Darth Vader is the Empire's most powerful warrior, mercilessly enforcing peace and order throughout the galaxy. Killer, monster, savior- what is the true legacy that the Dark Lord has left behind for those unfortunate enough to cross his deadly and destructive path?
A five-issue miniseries set in the Star Wars universe released in 2019, written by Dennis Hopeless.
The series focuses on Darth Vader through the eyes of different minor characters. Issue #1 is from the point of view of a young boy whose people Vader inadvertently saves from a dangerous monster. Issue #2 centers on Commander Tylux, a Star Destroyer commander desperate not to disappoint Vader. Issue #3 is about an Imperial nurse who develops an obsessive crush on Vader. Issue #4 focuses on a hotshot X-Wing pilot who comes face-to-face with the Sith Lord in space combat. Issue #5 concludes the series with a bartender who gets chased carrying stolen Imperial data into a jungle with poisonous hallucinogenic thorns.
Tropes featured in this comic include:
- Accidental Hero: While Vader certainly didn't intend to save the people of Cianap when he fought the Ender, slaying the behemoth did free them from its reign of terror.
- A Death in the Limelight: Tylux, the nurse, and the X-Wing pilot, the central characters of the issues they appear in, wind up being personally offed by Vader in the end.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: The nurse certainly does, and you can't get much more "bad boy" than Darth freaking Vader.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Vader seems more annoyed than surprised when he casually murders the nurse for sneaking into his quarters while he has his helmet off.
- For a less malevolent example, in issue #1, Darth Vader slays a Kaiju that had driven an entire planetary civilization into hiding in the rubble. Not that he really cares, as Vader only killed it because the creature distracted him from repairing his TIE Fighter, which was damaged in the middle of a space battle.
- Deer in the Headlights: The leader of the rebel X-Wing force does a Heroic Sacrifice so that her best pilot can take a shot at Vader, but he freezes on the trigger and flees instead, leading Vader right back to their base.
- Draco in Leather Pants: In-Universe version. There's a huge difference between the real Vader and the Vader of the nurse's fantasies.
- Dramatic Irony: There's another reason for why Darth Vader would have always turned down the nurse's affections.
- Fantasy Sequence: Issue 3 frequently shifts to the nurse's romantic daydreams about her and Vader, including scenarios where she's a princess and he's her heroic dark knight, to fighting rebels side by side with him on the battlefield.
- Foregone Conclusion: Despite the
Broken Base resulting from Vader killing a Stalker with a Crush nurse that confessed to him in his private quarters while he had his helmet off, whether it was fine or not, acceptable or not, pretty much everyone knew that given Vader's constant Tranquil Fury state of mind and loathing of people intruding on him while he is in meditation, the nurse was as good as dead with most people debating Vader's state of mind at the time as opposed to arguing if killing her was in line with Vader's character. - Heroic BSoD: The hotshot rebel pilot in #4 eventually loses his composure when Vader wipes out his squad and fails to take a potentially lethal shot at Vader's TIE. And his fleeing the battle only leads the Empire back to the Rebel Base...
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Tylux in issue 2. While trying to capture a Rebel Spy, he drives the ship into an Asteroid field, damaging it. Then, he sends all of his TIE Fighters down to the planet where the Rebel Spy had hidden out, where the hostile weather destroyed most of them. Then, he drove the ship through a massive Exogorth in an attempt to not let the Rebel escape, which caused the creatures that live inside the Exogorth to latch onto the ship and tear it apart, causing multiple systems failures. By this time, the Rebel Fleet was able to arrive and finish off the already mostly destroyed Star Destroyer.
- Hopeless Suitor: The nurse pines for Darth Vader, who only ever loved one woman and is incapable of caring for anything or anyone else.
- Ignored Enamored Underling: The nurse who develops a crush on Darth Vader, who barely knows she exists.
- Loving a Shadow: A nurse who probably isn't all that stable to begin with becomes infatuated with Vader and starts to fantasize about him and her getting together. Everything she believes about him is nothing more than fantasies based on what she believes him to be. Interestingly, she actually is right about some important things about him but at the same time becomes so delusional that she can't separate reality from fantasy. When she finally confesses her feelings to him, he promptly kills her and calls for her body to be taken away. Interestingly, Vader kills her quickly with a simple stab with his lightsaber. His expression was one of indifference with perhaps a twinge of sadness. She possibly reminded Vader of some unpleasant things and he probably felt that she just wasn't worth his rage but only pity. Or maybe he was just bored and annoyed.
- Mercy Kill: An interpretation of how Vader killed the Stalker with a Crush nurse when she intruded on him in his quarters unmasked and confessed her love for him. It could be considered a mercy kill because he did it quickly and and painlessly with a quick stab through the chest. Keep in mind that Vader has killed people in horrible and painful ways for less. When two stormtroopers saw him accidentally without the helmet, he telekineticaly lifted them and then twisted their heads around backwards and that was just for accidentally seeing him without the helmet. Here, the Nurse intruded on him while in meditation without his helmet and then confessed to loving him. The look on his face when he does it is one of indifference or perhaps melancholy. It's reasonable to assume that the nurse reminded him of things he doesn't like to think about and he could also most likely sense her mind and emotions with the force, realizing that she was both mentally disturbed and being completely honest. He may have felt a rare moment of pity and simply put her down as opposed to slaughtering her.
- The Mentally Disturbed: The nurse, a classic sufferer of de Clerambaut Syndrome, also known as Erotomania, characterised by an obsessive infatuation with a person one barely knows. Sufferers of the disorder often convince themselves that the object of their obsession returns their feelings and little gestures they make are their way of secretly conveying their love to them. People with de Clerambaut are often a danger to the target of their infatuation, whom they believe are taunting them by pretending not to have any feelings towards them. However, given that the nurse's obsession is Darth Vader, her delusion is more of a danger to her than to him!
- Monster Fangirl: In Issue 3, in stark contrast to other Imperials, an unnamed nurse stationed aboard the Death Star is infatuated with Vader, to the point of having romantic fantasies about him.
- Mythology Gag: Issue #1 involves people worshiping Vader as a savior after he kills one of their enemies, even though he only killed the enemy for his own reasons. This is similar to the Noghri in Star Wars Legends.
- No Name Given: The nurse is never named, showing how unimportant she is to Vader.
- Posthumous Narration: The nurse narrates the entire story up until she finally meets with Darth Vader without his helmet.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Tylux's immense fear of failing Vader leads to him expending a vast amount of resources in a mad attempt to capture one U-Wing. He ends up failing to get the U-Wing, sacrificing his entire TIE contingent, and ruining his Star Destroyer. No points for guessing his fate when the Sith Lord learns about this.
- Stalker with a Crush: The Imperial nurse who falls in love with Vader and begins stealing bits and pieces of his cybernetic body.
- Stupid Evil: Issue #2 displays the downside of Vader's constant use of You Have Failed Me. An Imperial Officer who had just finished wiping out a rebel base, killing or capturing almost every rebel there, losing none of his own men or TIE fighters in the process, and leaving the base intact enough that the Empire would be able to pull valuable data from the computers. A total victory for the Empire. The only slight blemish was that a Rebel spy escaped with some intel on a strategically-important Imperial factory, which wasn't all that valuable on its own because the rebels still did not know where the factory was located, and the intel would not provide the location. Upon learning that Vader was coming to pick up the Rebel spy who had gotten away, Tylux goes to absolutely insane lengths to capture the spy so that Vader won't kill him for his failure. The end result is that he completely destroys his ship and ends up killing a lot of his men in the process. It goes to show that leaving your commanders afraid for their lives if they commit even a single screw-up will lead to them acting out of fear, rather than what makes the most sense tactically.
- Thinks Like a Romance Novel: The nurse's daydreams about Vader resemble the covers of trashy bodice-rippers.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- The nurse from Issue 3 who falls in love with Vader, a man who kills his own subordinates over the pettiest possible grievances, tries to confess her love by sneaking into his quarters while he has his armor off, the time when he feels most vulnerable — note the Imperial officer who practically panics when he realizes he's just walked in on Vader with his helmet off in The Empire Strikes Back. No points for guessing how Vader responds to the nurse's confession.
- The bouncer who asks Vader to hand over his lightsaber before entering the Bad Guy Bar.
- Tranquil Fury: That nurse was honestly lucky that Vader looked rather bored with her confession and just went for a simple stab with the lightsaber.
- Trick-and-Follow Ploy: The rebels use this trick to follow the War Minister to the unknown location of the Imperial factory. After destroying that attack force, Vader then spares the last rebel pilot long enough to follow him back to the rebel base.
- Unreliable Narrator:
- The young boy who tells his people of the great hero who fell from the sky and defeated the monster that menaced his people like a black knight sent from above. He has no idea who Vader or the Empire are.
- The nurse who falls in love with Vader and is deluded enough to think he feels the same about her.
- You Have Failed Me: Commander Tylux is so desperate to avoid disappointing Vader, he orders his crew to perform increasingly dangerous feats in pursuit of a band of Rebels.
