The black hand of Kieron Gillen is all over 'Darth Vader'. He takes our #2 Sith through some familiar environments and with some familiar faces. From the title crawl (read it carefully-it establishes who the real villains of the piece are) to the final double page spread, it's clear that Vader is who we're rooting for, from a certain point of view. Using Vader as a hero who has to redeem himself (I guess we're all the heroes of our own stories)in the eyes of his master after his failure with the Death Star is a pretty genius conceit. The Emperor gets some great moments in as well-clearly, there are better bosses to have. The art by Salvador Larroca is clean and movie accurate. In fact, I think this might be the best Vader has looked in any comic. The complexities of the angles on the mask have stymied people for nearly 40 years, but he hits it on the nose at every angle. It might sound like a little thing, but when you see it, you'll know what I mean.



Marvel's 'Darth Vader' runs concurrently with the regular 'Star Wars' ongoing, but you don't need to have read one to enjoy the other.