Review: Darth Vader #13

The best Darth Vader comics include a worthy adversary and a quirky sidekick. Darth Vader #13 definitely delivers on the former but does not do as well with the latter. The adversary of this issue is the always fascinating IG-88. The battle between IG-88 and Darth Vader is a fan’s dream. It’s a big screen, all out action sequence and Greg Pak knows exactly what we want to see in this battle, with IG-88 facing off against Vader who is on the hunt to find Han Solo’s Carbonite body in an effort to use him to track Luke Skywalker. IG-88 appears in the middle of this issue and the energy, excitement and bullets amp up immediately.

The sidekick of this series is the painfully dull Ochi who leads Vader to Bokku the Hutt who then travels with them to a droid run repair center and data hub. The places in which Ochi drives the narrative are slow and uninteresting. We just are just not given a reason to emotionally invest in his character and he’s not likable enough to win us over on character alone. Thankfully his influence over this issue is minimal as the battle between IG-88 and Vader fills the core of the issue and absolutely delivers.

The art by Raffaele Ienco in these portions is perfect, showing the massive fire-power of the droid bounty hunter and the unflinching, ruthless strategy of Vader. Vader truly demonstrates he is a dominant force once again. The artist sometimes slips in a panel or two which simply looks like stick figures. Clearly this is a way to save a bit of time to dedicate to the more important sequences, but the transition between panels can be a bit jarring.

Pak and Ienco are back on track to make this the epic, action-filled story of the dominant Vader which we should be seeing during this time. This crossover has been a boon, cleansing all our minds of the embarrassing weakness Vader was reduced to earlier in the series. Hopefully this is just the beginning of more great stories in which Vader shows why he is the greatest villain in fiction.

Writing: 3.7 of 5 stars
Art: 4.2 of 5 stars
Colors: 3.9 of 5 stars

Overall: 3.9 of 5 stars

Writing: Greg Pak
Art: Raffaele Ienco
Colors: Jason Keith
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.