Darth Vader #12: Memories of a Smuggler

It can be said of this entire year long run of this series so far that the style and over all motif has remained consistent the entire time. As many times as the series has been flooded with fVader’s memories dashed in reds, it never got old. This issue in particular has nine crimson memory filled pages of basically just scenes from A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.However the remix of memories play out in Vader’s head as he goes through the series, so they correlate directly to what’s happening to him as he goes along. This issue plays triple duty by having the main plot and Vader’s memories, but also adds a flashback to a confrontation between Han and Vader on Corellia. This flashback has its own look and feel as well, being portrayed like a more tradition art style seen in previous Vader series. This seems like it would be confusing on paper, but the varying thematic styles of each different parts of the story keep them separate and strangely easy to follow.

The only real drawback to this chapter is that it was built to fit in with the greater War of the Bounty Huntercrossover event. Like with the Star wars self-titled series, this prelude to an event about bounty hunters has no actual bounty hunters in it at all, save for a quick memory of the ones in The Empire Strikes Back. Han and Chewie seemed kind of shoehorned into this series just to get a scoundrel connected to the underworld on the page as a precursor to the underworld hunters to come. That being said, it’s not a bad story at all, and it is very nice to get a more adventurous breather after the emotionally heavy issues that ran prior to it. It is a pretty good bet that the next issue with involve Han again, but encased in carbonite and a few real bounty hunters among. If that is in fact the case, that would make this prelude certainly earn its meaning.

There has been a very strong theme of Anakin still being inside Vader somewhere throughout this entire series. It starts out with him obsessing over how Padme could have a child, followed by Anakin’s defiance fighting back against the Emperor. In one and a half issues, Greg Pak has stamped all that Anakin out of Vader. He goes even further by showing Anakin’s curiosity about his son Luke turning into renewed hatred for the boy and his pathetic rebel friends. This part of the story in the larger saga takes place less than a year before Return of the Jedi. This series has spent ten issues showing the audience what they already know, there is good in Vader and he will turn from evil. Yet these issues also set up Vader as he is in Return of the Jedi, once again ruthless and unforgiving. Of course there will still be lots of issues before that point, so there is still plenty of time to play around with that concept too.