Darth Vader #14
Writer: Charles Soule
Pencils: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Inks: Daniele Orlandini
Colors: David Curiel
Dark Horse had a long, storied history with the franchise, but most of what I’d read was uninspired and bland.
It represented my inherent dislike of the Expanded Universe in that it utterly was without regulation and went off the rails.
Luckily, Star Wars has a rudder these days. That’s not to say there haven’t been some serious misses in the new comics; in fact, there have been some arcs that felt severely...
UnStar Warsy.
The Darth Vader comic tows the line between capturing the Star Wars spirit and fringe science-fiction.
Vader #14 is an inherently great issue with a shadow cast over it by my own bias.
More on that later...
The meat of this issue addresses an Imperial investigation/assault on Mon Cala, home of the Mon Calamari and Quarren people. Lord Vader leads an assault team after the Mon Calamari king while Governor Tarkin coordinates from an orbiting Star Destroyer. This issue is a showcase of Imperial onslaught and I love it.
All the boxes are checked here, with laser blasts and TIE fighters, lightsabers and stormtroopers all throwing down on the action. We even get some AT-AT and AT-ST time on the page.
Perhaps best, we are gifted with a cameo from Admiral “It’s a Trap!” Ackbar in his days before the Admiralty.
Unfortunately, the Vader book suffers from its necessary Prequel baggage. The backdrop for the series takes place almost directly after Episode 3 as Vader learns what it means to be a Sith and hunt down Jedi who survived Order 66.
Vader still periodically pines for long-lost Amidala in flashback and we’re forced to endure another, “he killed younglings!!!”, bit. I understand where this series falls in the timeline but I’d really prefer we all could just leave the Prequel trilogy in the past.
The art department more than delivers, however. The inks are tight and the color palette is crisp and bright without becoming technicolor.
Giuseppe Camuncoli is the best surprise, though. I’ve a special distaste for this man’s art based almost solely on his figure drawing. He’s proportionally sound but, for the love of god, nearly everyone he draws has this gaunt, rictus face with alternating squinty and bugged-out eyes.
I absolutely despised his pencils on Hellblazer, fucking hated them, but he comes through on Vader for the most part. His forte seems to lie with crazy sci-fi aliens and technology as the designs in this issue are phenomenal.
Governor Tarkin, however, sure as shit looks nothing like Peter Cushing.
The cover is a great bonus as it features Darth Vader lurking in the water like a Sith alligator mixed with the Dawn of the Dead movie poster.
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