The “Skywalker Saga” of 9 movies can have after all concluded, however that does not imply the Lucasfilm and Disney powers-that-be are performed mining the unique Famous person Wars movies’ tales and characters. Slightly one month after the finale of The Mandalorian‘s first season, the Famous person Wars universe has already thrown any other curveball at lovers—however now not in any other TV or movie release.
As an alternative, this week’s information comes from a brand-new Surprise sequence of comedian books starring Darth Vader. We are right here to spill the beans—and be offering context and guesses as to what would possibly come subsequent.
Noooooooooooo…?
From right here on out, we are in full-spoiler territory about more than one Famous person Wars houses. You have been warned.
Longtime comics creator Greg Pak has helmed a couple of Famous person Wars comics sequence since remaining 12 months, and his newest, Darth Vader, debuted on Wednesday through rewinding to the tip of the 1980 movie Empire Moves Again. The primary factor opens with Luke opting for to fall to his possible loss of life as an alternative of taking his father’s hand. In contrast to Empire, this comedian follows Vader again to his Famous person Destroyer, the place he in an instant forums an Imperial Trip with a skeleton staff of squaddies and a unmarried, brand-new droid.
-
The usual quilt of Darth Vader #1. The remainder of this gallery contains spoilers when you click on thru.
Surprise
-
This panel accommodates “spoilers,” we think, however they are from 1980’s Empire Moves Again. If this scene shocks you through now, smartly, you might be on the flawed web site.
Surprise
-
Darth Vader will get a brand new droid buddy, Z-67, in his seek for solutions.
Surprise
-
Why, who is that this? Vader sees this lady and responds through announcing, “Padme?” However we will have to attend to be told extra about this mysterious particular person.
Surprise
-
After the newsletter of factor #1, Surprise went as far as to expose the sequence’ subsequent two quilt photographs. They maximum definitely qualify as “spoilers.”
Surprise
-
Their accompanying descriptions suggest that this particular person from Vader’s previous hangs round for a minimum of two extra problems.
Surprise
This droid, Z-67, informs Vader that Skywalker hasn’t been discovered since his fall. “I will be able to in finding him when the time is true,” Vader replies, as though to suggest that he already is aware of his son remains to be alive. Within the intervening time, he privately tells Z-67 that their undertaking is to seek out the breadcrumb path of whoever saved Skywalker protected over the years “and ruin them.”
I will go away lots of the e-book’s main points out for individuals who need to benefit from the e-book’s pacing and plot build-up, because it jumps to a couple of acquainted places with a mixture of new fight and old-film flashbacks. However the problem’s finishing would possibly not stay a secret for lengthy, since its spoiler component will probably be front-and-center on the second one Darth Vader factor’s quilt. The primary factor concludes with Vader discovering a well-recognized face hiding on an far-off planet outpost: Padme Amidala.
A distinct more or less “clone” conflict?
That is the primary time we’ve got gained any indication that anyone similar to Padme, performed through actor Natalie Portman within the prequel movie trilogy, someway survived after the occasions of Revenge of the Sith. Since her newest look comes within the type of a one-panel cameo, then again, we should not have a large number of data to paintings with as of press time.
Vader is the one that greets his conceivable ex-wife with the decision of “Padme?” as a query, so the second one factor may just really well start with this particular person merely announcing “No,” or “If truth be told, I am her frame double, Sabe.” If she seems to be a projection or phantasm, she is a minimum of observed through each Vader and Z-67, implying that this particular person isn’t simply in his creativeness. And, heck, that is Famous person Wars—a chain that noticed are compatible to insist that Emperor Palpatine was once saved alive a long time after the occasions of Go back of the Jedi. By means of comparability, a Padme fake-out funeral turns out milquetoast.
Whilst we should not have an encyclopedic recall of references to Famous person Wars in quite a lot of novels, comedian books, and animated sequence, we will be able to level to at least one curious “Padme would possibly have lived finally” tidbit: a point out in a YA novel retelling of Go back of the Jedi. This 2015 e-book features a query from Leia Organa questioning whether or not she had in truth met or observed her mom Padme as a kid. Differently, Famous person Wars lovers were ended in consider that she died after giving delivery to Luke and Leia.
Will have to Padme certainly be alive on this comedian’s span of Famous person Wars time, we surprise how this may occasionally connect to the occasions of Vader Immortal, a VR-only sequence launched through Lucasfilm in 2019. This sequence, staged in a while after Revenge of the Sith, hinged on Vader seeking to convey Padme again to existence, as he had it sounds as if saved her existence pressure in a “soul dice.” Alternatively, the sequence ended with this dice merely repeating Padme’s statements from earlier movies, versus talking from past the grave with anything else new—which might imply he was once simply manifesting his personal recollections, as an alternative of interacting with a real-life Padme.
At any charge, this week’s comic-book disclose is a transparent signal that the Lucasfilm empire want to proceed, ahem, bringing Famous person Wars probabilities again from the lifeless. Surprise Comics senior editor Mark Paniccia hints in the problem’s epilogue about upcoming tales revolving round “very cool components from The Upward push of Skywalker” that will probably be paid ahead through quite a lot of comics sequence (now not simply Darth Vader) to “contact on all 3 trilogies and discover the mysteries that ended in the upward push of Vader.”
In the meantime, the above gallery, sourced from Surprise’s legit web site, contains this description from the sequence’ 3rd factor, implying that “Padme” hangs round for a minimum of a couple of problems: “In his quest to ruin everybody who concealed the lifestyles of his son, Luke Skywalker, from him, Darth Vader has shaped an not going partnership with an eerie shadow from his earlier existence. Now they go back to Naboo the place an impressive new host of vengeful ghosts awaits them. Delve deeper into Vader’s previous than you idea conceivable with this stunning story of tragedy and revenge!”
