SPOILER Marvel's Star Wars Darth Vader #11

This arc is finally starting to ramp back up for me. If you haven't been following along, it's been a confusing and bloated last few issues of Darth Vader. This series started out great, but this arc is a bit more of a slow burn than the previous one. That's fine, but some of the writing started to feel redundant and the characters were chasing their tails (an act that is excruciating to the reader). I'm happy that Darth Vader is gaining steam.



We open with Doctor Aphra in a tourist destination called The Spire, a station at the edge of a cosmic storm. I love seeing these new, strange, and extraordinary locations in the Star Wars universe. She is pressing a source for information about Luke Skywalker. Apparently, the price on Luke's head is possibly higher than the one Jabba had on Han's. Doctor Aphra pays the fee with her newly acquired wealth and finds out he is on a planet called Vragos Vos, which makes me think we are headed for another series convergence. Luke is not there yet in the other series, but it could very well be later than we have seen so far.





Vader and Thanoth are hot on the trail of the arms dealer called the Dragon. It has brought them to the Spire as well. The back and forth between Vader and the investigator is becoming a little tired to me. Thanoth intrigued me, at first, but now I'm just waiting for Vader to get fed up with him and take a lightsaber to his monocle. Vader is still nervous and that becomes clear when they catch up with Ante, the same person who sold Doctor Aphra Luke's location.





Ante is quick to give her up, but Vader realizes Aphra has been playing him the whole time and resorts to some drastic measures to catch up with her while avoiding any chance for Thanoth to get a word in. Vader, as we expect, offers nothing more than a quick death to Aphra. She lets him know that she knows where Luke is, but Vader had to pay to play.



After Vader stages her elaborate escape, it turns out Thanoth had plans of his own on how to keep Aphra from escaping.



This arc seems to have a bit more direction now. I'm excited to read the follow-up issue. I wouldn't pick this over Shattered Empire if I were watching my pennies, but it's definitely worth a read at some point.

@Hard Case pointed out this is the second only canonical appearance of a Yoda species character. Good eye!

 

The review is up

 

I admit I was a bit lost. Thank you!

 

Thank you! I knew this and completely spaced it. My 9-5 has been a 9-9 the last week. I appreciate the help.

--- Double Post Merged, Oct 22, 2015, Original Post Date: Oct 22, 2015 ---

Anyone think Ante resembles the Scream mask?

 

I guess the reason I felt she crossed him is because she took a shortcut to getting Luke's identity and did it as a way to cover her own ass. I know they are working together, but I thought this was her way of getting a little leverage on him. Totally my perspective and I could be wrong. That's just where I was coming from, as a few others have pointed this out.

 

Thank you! I'm very excited about the Vader Down special myself. Should be an interesting story. I'm also hoping they are plan to wrap up the stories that take place exclusively between ANH and TESB. I'm hoping they take the characters beyond ROTJ, or have a Lando series between TESB and ROTJ, or a Vader series in the same gap.

I know we have to wait until after the release of TFA, but I really hope we get some stories set all over the timeline. It's getting harder and harder to buy Luke's naivety in TESB with all the crazy things he's getting himself out of. Then again, maybe they are trying to cover for the fact he became one of the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy with less than a day of formal training by Yoda and a lot of his skills were self-taught.