Darth Vader: Issue 48: Son of Vader
What is it ? : Sabe fires at Luke, and he defends himself, knowing he's being baited, but not the reason why. Sabe flees into her Naboo Shuttle and begins to fly away, but Luke leaps onto it's hull, slashing at it with his lightsaber and causing it to crash. Sabe emerges from the ship aiming her weapon at Warba, and Luke leaps in the way to parry the blaster bolts, but Warba is still hit and drops, angering Luke to Sabe's satisfaction.
Across the galaxy Vader feels Lukes anger, but a shuttle controlled by the Marrs Corps attacks, and Vader blasts it with his Kyber enhanced Electrostaff, but the staff isn't tuned properly so damages him as well.
Luke disarms Sabe and she reveals she was testing him to see whether he truly is Vaders son with anger enough to turn him to the Dark Side. Luke counters her decision with that while he is not perfect, he's not his father, and asks Warba who was only stunned to summon Vader, as he thinks it's time to find out the truth.
Vader has destroyed the Marrs Corps shuttle, but there are no bodies inside, and ZED-6-7 tells him they've received Luke's location.
Sly Moore says that now they can kill Luke, but Vader says no, so she has Tauntaza fire a droid brain at Vader taking over control of his body the same way he controlled the Marrs Corps. They take the staff from him, planning to power it from Tauntaza's armor. Zed and Pryde are against turning on Vader, with Zed pointing out that gambling against Vader is a very bad idea, but the others have all turned on him. Sly Moore points out the rule of two doesn't have to mean 2 of Palpatine, Luke and Vader, but if she eliminates Vader and Luke, could mean her and Palpatine, with the Schism Imperial actually becoming the Empire.
Vader begins to break control of the chip, so Tauntaza blasts him with the staff, and they leave in a shuttle to find and kill Luke. But before Vader can recover, the Marrs Corps attacks wanting revenge . . . .
High Points : The section between Luke and Sabe works surprisingly well, with Luke knowing he's not perfect, that he has his flaws and has a part of himself with might lead to him falling to the Dark Side. But he's just doing his best, and thinks that no one could be perfect. And it's a genuinely nice moment when Sabe having been testing him to see if he really is his fathers son, admits, that he's also his mothers son.
And while it's not a massive part of the story, I do like that while Sly Moore is turning on Vader along with the rest of the Schism Imperial, that Zed has witnessed this happen often enough that he just knows it's not a good idea to turn on Vader. He's not concerned, he's not boastful, he's just patient as he knows Vader will triumph, again.
Also Sly Moore's reading of the Rule of Two makes sense, everyone just assumes that theres only three people that can be members of the 2, but she has decided to take matters in her own hands and put herself into the mix. Gutsy, yes, clever, yes, doomed, yes.
Low Points : While a lots going on in this issue, it does feel like it's treading water waiting for the finale, the Marrs Corps aren't any challenge to Vader, and although they've got to be dealt with before the end of the series, having them as the cliffhanger ending to the issue feels very weak.
And the entire story just feels like it's putting Luke in danger from Sly Moore and her forces, so Vader can rescue him, showing Luke that there's still good in him.
So what do you really think ? : A solid issue, with excellent action. With only 2 issues to go though, I'm starting to doubt that we'll get a satisfying conclusion to this series, but we might get a fun one.
Final Words : So Vader is on Exogol with the Sith Eternal and the Marrs Corps, while Sly Moore and her Schism Imperial are on their way to kill Luke. While I think I know how this will work out, and I've said as much above, there are a lot of ways it could go, so I'm genuinely interested in seeing the conclusion. Which is a pretty good sign that the series has been at least somewhat successful if I'm still wanting to read more.
Score : 8.5/10
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