Darth Vader: Issue 30: The Shadows Shadow: All Her Shadows
What is it ? : Vader takes Dorme through the Executor to his shuttle, questioning her as to what she really wants, while the other Handmaidens who have snuck aboard get information on Sabe's location and watch. Ochi attempts to cover for his betrayal of Vader, but Vader sees through it, allowing him to remain alive as long as he is useful to Vader.
Meanwhile on Brentaal IV, Sabe has just shot Jul Tambor, and fights off his followers to take his body back to her ship, where she gets Zed-67 to operate on him, revealing that she shot him in a non-fatal location.
He questions as to why she left him alive, and she tells him that she had to stop his attack, as Vader would have massacred everyone in revenge, so she was saving lives. Tambor says therefore he will kill Vader, but Zed explains that hundreds have tried, and all have failed as Tambor notices the lightsaber scar across Zed's body.
The ship is captured, and Tambor's force of Battle Droids come to his rescue, and he suggests that his massive force of Battle Droids will allow him to defeat Vader. Sabe tells him Vader has no weaknesses, but Tambor tells her he has at least one, her.
Vaders shuttle lands on Fedalle, where the Handmaidens confront Vader to rescue Dorme, but he defeats them, asking them to join him as Sabe has, but they say they will not. But claim to have defeated him.
During the fight, they used information from their last encounter to tap into his suits systems and obtain his command codes, and now they threaten to set off the self destruct on the Executor if he doesn't return Dorme and Sabe.
He asks them if they really will murder thousands of people to rescue just their friends, saying that they are ready to join him, telling them to do it.
Ochi interrupts, showing a communication from Jul Tambor, where he tells Vader to come get his pet, Sabe. The Handmaidens tell Vader to rescue their friend, they will join him, and walk at his side as he strides away. . . .
High Points : It's quite interesting watching Vader corrupt the Handmaidens, Sabe doing as he says because she believes it will save lives, while the others prepare to commit atrocities as large as Vaders to force him to submit, something he will never do, especially when the price is merely subordinates lives, something he has never valued.
Low Points : But apart from that the comic isn't going anywhere interesting, Ochi is being sneaky, but we know that he's really loyal to Palpatine anyway and not Vader, and the Handmaidens are claiming to be holier than thou, while actually being as brutal as Vader in the pursuit of their goals. It's all a long way from the exploration of Vader as a character where the series started.
So what do you really think ? : I'm somewhat confused by the fact that one of the Handmaidens now appears to be an RA-7 Protocol droid? Either the dialogue is indicating characters incorrectly, or there's a story to be told there, and possibly a far more interesting one than we're reading at the moment.
Final Words : While it's cool to see Vader marching off flanked by the Handmaidens, is a Reservoir Dogs type homage, it seems to be the only aim of the comic to give us occasional cool images. The story isn't really going anywhere, and is really dragging given (as I've said now many times) it's set between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, a potentially very short period of time. Most of this stuff would have more naturally fit between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, as the Handmaidens and Tambor are all left over from the Prequels, and really don't have anything to do with the Original Trilogy.
Score : 7.5/10
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