Star Wars: Vader Down

So, for day two of my recent holiday, I decided to follow through with my choice at the end of day one.

Day two saw me read Star Wars: Vader Down.

A crossover between Star Wars and Darth Vader, this event saw Vader, having tracked Luke Skywalker to a remote planet, forced to crash on that very same planet by that very same farm boy. Now, with no way to escape and no way to call for help, the Dark Lord of the Sith must go toe to toe with a Battalion of Rebels, including the regular Star Wars cast and the son he came looking for.

Going into this, I was in two minds about where it would go. The Darth Vader series had been great thus far, but it's arcs also seemed to be on a sliding scale, enjoyment wise, while the Star Wars series, which was also good, just didn't do it for me. For me, it could go either way.

Thankfully, I really loved this event. Once again, Vader was shown off as an incredibly bad ass character, both highly intelligent and physically imposing, who you could believe deserved the reputation he no doubt had. These comic series really sell me Vader far better than the film's did and once again he came off strong here.

Of course, he wasn't alone in this, as Aphra was also pretty cool after she felt underplayed in volume two, with her back and forth with Han Solo keeping me entertained. I again also loved the evil droids and their interactions not only with each other but also their more heroic counterparts.

Meanwhile, the Star Wars cast were written pretty well too but didn't quite appeal to me as much as the Vader cast did. This would certainly seem to confirm that the Dark Side is definitely better when it comes to Marvel's Star Wars books.

The art, on the other hand, was no where near as one sided. I absolutely adored both Deodata and Larocca's art on this arc, with displaying some truly gorgeous stuff throughout. What I loved most was Deodata's space fight splash pages which were just gorgeous (with the afterbattle splash looking so tragically beautiful, while Larroca, whose Vader depiction I already love, has to, hands down, draw the most beautiful and accurate faces of the Star Wars cast of characters bar none.

I really enjoyed Vader Down as it was full on Star Wars action at its best. I'm kind of wishing I could afford the next Vader volume now as I'm eager to get back onto that story, but I'm also a little curious about the Star Wars side (particularly the hints about Kenobi's diary) and how it had gotten here (and where it goes next).

However, both of these ill table until I can maybe afford their comics in future.

For now, I have other trades to read, of which the first volume of Dynamite's James Bond will be for holiday day three.