Vader's Quest is a 1999
Star Wars Legends four-issue miniseries set soon after the first movie, written by Darko Macan and drawn by Dave Gibbons and Angus
McKie. The
Two Lines, No Waiting plot follows Darth Vader learning that his son is the pilot who destroyed the Death Star and seeking to suppress this knowledge and track Luke down, Luke undertaking his perilous first solo mission for the Rebellion to cash in on his new fame, a
Bounty Hunter who knows Luke’s identity journeying to Coruscant to tell Palpatine, and a jealous Rebel pilot compromising Luke’s identity and location and then trying to make up for it by telling Luke before Vader can come.
Tropes:
- Break the Cutie: Wide-eyed Dubravan teenager Bobek tries to join the Rebellion and is subjected to a cruel and senseless prank just because the recruiter is in a bad mood. He buys a gun to try and kill the recruiter for revenge, although he ultimately doesn’t.
- Continuity Snarl: The series isn't entirely consistent with other works like Star Wars (Marvel 1977) regarding when Vader learned his son is alive and a rebel, or when the Rebellion abandoned Yavin (although lots of comics set in that period have similar discrepancies).
- Dies Wide Open:
- Nevana is shot In the Back and falls forward with her eyes open. Even if she wasn't dead or fatally wounded, her odds of escaping the Good-Guy Bar when it's set on fire minutes later aren't good.
- Bobek dies in Jal's arms while staring upward, after which Jal gently closes his eyes.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When Nevana offers Bobek advice on how to remove leeches that got stuck on his arm during Jal’s prank, he angrily replies, "Who asked you?"
- Go Through Me: The people of Jazbina form a crowd to keep Vader from killing or capturing Luke, forcing him to retreat. Of course, it might not have worked if not for Vader’s fatherly concern for Luke.
Syanya: You’ll fight a planet alone?
After a short pause, Vader powers down his lightsaber, utters a threat, and walks off.
- Good-Guy Bar: The second issue features a bar in the swamps of Dubrava (an Imperial-occupied world) where Jal Te Gniev can wear his uniform and talk about the Rebellion freely (albeit unflatteringly). When the Imperials show up after Jal and Nevana, several of the customers start shooting at them. The Imperials set the bar on fire, and it's unclear if anyone besides Jai escapes or is spared.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Jal Te Gniev's main trait in the first half of the series is jealousy that rookie pilot Luke destroyed the Death Star while Jev (a veteran of fourteen dog fights) didn’t get that opportunity because he got sick that day.
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: Dubravans have green skin, and the only prominent female Dubravan, Nevana, plays the trope straight by wearing a low cut dress that has long slits.
- He Knows Too Much: When Vader learns that the Death Star's destroyer is named Skywalker, several Bounty Hunters are in the vicinity, and he decides Murder Is the Best Solution to silence them. One gets away and tells Palpatine, when they probably could have been kept silent if Vader bribed them or just downplayed the importance of the information.
Ban Papeega: Please, Lord Vader! I'll forget everything I've heard! I'll forget the name! Here, I've already forgotten all about Skywalker! I haven't even mentioned Skywalker just now!
NO!
(Cue Gory Discretion Shot).
- Mercy Kill: The Rebel prisoner who kicks off the series by revealing Luke’s name under is despondent about his failure to resist torture and how he has no means of escape from being subjected to further interrogation. He asks Bounty Hunter Mala Mala, who is running from Vader, to shoot him. She solemnly complies.
- My God, What Have I Done?
- Rebel sympathizer Nevana gives Luke's name and location to a bounty hunter her father owes money to without knowing who he is and is horrified to learn she’s endangered the Rebellion's biggest hero (and everyone on Dubrava who knows anything about him).
- Jal Te Gniev is contrite when it sinks in that his drunken ramblings to Nevana have endangered Luke and is even more upset when Bobek (who he earlier mocked and abused due to his cynicism and jealousy) dies saving his life and then reveals that he originally wanted to kill Gniev over the earlier abuse before seeing stormtroopers attacking him.
- Obviously Evil: The ruler of Jazbian turns out to be an Imperial sympathizer, something that his opulent wardrobe and shifty, insincere manner makes very obvious from the start.
- Never Trust a Title: Despite the title, the other three plot-lines get more focus than Vader’s quest to find Luke.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: After drunkenly crashing an X-Wing and being unable to work with Luke Skywalker due to being a Green-Eyed Monster, Rebel Alliance ace Jal Te Gniev is reassigned to be a recruiter on an unimportant planet. He makes no effort to carry out his duties and just drinks and insults the Rebellion until his big mouth endangers Luke, and he then has a shot at redemption.
- Recruit the Muggles: When Luke is blinded and helpless, a crowd of locals (both longtime Rebel sympathizers and Neutral No Longer civilians) come together to pull a Go Through Me gambit against Darth Vader and take out his stormtroopers.
- Redemption Equals Death:
- Jal Te flies his X-Wing into a Star Destroyer’s docking bay and then blows it and himself up to make up for putting Luke in danger.
- King Prepedenko is an Imperial collaborator who refuses to let his people join the Rebellion, but as he’s dying from wounds Vader inflicted when he thought Predpedenko killed Luke, he accepts his fate and apologizes to his Rebel daughter and his people for his actions, helping inspire them to fight.
- Prepedenko’s droid 3DVO betrays Luke due to his programming and then lies to Prepedenko that Luke is dead to protect the young rebel. He is distressed by both Luke’s peril and Prepedenko’s subsequent torture, and broadcasts Prepedenko’s dying words across the planet to inspire rebellion before being shot.
- Sibling Team: Selle and Brazzo are brother and sister bounty hunters. Brazzo shows a lot of Big Brother Instinct trying to save a wounded Selle from Vader.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The local Bounty Hunter who identifies Nevana as his source of information about Luke is shot by the stormtroopers accompanying him seconds later, as they no longer need him to find their source.
