Details on the New STAR WARS Comic That Will Tell the Stories of a Young Darth Vader
Marvel has announced another new Star Wars comic that is definitely going to pique the interest of Darth Vader fans. The comic will focus on the young version of Darth Vader and tell the stories of his early years as a Sith Lord. In fact, the story will pick up at the end of Revenge of the Sith, right after Darth Vader joins Emperor Palpatine in viewing the construction of the Death Star.
The comic is called Darth Vader, and it's being written by Charles Soule with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli. During an interview with IGN, Soule compared his approach to the story to Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One comic, which told the origins of how Batman went from rookie vigilante to the seasoned Dark Knight. The writer said:
“The book begins one second after the end of Revenge of the Sith. Darth Vader is in the armored suit that we see throughout the rest of his life, most of his life. He is just awakening to that moment and that realization. So he has shouted ‘No!’ in the way we see in the film, and then it picks up immediately after that point. So we see him adjusting to that. We see him learning to be more machine than man. We see him going through some really, really cool early moments of his early mythology and history."
I'm already fascinated by the concept of this, and I can't wait to read these stories of a young Vader. Soule went on to talk about some of the stories that the comic will explore, such as the construction of his red Lightsaber. He explains:
“The first arc is going to revolve around Vader's construction of his red lightsaber, because at the end of Revenge of the Sith, he obviously loses his blue saber when he gets all chopped up and Obi-Wan takes it to eventually give to Luke down the road. So we end up with a character who is known as having this iconic sword, like his magical red sword, but he doesn't have it yet. So what better way to start a big huge series than with a quest for a magic sword? We're going to explore the mythology around lightsabers to some degree, which will be very fun. I'm really lucky that I get to tell that story. Seems like a big piece of the puzzle for him.”
He went on to compare this new Darth Vader comic series to the previous one from Kieron Gillen, which recently wrapped up its 25-issue run. That comic took place between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. This new one will feature a much different Vader:
“I would say that in Kieron's series, you had a man who had been doing that job and was sort of accustomed to his reality in a way that this Vader is not. So [in this new series] the fire is burning very, very bright in terms of his hatred and anger and the things he's trying to work through. He's trying to understand himself, whereas Vader in Gillen's series was almost sort of an older crocodile that's been around for a long, long time and has no real enemies or challenges. Obviously there were challenges in that book, but this is someone who's very, very sure of his place in the universe and galaxy. It was kind of about topping that a little and taking that away from him and seeing what he did."
He went on to describe what the Vader in this new series will be like, saying:
"Now this is more someone who isn't sure what's going to happen to him. He doesn't know if he's going to be alive in two weeks or 40 years. He doesn't know what his day to day is going to look like and he doesn't know what his purpose is. So it's about trying to understand that, what life without Padme is like, and just kind of understand what it means to be a Sith lord, because all this stuff is new to him. And really exploring the Dark Side in an open way where he doesn't have to be ashamed, doesn't have to hide from the Jedi, can really go deep into it."
I'm seriously excited about this series. This is a part of Vader's life that I've always been interested in learning about and now that story is finally going to be told!
Darth Vader #1 will release in June from Marvel Comics.