Darth Vader (2017) 18: Bad Ground
What is it ? : Tarkin is on Chandars Folly in the Outer Rim hunting prey, one of his team reports that their prey has been spotted and Tarkin takes up macrobinoculars and spots Darth Vader, his suit damaged and ragged, wearing a cloak of the skin of a creature. Tarkin comments that the skin is from a Vorath which can blend in with it's background, so if Vader didn't want to be seen they wouldn't see him, and is impressed as Vader has killed and skinned this creature without his lightsaber.
Tarkin orders his team into motion, knowing that Vader will be stealthy with the cloak, so orders his Chadra-Fan hunter to listen out for Vaders breathing with their sensitive hearing.
Tarkin reviews his tactics in the hunt so far, beginning with a hunting team of 20, he began knowing Blasters are useless against Vader as he is able to parry and reflect the bolts, so Tarkin armed his team with Flamethrowers and Slugthrowers, but even though he thinks he sensed fear in Vader, Vader attacked the Flamethrowers destroying them and costing Tarkin 4 men.
He discovered that Vader was easy to track, his suit is heavy and he is a slow plodding machine, until combat when he erupts into action, and his lightsaber means they stand no chance against him. So he targeted Vaders lightsaber, a droid lassoing it from his hand in an operation which cost Tarkin 6 more men, which he considered a bargain. Vaders Lightsaber seemed to be one thing Vader actually cared about, and taking it made him angry, which normally would be a good tactic as prey would act irrationally and be easier to catch, although Tarkin is unsure if that's the case with Vader.
He discovered that Vader prefers to kill up close, but he can snap peoples necks with the force at range, so he spent more men to discover the range which Vaders power is effective over, information he felt that would bring the hunt to an end.
Tarkins team moves into a forest, where sound is reflected, so when the Chadra-Fan hears Vader, he cannot locate him, hearing him from all around. So Tarkin orders his men to run, with Vader taking out another couple of the team before they reach an open area, the Stormlands, Bad Ground as described by one of the remaining hunters.
They set up camp, and the Chadra-Fan confirms that Vader cannot be heard anywhere near them, but moments later Vader force chokes the Chadra-Fan, emerging from behind his cloak as Tarkin realises that Vader switched off his breathing apparatus. Tarkin didn't know he could do that as he requires it to support his life, meaning even as he attacks he is dying. Vader uses the force to grab the lightsaber from Tarkins belt, and begins slaughtering the remaining team members, so Tarkin runs out into the Stormlands.
Once he has killed the remains of the team, Vader follows Tarkin, who drops his blaster and drops to his knees, and as Vader closes on him, Tarkin grins knowing that Vader hasn't considered the ground on which they stand, where being taller just attracts lightning bolts, one of which strikes Vader, critically wounding him.
As Vader lies there, Tarkin tells him that it is as they agreed, and he calls down a ship to treat Vader, recalling Vader using the debt that Tarkin owed him, and Tarkins savage history on Eriadu as a hunter to test Vader. Tarkin believes that Vader needed to know he could still be challenged in a galaxy devoid of Jedi. And he hopes that Vader has learned whatever he needed to learn from this madness, perhaps challenging Vaders belief that he cannot lose.
As he stands there, Vaders fingers twitch and he begins force choking Tarkin as he realises that Vader doesn't believe he has lost, and when Vader releases him, he realises how lucky he is that Vader serves their master, Palpatine. . . .
High Points : First of all absolutely love that Tarkins first tactic against Vader are Flamethrowers and Slugthrowers, which matches up with Gamesmaster tactics in the D6 game against player Jedi. Force Users in the RPG can get incredible amounts of defence against Melee and Blasters, but the Force Powers don't work against Flamethrowers and Slugthrowers, making them perfect weapons to use against powerful force users. Adored that that carried over to the comics.
But his story works as a horror story, similar to the Vader: Black, White and Red comic series. Vader is the monster here, never speaking, never giving a clue as to his thoughts. The entire story is told through Tarkins thoughts as he uses his tactical genius against Vader. I especially enjoy the early counting down of Tarkins team of hunters, 4 dead learning that Flamethrowers have their own weakness that Vader can exploit, 6 dead taking Vaders lightsaber, etc. However the later stages, stop giving us an exact count, it seems as if measuring the range of Vader force choke costs a couple (we see 1 person die, and Vader standing next to 2 bodies, so maybe 3), and the limitations of the Chadra-Fan's hearing costs another couple in the forest, leaving 6 in the final ambush, although we only see 4 die in the camp, and Tarkin himself, so the numbers are a little uncertain. I preferred the clarity.
And of course it's a really interesting exploration of Tarkin, an exploration I don't quite match up to Peter Cushing's portrayal in A New Hope, but it's close so I won't complain too much as it's nice to see him get a story to himself.
Low Points : While it's fun to use Vader in this way, this does seem to be a part of the mythos of Vader as a force of nature. Given that Obi-Wan beats Anakin forcing him into the suit, and Vader isn't tearing bulkheads open, and defeating hordes of enemies in the original trilogy, it seems a little odd that he's so powerful in between those stories. We're in a series exploring how Anakin becomes Vader more than just wearing the suit, and here he is at his absolute peak. Rogue One began this process, showing Vader in the corridor scene tearing through Rebels, although even then he's just up against normal grunts, and is stopped by a door, so while he is powerful, it's not the mind controlling a summa-verminoth and riding it into battle version we see in the later Vader comic series. What I'm trying to say is that while this is a darn good comic, it might have been better if there was actually more threat to Vader, rather than him just kind of playing with Tarkin, that Tarkin being a real threat to Vader would have shown why Vader respects and obeys him in A New Hope.
So what do you really think ? : A really solid comic, Tarkin vs Vader, as Vader tests himself against the best the Empire has to offer. The way it shows Tarkin using so many tactics, and them either failing or having limited success is great, and that Vader is the silent stalker throughout, a version which prove so effective in storytelling when they used it again in the finale of the Maul: Shadow Lord animated series. Just kind of sad that it was just a single issue, I'm sure they could have stretched the concept out over 2 or 3 issues and explored it more thoroughly.
Final Words : Funnily enough I'm not sure whether I enjoyed this so much because it's a Tarkin story, so I should be searching out more Tarkin comic series (I know I've got at least 1), or because it's a Vader horror/slasher story which I enjoyed so much in the Maul finale and the Vader: Black, White and Red series, so maybe I should give the Boba Fett Black, White and Red series a go.
Score : 9.5/10
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