6 and the hope that this particular run has finally, FINALLY found its groove.

As the subtitle implies, “Return of the Handmaidens” involves the group of former assistants to Padme Amidala returning to this series after making a brief appearance in the first volume.  I had all but forgotten about them, save for Sabe and her ongoing role as his agent/confidant/partner-in-crime for most missions.  I say “partner-in-crime” to be cute about their relationship, but Pak frames their relationship in a way in this volume that makes it much more interesting here.

That’s because these former handmaidens, Rabe, Sache, Eritae, and Dorme, have finally learned what Sabe has been up to since falling in with Vader.  Courtesy of a captive and oh-so-willing-to-talk Ochi of Bestoon.  They realize that their comrade may not just be out of her depth, but succumbing to the malign influence of Vader.  Sabe doesn’t see it that way, of course.  In addition to believing that there is still good in the Sith Lord, she is also convinced that she can use his power to save lives in the process.  Even if there’s a lot of collateral damage along the way.

I like this new development.  Even if it makes this series more about Sabe than Vader, it’s an interesting angle to pursue since we know that Vader really can’t change.  Pak tries to tie Vader’s machinations with Sabe as a way to resolve his frustrations with being unable to convince Padme that his actions were right.  That’s not a bad idea, but it’s still an open question of whether the former handmaiden will be corrupted by the power available to her.  I don’t know if this has been the writer’s plan from the beginning, yet I’m much more interested in re-reading the series to see if that’s the case or if this is just a clever retcon.

If there’s one thing that doesn’t quite work here, it’s that the other handmaidens don’t have a lot of personality themselves.  That I know all their names comes from one scene where Sub-Administrator Moore illustrates what the Empire knows about all of them, and that’s all the backstory we get.  They’re really just glorified plot devices in this volume who are meant to remind the reader of what Sabe was like before she met Vader and to set up a moral choice for her between her old life and this current one.

As for the title character himself, he still gets some good scenes here.  We get to see him try to tempt the handmaidens over to his side, which could also be seen as a way of further validating his life’s choices.  Better still is his response to their threat to blow up the Executor using control codes they hacked from his suit.

Still, this volume is Sabe’s show and now I’m very much invested in seeing where Pak takes her from here.  It’d be nice if we could get a coherent artistic vision back for this title, however, as regular artist Raffaele Ienco only illustrates one issue here.  Luke Ross and Ibraim Roberson do quality work with the two issues they each handle, so if Ienco is getting tired of this assignment, I’d gladly see them take over on a regular basis.  Particularly as the next volume promises some potentially devastating Force-based carnage…