Previously, on Vader Down: Luke, Han, Chewie, and Artoo barely escaped death at the hands of Dr. Aphra and her fabulous killbots; while Leia finds herself alone and face to face with Darth Vader. And now the conclusion…
Han contacts Threepio, who was left back at the vehicle Leia and the soldiers were travelling in, and tells him to let Leia know that he’s got Luke. Leia, however, has other things to attend to as she stares down the Dark Lord of the Sith, telling him that one day he will be brought to justice. Vader responds with a classic villainous retort but he cuts his speech short when he senses that someone is about to ambush him. Leia, thinking he’s got a screw loose, makes a run for it. She gets back to the vehicle, tells Threepio to get out of there, and proceeds to call in an airstrike on her position. Meanwhile, Han and the gang get back to the Falcon just in time to hear Leia’s order go out. They take off, meaning to go scoop her up when they are just as quickly forced back down by another ship. It’s wookiee bounty hunter, and spiked accessory enthusiast, Black Krrsantan! Han has apparently met him before because he calls him by name and assumes that he is there to take him to Jabba. No, he’s there for Luke, Aphra having called him in for backup. Before BK can collect his prey, Chewbacca cuts in; Han encourages Luke to go help Leia while he and Chewie hold off Krrsantan. Vader catches up to Leia as the Y-wings are closing in to attack; but before they can, Imperial forces arrive and engage them. One of the downed pilots emerges from his craft and is confronted by Commander Karbin. He’s there to fulfill his mission of finding Luke and royally screwing over Vader. Oh, lest I forget: While all this is happening, Threepio is wandering around looking for...anyone. Unfortunately, he finds Triple Zero and BT. Long story short, they steal his arms.
A robot body and 4 arms with lightsabers? How has no one thought of this before? He's unbeatable!
So, Vader and Leia are having another little father/daughter chat (they don’t know it of course). Typical stuff, you know: You’re a monster, I’ll see you burn. I should have killed you a long time ago. The usual parent/child stuff. Then Karbin emerges with a squad of Stormtroopers. Karbin orders his troops to take Leia and find the boy. Vader disagrees and expresses said disagreement in his usual manner. And so now Vader and Karbin (who, I will remind you, is basically Ackbar’s head on Grievous’s body) square off with lightsabers. Back at the Falcon, Chewie and Krrsantan are in the middle of a good ol’ fashioned Wookiee fight. But Chewie isn’t doing too well because he is still under the influence of the xenotox. Artoo shoots him up with the antidote, which apparently contains bantha growth hormone because Chewie gets stronger and madder real quick. Luke, on his way to find Leia (maybe? He really just seems to be wandering around) comes back to the ruins of the old Jedi temple. He hears the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi telling him he is not ready (presumably for a confrontation with Vader). Karbin’s stormtroopers emerge and try to take him into custody. Luke starts fighting back when BT and Triple Zero arrive on the scene. They tell Aphra what’s happening and she tells them, under no circumstances must Karbin’s troops be allowed to acquire Luke. They accept their orders to kill the Stormtroopers with gusto. Vader and Karbin continue their duel, and apparently they are also at the Jedi temple. You don’t really realize it until this point. Anyway, Vader gets some good licks in on Karbin; but Karbin gets the drop on him when Vader starts hearing voices (maybe there is something wrong with him) from the past and gets distracted. Threepio arrives at the Falcon and reunites with Artoo. Chewie is unconscious because it seems his ‘roid rage was not enough to defeat Black Krrsantan, who now has his hands around Han’s throat. Elsewhere (or maybe 10 feet away, I don’t know) Luke is being dragged off by Stormtroopers. C-3PO tries to get in touch with Leia but it goes straight to voicemail because she is too busy pointing a blaster at a very distracted Darth Vader.
Threepio has no arms, and Leia has no planet. Leia will have this same look on her face when she realizes she frenched her brother.
C-3PO, never one to be dissuaded by people wanting him to shut up, keeps calling to Leia; telling her that Han, Chewie, and Luke are all on the verge of extinction. Leia suddenly has a flashback to Alderaan being destroyed and it dawns on her that she is about to lose everybody she now cares for in her pursuit of Vader. Aphra contacts Vader to let him know that Luke is being loaded aboard a shuttle, but Vader is still occupied by Karbin. Aphra offers to help, and does so by...crashing her ship into Karbin. I’m not sure why she couldn’t just blast him. Maybe there was some concern that he would deflect the blast back at her, or maybe she just knew that Vader wanted to be able to have a rub-it-in-your-face talk with him before finishing him off. Whatever the case may be, Vader eliminates one of Cylo’s science experiments. Back at the Falcon, Threepio’s polite request that Black Krrsantan stop throttling Han falls upon deaf ears. BK responds by punching 3PO in the chest, which then results in him getting shocked into unconsciousness. I don’t know, don’t ask me. At first I thought Artoo had something to do with it, but he seems to react with confusion as well. I guess Threepio just has some bad wiring; it’s almost as if he were built by some stupid, little kid. Luke is now on board the shuttle; but shortly after it takes off, Vader pulls it out of the sky. Luke, who should be suffering from his fourth concussion in the last, I don’t know, three or four hours, escapes unharmed. As Luke, Han, Chewie, and the droids are walking back to the Falcon (which was either a few feet or several miles away) they encounter Dr. Aphra. Aphra tells them she has rigged a field of micro-mines and demands their surrender. Her plan is to capture them, steal the Falcon, and meet up with Vader. She is almost fully back in Vader’s good graces and the last thing she wants is to be blown out of an airlock by him; or worse, have to go back to her old job at Hot Topic. Unfortunately for Aphra, her dreams are crushed by the cruel fist of Princess Leia as it comes crashing into her face. The gang is reunited and it feels so good as they escape Vrogas Vas in the Millennium Falcon with the not-so-good Doctor as their prisoner. Darth Vader, a lonely man who simply wanted a relationship with his long lost son, watches from the surface as the ship departs.
Review (Part II)
And thus Vader Down comes to what I think is a pretty satisfying conclusion. It was a crossover that brought together elements of two different series, let them play out, and ended with consequences that would affect both series as they moved ahead. I could sit here and play Monday morning quarterback and say, "they could have done this," or "they should have done that" (maybe instead of it playing out in an open environment, the whole thing could have been in a facility and it would have had an Alien feel to it); but this was a pretty solid series. I remember liking it a lot when I first read it, and re-reading it was fun. The thing with Leia being obsessed with getting Vader was a nice element (kind of like Moby Dick; or the movie that Moby Dick was based on--Star Trek: First Contact), and really gave her a good part in a story that could have neglected her. In fact, if anyone is neglected in this story it’s Luke. He’s almost like an object; he’s the ball and everyone else is a player. Another complaint is that Karbin never really seems like a serious threat to Vader. I don’t know how they would have done it, but if they could have worked Thanoth into this, it would have been nice. The ending, with Aphra being captured by the Rebels, is a good way to advance her story and give her some development independent of her relationship with Vader. Overall, Vader Down delivers an action-packed story. The art is good, even if the difference in style between the two artists is somewhat stark. There is some character development, even if it’s not as much as you might like. It remains a high point of the new Marvel run.
Action Figure Comic Pack Wish List:
Vrogas Vas Rebel Infantry Captain and Princess Leia in infantry battle gear.
