He communicates almost exclusively in sharp, imperious bursts with just-slightly archaic language lacking contractions. Despite being a near-constant presence on the page, Gillen’s Vader is never at any point the most loquacious character in a scene. And, just as importantly, the importance of using that voice sparsely. The first thing Gillen gets right – the thing that bedeviled those Dark Horse comics and has tripped up other writers too – is the voice. Vader’s Voice: “You may dispense with the pleasantries, Commander.” The fact that they do is down to Kieron Gillen, whose 25-issue run on Darth Vader from 2015 – 2016 represents one of the all-time pinnacles of Star Wars in comic form. This brings us back to where we started: Darth Vader comics should not work. Worse still in a visual medium like comics, his famous mask also makes it impossible for him to convey emotions that way either. And beyond that, Vader makes a lousy ‘point-of-view’ character: he is famously taciturn and has no friends with whom to break his silences or share his thoughts. We know he cannot undergo much development or growth except what’s been seen already, so there’s nowhere to take him. We’ve watched his youthful dreams, his friendships, his fall, and his redemption.
Yes, Anakin Skywalker is probably the most popular character in his universe, but he’s also the one whose every life-changing moment has been most fully documented onscreen. It’s really baked into the premise of a Darth Vader comic itself. This sheer overwhelming averageness was not the fault of the writers involved. You could read worse Star Wars comics – but you could also read much better ones. ‘Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows’, ‘Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin’, ‘Darth Vader and the Lost Command’ if you weren’t reading Star Wars comics at the time then you’ve probably never heard of any of these and frankly, you’re not missing much.
Dark Horse gave it many tries over the years, from countless dedicated stories in Star Wars Tales and Empire to a series of Vader-focused miniseries, all of which were entirely, aggressively fine.
It’s easy to forget this right now, as Marvel currently publishes its third consecutive well-received volume of a Darth Vader ongoing – not counting multiple miniseries – but they shouldn’t.
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