Star Wars: Vader Down

by Jason Aaron and Kieron Gillen

[inlibrisveritas]

3.5 Stars

Vader Down is yet another fun read in the graphic novel series, and it’s a crossover between the Star Wars and Darth Vader comic runs.

I find myself kind of confused on how I feel about this graphic novels. I really enjoy them but at the same time, I feel like they spend a lot of time spinning their wheels and adding very little to the overall canon. I really enjoy the Vader comic because it has a focus away from the main three characters, though Vader’s hunt for Luke is still present, and with this, they try to pull his current storyline and his hunt for Luke into one. It works to an extent but there will always be that “nothing will come of this because of the movies” kind of thought process. That being said I still really enjoyed this and there was a whole lot going on.

We see more of Dr. Aphra and her psychopathic droids, we see Luke getting small glimpses of more Jedi truths, and Vader takes on his fair share of adversaries. That last point is the one that really made this one a complete win for me. Vader is one of my favorite characters and I live for the moments he does something so completely badass that I basically go all starry-eyed. This crossover has that in the spades.

I’m not big on the art in this one though, at times it had a ton of detail and others it seemed like they couldn’t get a bead on the faces. It also has a very thin but noticeable line around everything, which in areas made it look like a finished coloring book.

Overall it’s a satisfying crossover event, and definitely worth picking up if you want to see Vader do some crazy crap and walk away.