Darth Vader #13: Cybernetic Sith vs. Dangerous Droid

It is finally time to get to some real bounty hunters in the “War of the Bounty Hunters” multi-series event. In this chapter Darth Vader find himself up against the brutal droid, IG-88. Unfortunately for Vader, Han Solo is not the murderous robot’s bounty that he seeks. It becomes very clear that Vader is his target. IG-88 has allied himself with the Droid Crush, a group that Vader’s companion Ochi of Beeston has recently betrayed. Bokku the Hutt, the most ripped Hutt the galaxy has ever seen, also poses a threat. Forced to help the Vader, the muscular slug wants to be rid of the Dark Lord’s hold on him. Once IG-88 enters the scene, the action starts flying. At one point it would seem that the bloodthirsty droid has the upper hand on the Sith. Hew soon finds out, as Bokku does, that Vader simply cannot be defeated.

This issue takes a break from the format of having the entire chapter interdisspersed by Vader’s memories. The first couple pages get that right out of the way in the customary red tinged fashion. Interestingly enough, this time the memories are of more recent events as well as Vader’s more distant memories. These memories are catching up to the current story. Unlike previous issues,  the bulk of this one is vividly colorful, using a much wider palette than the typical red tones that have defined the series so far. This is another indicator that the series is talking place much more in the present and is more in line with the rest of the “War of the Bounty Hunters” series. This will give the entire thirty four issue run a more uniform look.

This is one of those issues where the content, although not at all bad, takes a backseat to the art. The action is a flurry of baster bolts, ships crashes, and saber swinging. Yet the subtle details of the more tense stand off between Vader and IG-88 as they try to control each other speaks more to how well matched these titans are than in the fighting itself. IG-88 has not had a huge amount of content in the New Canon, so it’s nice to see him in full deadly force like he used to be in the older Expanded Universe. He had a very large presence in “Shadows of the Empire” for which this series is effectively replacing in terms of the timeline between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It should be a fun treat for fans of the older material to see IG-88’s ship the IG-2000, which hounded Boba Fett in the “Shadows of the Empire” comics from the 90’s. Considering the “War of the Bounty Hunters” series ends with IG-88 #1, this won’t be the last readers will see of the deadly droid.