Star Wars: Darth Vader Vol. 3 - The Shu-torun War

by Kieron Gillen

Salvador Larroca (Artist), Kieron Gillen (Script Writer), Gene Colan (Illustrator), and Leinil Yu (Cover Designer)

The Dark Lord of the Sith's unstoppable march continues! The natives of Shu-Torun are revolting, and there's no way the Empire will stand for that. When Darth Vader is tasked with leading a military assault against the planet, could it be that his rise to glory has begun? But who will follow Vader into war? Would you? Then again, it's better to fight alongside Vader than against him. That's a lesson that the ore barons are about to learn. Collecting DARTH VADER #16-19 and ANNUAL #1.

• ISBN10: 0785199772
• ISBN13: 9780785199779
• Publish Date: 9 August 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Marvel Comics
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 128
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780785199779

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

3 1/2 Stars.

Quick note: for those reading it by issue instead of by volume (say on Marvel Unlimited) like I did, the Annual #1 issue comes before the Darth Vader 16-19 issues. It provides some pretty important context for what is occurring, so reading them backwards probably wouldn’t be fun.

I think this was probably my least favorite of the Darth Vader series so far. It felt like it was short (which it was, being only five issues) and didn’t contain that much as far as relevant information goes. It pretty much has a “side quest” feel to it.



The plot itself is actually pretty simple to sum up: Darth Vader gets sent to Shu-Torun to deal with the revolution that is occurring there. A few skirmishes and battles occur, and Vader quickly puts a puppet named Trios as the new leader. Like I said, it’s all a bit side quest-y. Okay, there’s a bit more to it than that, as a lot of details are used to flesh out the plot. The fight scenes are pretty interesting – in fact Triple 0 even manages to win one basically single handed (I’ll admit that this scene had my cracking up).

There are a couple scenes that will end up impacting a larger chunk of Vader’s plot, though oddly the focus isn’t really on them. The Astarte Twins finally made their moved. In case it was a surprise to anyone, that move cost them dearly. Well, it cost one of them dearly. I’m sure the other one will be back shortly, so it’ll be interesting to see where that leads.

The other bit was at the end, with Vader trying to find information about where Aphra went. As it turns out, the investigator Darth Vader has been working with is actually competent (knew that was going to be the case) and he figured out the connection between Vader and Aphra. He may or may not have Aphra in his possession, that one I’m less certain about.

Speaking of Aphra though – BT -1 and Triple 0 (whom are great comedic relief, if I may say so) are not with her, nor do they seem to care what happens to her. Having read Aphra’s standalone comic, I know that changes, I just don’t know when or why. I’m sure the fallout for that one will be interesting however, and am looking forward to seeing it.


For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks