Star Wars: Darth Vader Vol. 2: Shadows and Secrets

by Kieron Gillen

Salvador Larroca (Artist), Kieron Gillen (Script Writer), Jan Duursema (Illustrator), and Adi Granov (Cover Designer)

The tale of Darth Vader?s transformation continues! Bounty Hunters are on the attack, and Vader has been given a new mission for the Empire. Unfortunately, it?s completely at odds with his own personal mission. What?s a Dark Lord to do? Darth Vader and Aphra continue their alliance ? but how long will it last? And who is Tagge?s mysterious new agent? One fact is certain: When Aphra?s private investigation on behalf of Vader comes crashing headlong into Vader?s investigation on behalf of the Empire, the results will be deadly! Collecting DARTH VADER #7-12.

• ISBN10: 0785192565
• ISBN13: 9780785192565
• Publish Date: 5 January 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Marvel Comics
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 136
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780785192565

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

My expectations for volume two were thankfully met, and it ended up being just as interesting as volume one. Though I’ll admit in part that it’s probably because there’s a lot of Aphra in this volume, and she is quickly becoming my favorite character.



Vader shows the proper way to run a double play in this volume. His orders directly countermand his personal goals nearly every step of the way, and yet he continues onward like nothing is happening. One the one hand, he has Aphra and crew steal a load of credits, on the other, he’s tracking down a bunch of criminals that stole credits. The irony is not lost of me here, and it probably wasn’t for anyone else involved.
While watching Vader run circles around everyone else was pretty funny, I found myself really enjoying watching Aphra work (one part because of the task she was given, and one part because of how she went about said task). Points in her favor: she’s creative, willing to pay high prices for fast information from discreet people, and she’s willing to go as far as necessary to get the information she needs. The downside? She’ll stop exactly where she thinks it’s over - in this case telling Triple-Zero to kill the man he’s interrogating, as opposed to letting him continue. Had she allowed Triple-Zero to continue (as horrible as that may have been) they would have gotten more than just the information about Luke. Since they didn’t continue, and asked very specific questions, he left out Leia and her location. Which is fantastic for Leia, but less so for Aphra (presumably Vader won’t be happy when he finds out they lost an opportunity for that information).
Even knowing how everything goes in the end, I still find myself curious to see how we get from here to there. I think that’s the reason I’m enjoying the series as much as I am (well that and I’m greedy for any Star Wars information). I’m looking forward to volume three, which luckily for me is also on Marvel Unlimited (yay for binge reading without going broke!).


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

[inlibrisveritas]

With Shadows and Secrets we get right back into the fray with the unlikely duo, Darth Vader and Alphra. While this still remains one of the stronger Star Wars comics out there right now, I don’t think I managed to enjoy this one quite as much as the first volume.

Alphra still takes a bit of a forefront but I don’t mind, as she’s a more enjoyable rogue character with a lot of spunk to offset Vader’s overall stoic nature. I don’t really think he needs a sidekick, but she does offer up some opportunities to see how he will react to someone who is unknowingly looking into his past. We also get to see Vader’s new rivals a bit more, and most of them are really underwhelming. I’m not sure if they are meant to be legitimate rivals or if they are just there to get under his skin, but I spent most of the time rolling my eyes at them. I mean you have a guy like Vader walking around and most of the normal citizens are not even sure if he’s human or if he is capable of anything other than vengeance, and then you have these…”children” with light-sabers who are over excited and more obsessed with being the best over making sure thy actually are. Bee-Tee and Triple Zero continue to be the source of morbid humor, that lightens the mood…even though in a Vader comic we don’t really need humor, so it’s a bit weird to be honest.

The story-line is fairly interesting, but not entirely unique for anyone familier with the game of chess that Vader and the Emperor are constantly playing with each other. What I’m really interested in is the digging Alphra has been doing for him, though he doesn’t do much with the information in this one I do like seeing those tiny little glimpses of him remembering who he use to be.

Overall, I’m still on board with this one. The art is strong and there is plenty going on to keep it interesting, but it seems to have lost a bit of steam with this volume.