The basic premise is brilliant. Vader tracks down Luke to what should be a deserted planet and comes out of hyperspace into the midst of three Rebel squadrons on a refueling run. In order to prevent him from slaughtering everyone, Luke rams his X-Wing into Vader's Tie Fighter and the two crash on the planet's surface. Luke radios the Rebellion for help, and Leia commits every resource she can summon to the planet to hunt and kill the murderer of Alderran, for Vader is alone and down.
First, I love this story for essentially being an old-school cross-over. Outside of the one-shot starting it, it is a story interwoven between two titles, not a unwieldy 13 series cross-over. Secondly, Gillen and Aaron do a great job of giving everyone believable motivations that carry-over from their previous stories: Luke is here trying to learn more about the Jedi, Vader is here hunting look, Leia comes to hunt Vader with a very single-minded obsession, Han just wants to save his friend and get out, while Aphra is desperate to prove to Vader that this wasn't a trap. The two never forget who is the lead, and Vader here is awe-inspriring. With his actions here, it is easy to see why one such as him would not be impressed by a toy like the Death Star. They story has action, comedy thanks to the antics of Triple Zero and BT-1, and most impressively tension. This is a story set in a larger canon where we know what the future holds and there were still a few moments in the story when I was worried about the main characters. There is one cliff-hanger in particular where an obsessed Leia goes out on her own to kill Vader, and he comes upon her from behind, and while I know the character lives for at least another 30+ years thanks to The Force Awakens, I still had a quick thought of "Oh, no, Leia!". Forget Robin War, Secret War, or Civil War. The can't miss cross-over event of the 2015/early 2016 is Vader Down.
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