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Darth Vader (2017) 10: The Dying Light: Part 4

What is it ? : As Vader and Jocasta Nu face off, him wielding his lightsaber, her the lightsaber rifle, Vader tells her that he does not want her to die. She doesn't believe him, firing again and telling him that the droid identified him, so she knows he's Anakin Skywalker and is the tool of Palpatine. She keeps firing until her rifle jams, and she ejects her lightsaber which has been powering the rifle, and it is melted and destroyed.
She throws the overloading rifle at him, and it blows a hole in the outside of the Jedi Temple, so she uses the force to grab another lightsaber from a nook in the wall and she leaps out of the hole where she is spotted by the Clone Troopers guarding outside.
She leaps to fight the Clone Troopers, and when Vader emerges from the hole following her, the Clone Troopers think this figure wielding a lightsaber is another Jedi so they attack him as well.
Commander Fox arrives, apologising to Vader for not letting his forces know about him, and Vader snaps his neck using the force. The Clone Troopers surround Nu at the edge of the building, so she chooses suicide by leaping from the building down into the depths of Coruscant's streets, but Vader grabs her with the force and levitates her aboard the speeder that Fox arrived on.
Clone Troopers search her and hand Vader the memory chip containing the list of force sensitive children. Nu tells Vader that Palpatine wants the list so he can make more like Vader, and the Clone Troopers offer to stun her to shut up her Jedi lies. But Nu tells the troopers that they don't even know the truth, that the man they serve is Jedi General Anakin Skywalker, so Vader kills the troopers by throwing them from the speeder.
He tells Nu that those deaths were her responsibility, and she asks about her own life, and Vader ignites his lightsaber and she says, so be it.
Later Vader contacts Palpatine to tell him that Nu died in her attempted escape, and when Palpatine asks him if he learned anything from her, Vader tells him nothing.
At Jocasta Nu's Jedi School, her assistant tidies the shelves slightly before detonating explosives at the entrance, sealing the school. And some years later the rocks are cleared and Luke Skywalker discovers the trove of Jedi teachings as we are told the Jedi will rise again. . . .

High Points : It's a fairly nice fight between Jocasta Nu and Vader, far more interesting that the one between Vader and Kirak, because she isn't just another Jedi. She uses her knowledge against him, for example identifying him to the Clone Troopers, and using their lack of knowledge of the difference between him wielding a lightsaber and any other Jedi wielding a lightsaber.
And although Vader ignites his lightsaber while standing over a restrained Jocasta Nu, we don't actually see him strike her down, so has he actually stashed her away to use against Palpatine at some point? While it seems unlikely, I do appreciate the ambiguity.

Low Points : Although it's a minor point, the thing which actually annoyed me the most about this issue is Luke discovering the school at the end. We don't need reminded that the Jedi will rise again, we've seen the movies, we know that Luke destroys Palpatine, while we don't know the details at this point, we could assume that Luke would create a new Jedi Order, and it's happened in canon and legends. So crowbarring that scene in, without any context is absolutely pointless.

So what do you really think ? : If you just read the scene as Vader killing Jocasta Nu at the end of this issue, then the issue loses a lot of what makes it interesting. The idea that Vader has been taught by Palpatine even at this early stage to start building resources to defeat his master, both seems very Sith, and compelling storytelling. And I suppose even if she's dead, then Vader has learned that he will need to build his knowledge and resources to eventually defeat his master at somepoint in the future, and killing her just denies Palpatine more power which Vader would need to defeat at some point.
Or perhaps, Nu's words about the list of Force Sensitives she carries being a list of potential rivals that Palpatine intends to train carries weight with Vader. He's seen the Inquisitors as potential rivals for Palpatines favour, no point in allowing others to accumulate.

Final Words : As I suspected last issue, the Lightsaber Rifle is destroyed quickly, and while I liked it melting the lightsaber powering it, there were countless other lightsabers sitting around, as we see Nu grabbing one. So it might have been more interesting to see her reloading to fire again, her attacks on Vader destroying some of the heritage of the Jedi just lying around.

Score : 7.5/10

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