ICYMI: Star Wars: Dark Droids #1 – It’s More Than A Bad Motivator

Star Wars: Dark Droids #1 kicks off the next line-wide story arc in the Star Wars comic books set between the events of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

At the helm is Charles Soule, who continues his epic Star Wars run that has seen the rise and fall of Crimson Dawn, the rise of a Hidden Empire, and now sets out to turn the droids against both Rebels and Imperials alike for the next few months as it first comes for the metal.

For years now, Soule has deftly filled in the gaps between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, showing that much happened in the time between Luke’s first encounter with Vader to showing up a Jabba’s to rescue Han. This is not Soules’s first time writing a story from a droid’s point of view, and it shows (check out his Poe Dameron #28 for one of the conversations between R2D2 and BeeBee-8 as the two talk about the rebellion/resistance from their points of view).

Soule uses this issue not only to set up this story arc but provide enough backstory so that it new reader friendly for the most part, explaining the history of the Spark Eternal (from the Doctor Aphra series) and how it has now become a droid and plans to help its compatriots who serve both good and evil roles for all sides of the current galactic conflict. The Spark Eternal’s monologue, which serves as the narrator for the issue, can almost be read as if Alan Tudyk were reprising his role as the  reprogrammed Imperial security droid K-2SO from Star Wars: Rouge One, as it gains knowledge from the various databanks of the Imperials and

The art team of Luke Ross and Alex Sinclair also visually give riders an unforgettable experience with the Imperial Star Destroyer diagram showing the locations of both organic beings and droids to the space journey the Mouse-droid takes as it finds the rebel fleet.

This next chapter in the comics cannon looks like an exciting and thrilling installment that falls just outside what fans expect from a Star Wars story.