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

by Kieron Gillen

[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.