In Star Wars: Dark Droids #3, written by Charles Soule with art by Luke Ross, Darth Vader is armorless, weaponless, legless, and mostly armless against an army of droids. It does not go well for the droids.
We reviewed the book on the Stack podcast. But in the interest of highlighting more about the title, here’s a summary of the conversation with our thoughts. And if you prefer the longer audio version, that’s below as well!
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Star Wars: Dark Droids #3 Review:
The Star Wars universe has been taken over by the villainous Scourge in Marvel‘s latest epic crossover event. Essentially a machine virus from out of time, the Scourge has taken over a Star Destroyer and is aiming to move from metal to flesh. Its target? Darth Vader. Oops.
Host Pete LePage has been iffy about this crossover mainly because the Scourge has taken over C-3PO. But he felt the crossover “clicked in for me in the third issue… You’re rooting for Darth Vader in this issue, which is something I didn’t think I’d be doing.”
In the issue, the dark droids break open Vader’s Bacta tank, leaving him sans armor, weapons, and several appendages. Naturally, the droids don’t stand a chance.
“It is this bad-ass action sequence for Darth Vader,” Alex Zalben noted. “He absolutely wrecks shop… It’s exactly what you want out of it. A Darth Vader sequence like that just proves he doesn’t need the armor. He doesn’t need anything. He’s Darth Vader.”
Zalben also liked the move at the end of the issue for — spoilers past this point — The Scourge to go after other, less dangerous Star Wars cyborgs. He also shouted out Luke Ross’s “disturbing” designs for the Scourge’s experiments in melding metal and flesh. The Scourged out Star Destroyer also got a positive note from Zalben. And he added “This is a villain that I was a little iffy about because it feels very ‘The Borg’ to me, but it’s enough of a twist that it feels different… It’s definitely ramping up the danger for the Star Wars universe in an interesting way.”
Finishing up, LePage said the issue is, “really solidifying why Darth Vader is such an unbelievable villain.”
Star Wars: Dark Droids #3 Official Synopsis:
THE SCOURGE DESCENDS ON MUSTAFAR! – A DARK DROIDS TIE-IN! For the evil intelligence taking over droids across the galaxy, there is no greater prize than THE FORCE. And who better to steal it from than a being who is more machine than man… …DARTH VADER!
