Current Favorites: Vader Down

     How do you pull-off a cross-over with a small line of Star Wars comics?  I'd be hard-pressed to think of how it could be done better than it was with Vader Down, running in Vader Down #1, Darth Vader #13-15 and Star Wars #13-15.  Before you read any further than this, this post may contain small SPOILERS.

    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.

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.