Today saw the release of issue #44 in Vol. III of Marvel Comics’ ongoing title Star Wars: Darth Vader, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
Darth Vader #44 takes an interesting approach by opening with a flashback to the events of the recent Star Wars: Dark Droids crossover, specifically the “Droid Plague” invading the Imperial capital on Coruscant. Here we meet an officer named Fabarian who fights valiantly to protect his sector, and then sees the titular Dark Lord of the Sith looming over the wreckage after Emperor Palpatine orders Protocol 23 and has that sector destroyed by bombardment. Then writer Greg Pak cuts to the “present” (still the period set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) where we find that Fabarian has been demoted from an ISB investigator all the way down to a fine processor for having looked into the deaths caused by the assault. He gets sent to the office of a baron whose speeder he ticketed and there he has his remaining dignity stripped from him… or so it seems.
Next Pak and his artists Adam Gorham and Paul Fry cut to space, where Fabarian is on an Imperial Shuttle heading to meet with Sub-Administrator Sly Moore and the rest of the Schism Imperial, including Darth Vader himself. Fabarian admits that he’s a little afraid of Vader, having heard that the Droid Scourge had infected the Dark Lord. But Vader insists that all of his actions are of his own free will, and introduces Fabarian to the M.A.R. Corps– a group of Rebel Alliance cyborgs that have now been corrupted by Imperial technology. We also get reacquainted with Governor Tauntaza who says she has joined the Schism to reclaim her “death machine,” using it to drain a planet’s life force and powering her armor with it. And then we get the big reveal that Fabarian has actually manipulated his way into the baron’s office in order to hack into his computer system– revealing that the industrialist is manufacturing a new model of battle droid for the Empire.
So Darth Vader leads the Schism Imperial to this factory and forces the baron to reprogram his droids to follow his orders instead of Emperor Palpatine’s. Plus we get a fun showdown between Fabarian and the baron, and the discovery that the rebel cyborgs’ interior screams of agony can be felt by those who are Force-sensitive like Moore, and to a much larger extent, Vader– but the latter just doesn’t care enough to be bothered by them. So this issue ends with Moore reporting on Vader’s actions to the emperor, with the former’s full knowledge and cooperation. She admits that she can’t lie to either side of this power struggle without fearing for her own death, and Palpatine basically says “Bring it on” when he learns about Vader’s growing army. The final page here adds another Imperial officer– namely Lieutenant Enric Pryde– to the Schism group, which begs the question as to why he’s so loyal to the clone of Darth Sidious later on in the Star Wars timeline.
Is Pryde playing both sides here, or is he simply going undercover for Palpatine (and also happens to be better at hiding his true thoughts than Moore is)? It’s an intriguing question, and I suspect we’ll find out more in the next issue. In the meantime, I got a lot out of this chapter, and didn’t mind whatsoever that it was light on action. I’ve said before that I’ll always prefer Star Wars stories that focus more heavily on plot machinations and character beats than extended fight sequences, and that remains true here. I still think this run of Darth Vader is likely going to end at issue #50, so as that milestone draws ever closer I’m looking forward to seeing what else Pak has up his sleeve for the Dark Lord of the Sith and his allies.
Star Wars: Darth Vader #44 is available now wherever comic books are sold.