Darth Vader: Issue 46: The Razing of Exegol Part 1
What is it ? : The Star Wars scroll text on the first page, which usually just summarises what has happened before, also this time adds something we've not seen happen in the comics "Meanwhile, Sabé, former handmaiden to Queen Amidala, has teamed up with Jedi pretender Warba in an effort to find Luke Skywalker, the son of the man she once knew as Anakin Skywalker…."
And that's where we pick up, with the two meeting and taking the Royal Starship Sabe is using, but Warba doesn't trust Sabe, because she has been working for Vader.
Meanwhile Corleque is making a delivery of supplies to the Sith Eternal, they sense the hate in him for Vader. Elsewhere Enric Pryde tells Sly Moore that they would only have sensed loyalty in him, and Moore tells the two of them that was exactly what she planned, as they won't realise that Corleque is going to help Vader loot Exegol of its treasures. She commands Corleque to leave, and takes her ship into the cloud around Exegol, where a psychic Summa-verminoth bombards them all with mental energy, and they all suffer pain, even the MARS Corp troopers who don't have control of their own will.
Landing, the MARS Troopers and Vader storm out, and attack Sith Eternal guards that approach, and with shock staffs the Sith Eternal overwhelm Vader and shock him to the ground.
Within the compound on Exegol, the containers of supplies that Corleque delivered burst open revealing them to be full of the Droid army Vader has been gathering.
The Sith Eternal to weaken Vader cut through his armour, revealing this isn't actually Vader, but a droid decoy, and the real Vader emerges, and begins using the power of the massive Kyber Crystals that the Emperor has stored here for the superlasers in his planned Xyston Star Destroyers, and as the Sith Eternal are overwhelmed, the Droids begin looting the massive Crystals on repulsorlift carts.
The Sith fire a massive laser blast, but it fires off into the sky, and Pryde is overjoyed that Vader deflected it to make it miss. But while Vader is impressed by Pryde's faith in him, he realises that the blast wasn't aimed at them, but instead at the Summa-verminoth in space, to awaken it and bring it to Exegols defence. . . .
High Points : Vader's plan is solid, and all of the elements he's been gathering weave together, with the Droid Army, MARS Troopers, Corleques hatred for Vader, and even Prydes faith in Vader all playing their part. His distraction of them with a fake Vader is also pretty good, the Sith Eternal rightly realise he is the greatest threat so target him at the cost of allowing the rest of his plan to come to fruition, and Vader realises that they might possibly be a threat to him, so uses a decoy to take advantage of their knowledge of him.
Low Points : Why is Sabe using a Naboo Royal Starship, last we saw her she was working for the Empire? Shouldn't she be using the shuttle they provided to her?
And I really have to question the end of this issue, they're trying to make out the Sith Eternal have awoken the Summa-verminoth, which will be some kind of threat to Vader. This is the same Vader who controlled and rode a Summa-verminoth into combat against Palpatine the last time he visited Exegol. So it really doesn't seem like much of a threat, more just providing Vader with a new pet to add to his forces.
So what do you really think ? : So we're back to Exegol, and while it makes sense that while Vader is raising forces against Palpatine he'd want to loot the power that Palpatine himself has been gathering. But the use of the Summa-verminoth really seems like treading old territory, as we've seen Vader deal with them before earlier in this series when he visited Exegol before.
Although I suppose it's possible that Palpatine has bred new Summa-verminoth to be resistant to Vader. However the argument against this, is one of the main problems I have with this series over and over again. ALL of this is happening between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, a period of only 1 year. Which seems pretty quick to engineer a new type of Summa-verminoth, and let it grow to Star Destroyer size.
Final Words : I'm glad that this storyline is building to what seems like conclusion, as it's been a long time of Vader building forces. And we seem to have the return of Sabe and her plotline, which if they can weave it in will be nice. But we know that Vader ends up at Palpatines side in Return of the Jedi, so this rebellion he's organised must fail, or be part of Palpatines plans, and therefore all comes to nothing. So any stakes we feel in the storyline are lost as it's all just pointless.
This series was interesting when it was weaving links between Anakin and Vader, and showing us the inner thoughts of Darth Vader, the internal torture he was going through and the justifications he makes to live with his decisions. But we're a long way away from that now.
Score : 8/10
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