Catching up from Comic-Con, I check out the progress that Darth Vader is making against a bizarre cult that has threatened the Empire – is it all a trap set by a mysterious assassin? Signs point to yes. But who is powerful enough to defeat the Dark Lord of the Sith?
Also out during the week of Comic-Con International in San Diego was the fourth issue of Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin (DarkHorse.com profile). Previously, Darth Vader was on the trail of a cult that had attempted to kill the Emperor, and had used some sort of weapon to slice a Star Destroyer in half. Losing his guards to the dangers of the jungle, Vader has reached the cult’s temple and has gained entry – but which is more dangerous: what waits eagerly for Vader within the temple, or the assassin waiting for Vader to exit? Spoilers ahead.
Summary: Inside the temple, Vader is worshiped by the extremely hideous temple dwellers as the fulfillment of their prophecy. Guided by a robed priest, the Dark Lord is escorted through their subterranean complex, and is shown the Basis, the energy beam that sustains their crops as well as defends their world from ships, as well as the hieroglyphics left by the original temple builders that foretell the coming of Vader as the one who would lead their army, and defeat two great snakes, while the third would live forever . Vader also witnesses an unchecked brawl between two cultists in an alley.
Reaching the top of the temple where the beam is controlled, a trio of priests reveal the full prophecy – Vader would come at a stellar alignment, and defeat the Jedi and the Empire and bring chaos to the galaxy. Threatening the disfigured priests with death for talking about rebellion, Vader realizes he is outwitted when the cleric urge their own deaths as a sign of Vader’s power and leadership. Insisting on seeing the weapon instead, he is taken to a chamber and forced to undergo a purification ritual, before he can enter the beam chamber. During the ritual, he starts to have visions where he fights and defeats Obi-Wan Kenobi in a lightsaber duel, then fights the Emperor, Force choking him, and finally sees himself as Lord of the Headless Serpent, triumphant across the cosmos. Coming out of the vision, the priests offer him power and freedom from masters, but when he reaches the primitive beam chamber, he Force grabs a focusing crystal and demands to know the full prophecy. The high priest reveals that Vader’s arrival at the predestined time would lead to the fulfillment of chaos to those who seek it. Unwilling to betray the Empire, Vader flings the cultists into the beam, which causes it to destabilize. Walking back out of the temple, Vader continues to draw the power of the Basis at its panicking inhabitants, and eventually the mammoth structure begins to collapse on itself, and only Vader emerges from its destruction.
Review: A really cool story that almost just stands alone – not really sure how it connects to the overall plot of the unnamed assassin sent to kill Darth Vader. The assassin does appear, waiting outside the temple while Vader is inside the beam chamber monkeying with the Basis, perhaps hoping that this mystery will kill Vader – or change him into an agent of chaos, no longer willing to submit to the Emperor, and thus be killed by the Emperor. Vader has his own “dark side cave” type moment here – in his vision, he sits, damaged but with his mask off, in a white limbo, then has the mask on again, fighting Obi-Wan, then reflecting unmasked, then masked again in his battle with the Emperor… and finally with a more grotesque mask as he wears the sign of the Headless Snake.
Vader is no stranger to odd prophecies pertaining to him – while Anakin, he was the Chosen One of the Jedi, and the visions from Nelvaan and Mortis. But now, he is Darth Vader, on the dark side and the prophecies of the temple builders, as interpreted by the mutated cultists, show him as the bringer of chaos by defeating the two snakes of the Jedi and the Empire. In the end, the prophecy holds – Vader does end up striking down both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Palpatine, as well as fulfilling the role of chaos unleasher to those who seek it: the cultists are all done in by Vader upsetting their temple, destroying them all.
The art in this issue is phenomenal – we have the creepy zombie-like cultists with their diseased bodies in a sort of Indiana Jones-ish temple city, and the limbo-void with Vader’s haunted eyes during his vision. Plenty of cool action, with Vader taking on Obi-Wan and Palpatine in the whiteness (reminded me of the white room from Angel), plus Vader minimally using the Force to bring ruin to the stone pyramid as he walks out while the cultists freak out around him. It’s not quite clear whether the temple destruction is really Vader’s doing with the Force, or just through simply removing the focusing crystal. The trio of priests before the purification ritual are detailed in their hideousness and it leads to the whole creepiness that pervades this issue. Well done to the entire art team: Pencils by Stephen Thompson, a trio of inkers: Mark Irwin, Drew Geraci, and Jason Gorder, colors by Michael Atiyeh, and lettering from Michael Heisler.
Ariel Olivetti’s cover is a bit of a misdirect – it fits the contents of the previous issue (Vader defeating monsters in the jungle) but it still looks pretty cool. Maybe they wanted the inside to be a suprise!
I like it, but I’m still not sure how this will fit in with the larger scheme – more questions than answers – but we’ve got one more issue to go!