Current Favorites: Darth Vader #12

     I told Mark Adams that today's post would be an "Overlooked Gems of the Golden Age" spotlighting the King, but then I read Darth Vader #12.  Man, the Star Wars line from Marvel has a whole has been top-notch, but this title has to be the best of the bunch.  Kieron Gillen does a great job laying duplicitous layer on top of duplicitous layer as we see the different political machinations at work within the Empire, and he does it by adding to the mythos instead of recycling it.  Also a highlight is Salvador Larocca's art.  Salvador brings his A-game here conveying Vader's emotions purely though his body language.  This issue did not fail to live up to the expectations.  This issue concludes the current story arc which sees Darth Vader in a precarious position.  Currently abused and out of favor with the Emperor, Vader has started to make moves to establish a separate power base which has included stealing several thousands of credits from the Empire which he has used to secretly acquire a droid factory and search for the mysterious young pilot who destroyed the Death Star.  The Emperor has seconded him to Moff Tagge, who has paired him with one of the Empire's lead investigators, Thanatos.  Now he and Thanatos are on the outskirts of a cloud nebula hiding the thief, who works for Vader.  How will Vader get out of this?  In a word?  Masterfully.  Since this is a rather recent comic, I won't say more, but if you like Star Wars comics and can only afford one to add to your pile make it this one. 

    I'll leave you with a brief blog update.  There more than likely won't be a post until Tuesday-Wednesday of next week. I'll be having a little downtime with the family over the weekend, and I want to also take a small break from the reading order (2-3 nights, maybe a week) to catch-up a little more on current comics based primarily on the Vader Down cross-over and the ending to the current Secret Wars.