Review: Star Wars: Darth Vader #9

While the rest of the Galaxy works to put the sequels behind us, Greg Pak has done a wonderful job trying to give Rise of Skywalker a larger context and historical resonance.

Unfortunately this issues isn’t the strongest of this run. Vader is most interesting when playing off other characters with strong motivations and skills of their own. This is simply an issue kept busy with a depowered Vader fighting droids.

Vader continues his journey of self-empowerment after the Emperor abandoned him on Mustafar and sent a Sith assassin Ochi of Bestoon after him. Vader has already survived the Eye of Webbish Bogg Kylo Ren later encounters and this battle ends with Ochi helping him locate the Sith wayfinder leading to Exegol so central to The Rise of Skywalker. All of this happens against the backdrop of Mustafar, a planet central to the formation of Vader.

Seeing Vader raise himself back up from the Emperor’s destruction of his body and systematically eliminate enemies has been entertaining up to this point. Unfortunately much of this issue is just Vader battling insulting droids before finally forcing Ochi’s hand.

The art for the first half of the issue is incredibly rushed making all the droids look like stick figures. This gives the battle even less stakes and diminishes their threat to the level of tinker toys. The colors are the one consistent quality feature of the issue with the dark side clashing against the volcanic world of Mustafar before diving into space.

The rest of this arc could hold great promise as Vader and Ochi encounter space terrors as the move towards Exegol the planet of Sith powers and clone experiments. As much as we want to put Rise of Skywalker behind us it would be great fun to see Vader crush an army of Snokes. Unfortunately that’s not happening here as we get what amounts to a filler issue bridging the action of Mustafar to the journey to Exegol.

Writing: 3.0 of 5 stars
Art: 3.2 of 5 stars
Colors 4.0 of 5 stars

Overall: 3.3 of 5 stars

Writer: Greg Pak
Art: Raffaele Ienco
Colors: Neeraj Menon
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Author Profile

M.R. Jafri

M.R. Jafri was born and raised in Niagara Falls New York and now lives with his family in Detroit Michigan. He's a talkative introvert and argumentative geek. His loves include Star Wars, Star Trek, Superheroes, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Transformers, GI Joe, Films, Comics, TV Shows, Action Figures and Twizzlers.