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Darth Vader: Issue 50: Terminus

What is it ? : Luke is still stunned from the blast, but everyone realises that Vader blocked it from killing him, so Sly Moore turns the staff on Vader, but he just absorbs the blast and takes the Staff and Zaly Shield from her.
As Luke climbs to his feet the MAR Corps come to help him, but Sabe opens fire as they arrived with Vader, they evacuate him on a shuttle, but even though he asks her to come with him, Sabe refuses saying she has the best chance of delaying Vader as she reminds him of someone.
She confronts Vader but he just walks away, saying that Luke is not ready, nor is the Emperor. He walks to Tauntaza's Death Machine and drains it's energy, which Luke and Palpatine sense.
Outside the machine, legions of Stormtroopers and Sith Eternal riding Sumna Verminoth await Vader, and he just unleashes the power as they open fire on him, killing hundreds with each blast.
From his throne room, Palpatine senses that Vader has never been more powerful, or more vulnerable, as he can cause all of these deaths, but he is connected to the force so senses them all too, especially as he knows these Stormtroopers. Vader declares that he hates them, remembering when he told Padme about slaughtering the Sand People.
Palpatine confronts Vader, as Sabe arrives claiming he used to care, but Palpatine questions whether he really did. Palpatine says he left his own mother to die, Sabe counters with the fact he loved Padme. Palpatine points out that he killed her, and that he loved Kenobi once, but also killed him, and challenges Vader to take all of his hate to strike Palpatine down.
Vader unleashed all of his hatred, all of the power of the staff and the death machine, but Palpatine counters it, while Vader thinks over and over and over again how much he hates Palpatine. But Palpatine prevails against the onslaught, and tells Vader that even now at his most powerful, Palpatine is ready for this.
So Vader kneels and calls Palpatine Master once more as Sabe despairs.
The End

Coda 1: Ochi is on Coruscant when Sly Moore and the other co-conspirators of the Schism Imperial arrive, and he gloats that they should always consider to be obedient to the most powerful person in the room. Something Moore tells him he should also consider, as Palpatine arrives and promotes her back to Administrator, thanking her for her service.
The other conspirators realise she has been working for Palpatine all along, and Pryde reveals that he was also feeding information to Palpatine, as although he was always Vaders greatest advocate, he believed that Vader belongs with Palpatine. Vader arrives, but is silent, and Zed tells Ochi that since he endured all the deaths of the Stormtroopers, he has been silent.
Moore gives Ochi a datapad, with orders to tidy up some of the mess that Vader caused, and he is being assigned Vader as his assistant in this task. As they travel, Ochi gloats that now he is in charge, but says he's always been on Vaders side, even when he beat him down on Mustafar, took his eyes on Exogol, and electrocuted him on Ringo Vinda.
Their target are some juvenile Sumna Verminoth, which Vader kills easily, but when some children are found watching and Ochi orders Vader to kill the witnesses Vader crushes him with the force, leaving Ochi shattered when Moore arrives to check on them. She tells Ochi she knew he couldn't help but anger Vader, just as she knew and hoped he would.
End

Coda 2: Sabe flying the Naboo Royal Starship visits Ochi's shattered body who tells her that Vader is still Vader, and he'll be coming for her.
Then we see Leia evacuating a Rebel base as the Empire attacks, as she flees she realises that the person with her isn't who they claim. Sabe tells her she knows her father, which Leia assumes means Bail Organa, and recognises Sabe as one of Padme's handmaidens, who was last known working for Vader.
Leia threatens Sabe with her blaster, and asks why someone who served Padme would then serve Vader, and Sabe explains that he offered her power and made her believe she could do good with it. Something he might offer Leia, and make her Empress, taking her belief in doing good and turning it into something evil just as he had done with Sabe.
Leia asks why she would want any of that, why would she want to rule, she just wants people to be free, and a droid stuns Leia into unconsciousness. Sabe contacts the Rebels to come get Leia, and when they ask how she is, Sabe responds with "Perfect".

Coda 3:
Kitster and Wald who Tauntaza had forced to work on her Death Machine survive the attack by the Empire, and flee in the chaos caused by Vader. They realise it's the 3rd time he's saved their lives, probably by accident, so they're the luckiest people in the galaxy. Something reinforced by the fact they've escaped carrying power cells from the death machine.
On Tattoine, they sell one of the power cells, which is so energised it could run Mos Eisley for months, and using the money they buy some slaves and free them. The slaves include Amee, Melee and Seek, the others from the group of young friends of Anakin.
That night they sit around the fire, telling stories from their youth, mainly about Anakin. They are going to use the remaining power cells to get money to find and rescue Anakin, but raiders attack, having found out about the valuable power cells and wanting to steal them. But as they gloat about having made a fortune, Ochi arrives and kills them, taking the power cells, but he leaves the former slaves alive, who realise that they will never be able to find or help their old friend.
Ochi takes the power cells back to Vader, who asks him who had taken them. Ochi tells him that it was the slaves, but he left them alive as they were talking about a jedi named Anakin Skywalker, and he thought Vader might want to use them to track the Jedi down. But Vader tells him there is no point, as Anakin Skywalker is dead
End

High Points : A really solid ending to the comic, which while not wrapping up all the storylines, does at least deal with the majority of them. We see why the Schism Imperial looked a lot like the earlier faction within the Empire, because it was the same just being manufactured by Palpatine. We get a nice wrap up with Wald and Kitster, being reunited with the other children who were once Anakins friends. And perhaps the most major element being Vader realising that he cannot beat Palpatine . . . alone.

And the defining element of this series has always been the flashbacks, and we get their return after so many issues, with us seeing how Vader really thinks, how he hates the Empire and Palpatine in particular, how that rage powers him, but it is a rage manufactured by Palpatine to have a powerful servant, so is a completely impotent rage.

Low Points : While I enjoyed the section with Leia, it was completely superfluous, and would have been better spent actually finishing off Sabe's story, as she's now just left hanging around at the fall of the Empire.
In many ways, Sabe's story is the largest weakness in the entire series as her journey is so uneven, we see her give in to Vader's offer of power, but then she just acts normally once again as we don't see any major development which causes her to turn away from that offer of power. And at times it appeared she was just playing along with Vader to use that power against him, but if that is so, why is she worried that others might give in to the offer and explain how tempting it was, if it wasn't actually tempting. The story could make sense, but really required some more time spent to develop it rather than all of the other side stories we had along the way.

So what do you really think ? : The final issue did what I didn't think it would do, it wrapped everything up nicely. Leading to Vader being faithful to Palpatine, while giving him the idea that leads to his last minute rebellion which leads to Palpatines defeat. The conversation he has with Luke on Endor in Return of the Jedi, how Palpatine is too powerful takes on addiitonal weight, as Vader has tried to rebel once already, but has been crushed back into servitude. But the thought is already placed, that he cannot beat Palpatine alone, but when he sees the opportunity when Palpatine is distracted by Luke, he strikes ending Palpatines reign.

Final Words : The series had it's highs and lows, but generally I think it was a success. Getting to see inside the head of Vader, and getting to see the connections between Anakin and Vader highlighted led to some great moments, and has made me look at the character in a different light. So overall a success.

Score : 9.5/10

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