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

by Kieron Gillen

[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!).


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