Star Wars: Darth Vader #21 Review: Shadowy Struggle

A shadowy struggle takes on an unexpected twist in Star Wars: Darth Vader #21, an issue that has some success dancing between the raindrops of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Crimson Dawn is a vast, secretive interstellar criminal organization with a singular goal — killing Emperor Palpatine and his relentless apprentice and enforcer, our title character. Qi’ra, the lost love interest from the Solo movie, has inherited leadership of Crimson Dawn and overseen their clandestine installation into every echelon of the galaxy. One of the “Dawners” is Sabe, “handmaiden” to Queen Amidala, which is like being a cut-rate Dora Milaje, and she wants to manipulate Vader specifically to avenge her mistress. Vader is on to her plan, a partially faked listing of Crimson Dawn assets for him to kill, and has a surprising counter plan.

Greg Pak’s script makes savvy use of supporting characters (“local heroes,” assassins, and a cyborg bounty hunter named Valance) to frame the stakes and provide fitting creative tension. There is nothing one could say went wrong with the artwork from Raffaele Ienco, Alex Sinclair, and Joe Caramagna. The only thing keeping this issue from greatness is pacing — despite its interesting final development, Vader’s command of the situation is unclear until far too late in the issue.

Still, this is a very good, if not great, issue. You get a good sense of the terror and intrigue of the Empire at its height. Likewise, you get a sense of Vader’s focus and efforts in this iconic era … but it might work better collected than in this format. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.

Star Wars: Darth Vader #21
By Greg Pak, Raffaele Ienco
THE RETURN OF THE HANDMAIDEN! A figure terrifyingly close to VADER’S dark heart returns – but with a shocking new allegiance that threatens total chaos! The band of heroes who have bound themselves to Vader’s cause finally learn the true nature of their new lord. And how long can OCHI OF BESTOON keep his desperate secret? RATED T

Star Wars Darth Vader #21

---

Review by Hannibal Tabu

---

7.5/10

Padme Amidala’s right hand woman thinks she has Vader dancing to her tune, but when the beat drops, who will really stand victorious on the dance floor?

---

Editors

Akira Yoshida, Marc Paniccia, Danny Khazem