Darth Vader #14 is now available and it builds upon the events from the last issue with Sly Moore, but more importantly, it also adds some new layers to the excellent War of the Bounty Hunters run.
Head on down below for the recap and new canon insights.
Script
Darth Vader #14 is out now and it continues the Dark Lord’s journey post ESB, but it also adds a few new layers to the War of the Bounty Hunters mini-series, so let’s get into the recap and important canon beats.
This issue serves mostly as a flashback to highlight Sly Moore’s fall from grace after not being able to take out Vader when the Emperor was openly trying to have him killed.
We learn early on that her failure got her a demotion from Palp’s personal administrators to a sub-admin, which Mas Ameeda revels in like a scummy politician would.
While Moore is none too thrilled with her new post, it does lead her to some information that she believes will help her in actually being able to take down Vader, and based on the last issue, Palpatine himself through some sort of mysterious group she leads.
Anyway, after learning about Skywalker and Han being with Crimson Dawn, she knows she can use that intel to get another crack at Vader, so we get to see how she figured out how to hack Vader’s suit from the last issue when IG-88 used a remote to do so.
While doing so though Mas finds out what she’s looking at, but she doesn’t get busted because she clearly has some sort of force connection, because she’s seen using the old mind trick hand wave, which Mas himself also notices, but his weak mind is still clearly influenced by her as she gets him to leave and tell no one what she was up to.
From here we’re still technically in a flashback by the way, but I loved the time jumping because it offered up new perspectives as to what went down in Darth Vader 13. We get to see how Moore passed the Vader suit hack to IG-88, as well as more of her hooded compatriots, who all clearly aren’t fans of sith rule.
We even get to see a direct follow up to the last Vader comic in which IG-88 reported back to Moore and team that he was dropping the contract on Vader because he was too strong. What we didn’t know from the last issue though was that Vader and Ochi followed IG-88 and just as Moore was talking about her plan to take Vader out and what it requires, he cuts IG-88 in half like a freaking boss.
This instantly causes Moore’s followers to get weak in the knees and flee Vader, so I guess her plan of a million hands to take out the sith isn’t working so well.
Vader makes quick work of his attackers and saves Moore for last, but once again she pulls out her mind trick move to try and sway him, but he quickly reminds her that Sith can’t have their will bent, so there’s no denying that Moore had some connection to the Force.
She’s no fool though and quickly shifts the talk to the fact that she knows about Skywalker and that he’s the biggest threat to Vader’s position, so he buys into her plan to get in on the Han Solo auction with Crimson Dawn, so he can lure out Luke to take him out.
The issue ends with another tie in to the War of the Bounty Hunters auction that took place in issue 2 of that series, mostly to show that Moore failed again to do her part because she was outbid on Solo, but more importantly, these panels showed how Vader ultimately setup not only Moore, but Boku the Hutt to make the Solo auction as interesting as possible.
While it may have looked like Vader needed Moore and Boku, he really just used them to sow division amongst the Hutt ranks, and to showcase to his master how weak and unuseful Sly Moore has become.
This was a different type of issue that jumped through the timeline a bit, but I appreciated having some gaps filled in for both the Vader run and the War of the Bounty Hunters mini-series.
Make sure to tune into the next episode of the Star Wars Time Show in which myself and my co-host Nick will fully this issue and give our thoughts on it as a whole.
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