A More Civilized Age: A Star Wars Podcast - 136: Darth Vader (2015): Vader Down

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

Our dip into the mid 2010s Marvel Comics Star Wars universe continues, and this time, we've got a bona fide crossover event! "Vader Down" jumps between issues of Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca's Darth Vader (which we've been reading for the past few eps) AND Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato Jr's Star Wars. Which means we've got an extended stay with the comics version of Han, Luke, and Leia. Can they live up to their movie counterparts? Next Time: Darth Vader Vol. 3 — The Shu-Torun War (Darth Vader (2015) Annual 1 and issues 16 - 19) Show Notes Yasiin Bey on Drake Hosted by Rob Zacny (robzacny.bsky.social) Featuring Alicia Acampora (ali-online.bsky.social), Austin Walker (austinwalker.bsky.social), and Natalie Watson (nataliewatson.bsky.social) Produced by Michael Hermes Music by Jack de Quidt (notquitereal.bsky.social Cover art by Xeecee (xeecee.bsky.social)  

Let us return once more to a more civilized age, a Star Wars podcast. I'm Rob Zakeney, joined by Alia Kampora, Austin Walker, and Natalie Watson. We are, as always, supported by you, our listeners via patreon.com slash civilized. So head over there if you'd like to support the show and get access to all our Q&A episodes or special editions, like our discussion of the Mandalorian and Groku. Yeah. Uh-huh. You got to go hear that one. Go listen to that.

You know, I left that podcast and I was like, damn, where we two? hard on that movie. And the answer is no, we weren't. But yeah, it's tough sometimes. I don't read our emails. I don't know how it went over. I assumed people were like it was, it was harsh, but also I was like, it was kind of a nothing

burger. I'm sorry, it just kind of was. Yeah. Yeah. And hey, anyway, we get the original, we get the O.G. Buff Hut. Oh, wait, is that not in this? I read too much. You haven't read the Buff Hut that's in the Star Wars comic. that lead up to this.

I don't know about the OG Buff Hut incoming. Well, let's get into this and we'll get there. Apologies for jumping the gun on the buffhawk. Okay. I would, I can't blame you. So, going to keep the summary pretty light here because I think it's all in how things unfold and what you're looking at when it does. The meat of this arc, you know, really, really takes shape.

But it is time for all our protagonists to converge on, Vraggo Voss is the name of the planet It's something like that It's Roagin Rogus Vos Rogus Vos Rogus Vosos

Rogus Vos Yes Rogus Vos For a series of nemesis Encounters between good and evil counterparts Yeah It's all Scorpion and Sub Zero

Throughout this entire arc Vader battles Luke in space Above the planet And the two cause each other To crash land near the old Jedi Temple Where they are forced to fight for their lives against pursuing enemies. Vader is attacked by the entire rebel army and massacres the entire rebel army.

Leah realizes that Vader is getting away again, so she goes on a suicide mission to try and kill him, basically offering herself up as the guidance package for rebel bombs to annihilate Vader from the air. Han goes to save Luke from bounty hunters and Dr. Afra. 3PO and R2 wind up in a brawl with triple zero and BT. And then next thing you know, Chewy is in a fist fight with a black chrysanton. Leah's winding up for her big sacrifice against Vader. And then Carbon shows up and he's going to try to both slaughter Vader and steal Luke and become Palpatine's right-hand man.

Afra arrives, having gotten into a big standoff with Han, where they sort of fought each other to a comical draw. Afra shows up with the droids to help Vader fight Carbon and his stormtroopers. Vader slaughters Carbon, just as Carbon realizes, something more is happening here. But Carbon will never see the entire picture take shape. Han, Chui and 3PO rescue Luke and Leah and they begin their evacuation from the planet while Vader is reunited with Afra and the next sort of stage of his quest. This arc reaches the conclusion. He sort of left once again in pursuit. Yeah.

A lot of action here. A lot of action and a lot of moments that did bring to mind an observation Ali made, I think, in the first arc where sometimes this is this is a the comic where you get the sense that we got some people who are real good at drawing spaceships and machines and spaceships and machines fighting and looking awesome and then occasionally faces have to be drawn and it does not help that they are very recognizable faces that we all know really well and there are some truly unfortunate drawings of luke i think in particular in this arc that are challenging.

And it's worth saying there are two different pencillors across these. There's the person who we've been used to which is Salvador La Raca who is the Darth Vader

penciler and Inker. And there's also Mike Diadado Jr. who is the Star Wars Marvel's Star Wars penciler and Inker. And I say that because importantly

this is a big crossover event. This is Vader Down, and there are six issues in what we read. For the people who are like, I don't know, reading along one by one and didn't manage to figure out what these were. This is Vader Down number one. There's only one Vader down, but it's like a one of one. So, Vader-Darth Vader-13, then Star Wars 13, then Star Wars 13, then Darth Vader-14, then Darth Vader-15. And that means that we kind of bounce between those two artists and those two writers, by the way.

because Kieran Gillen only writes the Darth Vader side of this. James Aaron, sorry, not James, Jason Aaron, wrote the Vader Down and then Star Wars sides of this. This is also why we're getting Luke Leah and Han, because those are the protagonists of the Star Wars comic. And then sometimes you get an extra person like Han Solo's wife. She's not really his wife, but for like three issues. There's a whole arc in that comic about how he has a wife. and the wife and Leah get into it and then in the end it turns out

they're not really married they got fake married for a heist once and but she shows up and pretends to be And there was only one bad It's a lot It's a lot I read so I read that guy I did my due diligence I went and I read The previous 12 issues or 11 issues or whatever

Of Marvel's Star Wars So that I could get my head around what we are How did we end up here? How is Luke on this planet Luke is on this planet because he got briefly kidnapped by a buff hut the buff hut in question I've put into the chat

you can now see him any such cases Gracchus the hut He Luke Oh he big He's big he's like giant He runs a fighting Coliseum

And he collects Jedi paraphernalia and relics Is that a lightsaber necklace He's wearing? Like teeth Like alligator teeth? That's correct. He collects lightsabers. He collects holocrons.

He wants Luke to open a holocron. Luke opens all of the holocrons at once. And that's how he finds out about the Jedi Temple here on Drogon Vos. Whatever the name. Rogus Voss. Sorry. Rogus Voss. Is this hut modded?

I believe the hut has some like cyber legs going on. Yes, correct. They get ripped off eventually. it's a whole thing we meet like one of Vader's sick like Vader's fist dudes who goes undercover

all sorts of shit happens here here's a couple other big moments here's a moment where Leah and Chewy are all wielding lightsabers because they've stolen them from this hut

here's a really important page to me this is a some sort of gungin info dealer. Misa's seen him before. Misa Palo beat him at Dijarik. And well, Wisa just say, Hisa Moy regretting it ever since.

Issa Chubaka, Misa's sure. And where Derry Chubaka, Han Solo, never far behind him. And he's talking to Dengar. Dengar. Who gets involved here in some ways. It's, it's, I, I did my best to really give that comic a shot. I think that comic has some interesting moments.

I think that it, um, you know, if what you want is more adventures with Luke Lay and Han, which I'm not sure I do, but if you do want that, it's there. And so it is, um, some highlights maybe, uh, if you want lots of Han and Leah making excuses for why they can't part from one another. that's in that book. So it's a lot of like Han being like, well, you saved my life. So I can't go until I make it even. You know,

I got to stick around to make it even. Otherwise, I would, you know, that wouldn't, I'm not the type of person who likes to have a debt, you know? And then in the next issue, it's like, Han being like,

well, it's time for me to get out of here and I just need the parts to fix my ship. And I was like, well, we can't spare the parts right now. I'm sorry, we just can't spare the parts right now. So you're going to stick around until we're on the other side of this battle.

And it's like that over and over again. for their relationship. Luke finds Obi-Wan's journal. That's remember when Luke fought Boba Fett in the last kind of background. He finds Obi-Wan's journal and learns about... Wait, if you references it in this...

In this, yeah. So he finds that from Obi-Wan's house. Every page is something about some woman named Satin? There's no Satin mentioned. It's mostly Obi-Wan being like, I'm really sad that I have to let bad things happen to good people here on Tatooine in order to, like, keep my head down.

And then the end of his little one... shot, he kind of goes like, I'm going to be a good guy. And it's time for me to get ready for things to, you know, go bad. And I got to make sure let Luke is safe. You rescued Leah. Well, that didn't happen in the book. But we know that happened, obviously, obviously, pretty much, you know. Yeah, there's a guy who says, there's a bit where Luke says, I got a bad feeling about this.

And this guy cuts him off. And he goes, yeah, you got a bad feeling, kid? Yeah, it's like the motto of the rebellion. I keep hearing that from all you guys. which I don't know that I appreciate that. Like, you know, just don't have him say it. Yeah, you don't mind it. Fair enough.

I, yeah. I mean, there was some jokes in like what we were reading also that were like, yeah, okay. That's a joke. There was one bad feeling that I allowed in this. But I feel like you can't talk to, you can't say that they're saying it all the time. That's the thing. That's it for me. That's like a step too far.

It's tricky. This panel with them all with lightsaber is really, really cool. So that's the thing. But I think you're like, yeah, go ahead. But I also think that you understand why non-force users having lightsaber is a fucking horrible idea.

If you've ever been to a party where a pinata is involved and like little, little kids are like wandering around. It's like, no, man, people are going to get their faces chopped off with back swings. It's going to go bad. Yeah. But yeah.

So that's my, my open-hearted, honest read of it is, I still don't think it's for me. It was useful to read it and see what's going on over there in that version of this. And I think that if what you want is Han Luke and Leia hanging out or like, you know, Luke leaves Han and Leia to go investigate some Jedi stuff, like, okay, well, like, that's true to his character. He does be doing that. You know what I mean? Like, he kind of like does the Dagaba thing early. And if that, if that sounds interesting to you, Yeah, you should read it.

If that sounds like it might frustrate you, let me tell you. This panel with his wife showing, I've gotten me interested. I mean, yeah, she's cool as hell. Sona Sola Lo is. She's not actually married to him. What's she up to? Why is she playing it? That's the question.

What's the angle? Exactly. I will say there is my favorite bit here. So the further away from the main plot it goes, the better it gets. My favorite issue is about another smuggler who Hahn worked for or worked with. And this may have been a one shot, like Star Wars annual or something. a guy named, I want to say his name was Frax, F-R-A-R-A-X maybe. And he's like, I don't know if he's the guy who was on the mission where he dumps all

of Jabba's stuff, but it's that situation where Han to escape the Imperials has to dump, has to dump a bunch of stolen cargo or much of smuggled cargo to get away. And in the process, he dumps this guy into, like, the ocean. And this guy, like, survives and, like, claws his way back into the galaxy and, like, comes for revenge against Han. And that's just a fun Han story. You know, like, it... Like a wet Dengar. Yeah, he's like a wet Dengar. He's like a wet Dengar. That's exactly, right. And I mean, like, that was useful in a way because it was like, oh, I don't mind

these characters having other stories happen to them after a new hope before Empire. I'm fine with that. It really ends up just being when they're in the room together, that ends up being tougher. When it's like, when it feels like it gets out in front of important scenes that are to come, you know? It's the, there are, you run the recurring problem of the relationships can't progress in the direction of the, yes, canon, like, known plot meaningfully. They can't meaningfully progress in that direction because otherwise that you have to, like, save space for those plot actions to have meaning. But then I think the thing that often goes wrong is you end up with a lot of, like, wheel spinning around, like, well, what if you play, they, like, will, they won't they beats, uh, just, like, constantly. Or what if it's all hijinks and you're just like hanging out with with you know, it feels like you're hanging out with with buddies here and that tends to

That's what is that's the pitfalls of working spaces like this. Yeah. And I do think it it does it's been a long time since I've read them. But I remember really liking the original Han Solo novel trilogy where he goes to the the corporate sector and And effectively, it's completely like the empire's out there, but he's not actually there. He's often a completely different part of space and he's doing Han Solo Adventures. It feels authentic to the character and he's allowed to have growth. But it doesn't impact. Nothing touches the main plot that we see in Star Wars. And sometimes I think that is the better approach, but it's a harder sell. But there's, I mean, look, fan fiction is littered with people who,

like struggle with this exact problem of it's a slow burn, retelling some events from the story we know and maybe inserting some other incidents. And it's like, yeah, like hewing closely to like what we know is going to happen is not your friend here. And it can be kind of grading. Yeah. And the thing that happens here is like either it is presaging some future thing like Luke leave and go investigate the Jedi ruins or to, What he really was to do is go to the Jedi Temple on Corrassant, and he doesn't know how to do that,

so he goes to Narcadah, and that's how he ends up caught up with his hut. Or doing a little wink in a nod about something in a way that also was kind of grading. So in, like, the third issue, he rides a speeder bike into, like, an imperial base and blows up the power core, the way that he blows up the Death Star

or the way that Anakin blows up the Trade Federation cruiser. And he says out loud, like, I'm sorry, Father, I'll never be the Jedi you were. And it's like he's doing the thing that Ant, that young Anakin did in the moment. And that's like, either that hits you and you go, ooh, that's cool. Or you go like, oh, my God, I get it. Like, and the core of it is like, you can't do too much with them.

They can't do anything but mirror truths you already know. Or briefly step offside to come back on side. He also briefly holds a cursed lightsaber and like almost gives him to his dark side. And then he's like, no, that's not good. I don't like doing that. That's bad. I killed those stormtroopers with rage in my heart. I better break this lightsaber.

And you're like, all right, okay, man. But it's like, I just don't want Luke knowing about cursed lightsabers. Like, that's not, I don't, I don't want Luke before an Empire Strikes back to be in a room with dozens of Jedi holocrons. I don't want him to have seen Shockty. That's not a thing he should have seen. That can happen. That can't happen. That is a face that seen Shocktee.

He has literally, that's who's talking to him in this final image that I linked by the, in the chat. So that's what I I when we heard the news There was recent like in a book or something that Luke knows about Calcustis And I was like wait hang on Is that a new pronunciation for Kestas What's happening here? No that's Kestis I think I just about to say Kestis

That's fine That's the Nibuian pronunciation actually And I was just in that moment I was like I want to protect Luke Skywalker like he shouldn't know about it Like there was the the bubbles should remain separate. I think I think especially because Luke's whole thing is that he doesn't know anything. Yes. He doesn't he doesn't have access to like a mentor.

Luke nothing going on up there like actual like no he has he has a brain. But what I mean is that he has no. Yes. Yeah, he has no institutional knowledge. He has no access to what, like, he leaves a return of the Jedi and is faced with how do I rebuild the Jedi order off of nothing? I have nothing to go off of except some teachings from a couple days on Dagaba with Yoda and like a couple chats with Obi-Wan and Force Ghost Yoda. and I went to the tree, the tree of darkness. Like, though his whole point is that he doesn't have the support system and institutional knowledge that every other Jedi before him has had.

And he is left to carry, like, to carry on what the order is going forward. Without that information. So, like, when it's, when we're talking about filling. in the gaps between the movies of the original trilogy, that feels like the one gap I don't want filled. Like, adventures, sure, go on adventures, I guess, but maybe adventures that are about the rebel forces, like, growing the rebellion,

like getting more resources for the rebellion, that sort of a thing. And I think why it works so much better with Darth Vader is we see Darth Vader in such limited contexts. In the three movies, we see him talking to the emperor. We see him interacting with, you know, imperial, other imperial agents and, you know, whatever, generals, etc. But we don't see him out in the world. Like, we don't see him engaging with, like, non-targeted civilians, like he is with Dr. Afra.

or when he goes to visit Jabba's palace and these kinds of things. Like those are things that aren't at odds with the presentation of Darth Vader in the original trilogy. Like they really do feel like enhancements. Whereas it doesn't, it feels at odds to have Luke have met Shockty or know who Shockty is. Like that feels at odds with the presentation. of Luke in the original trilogy. Yoda can say a double jump he can do.

Luke should not ever say a double jump he can do. Never. Luke doesn't know Calcastis like that. Anyway, these comics, unless Rob, did you have something to add on this, this note? No, but I am, I'm glad for that context. Like, I could tell that it was a crossover event.

Yes, yes. Like, you can sort of feel the seams tonally, artistically. and something that happens a lot in comics and sometimes it works really, really well. I want to say that Gillen's journey into mystery run was merged with the Mighty Thor run that was happening at the time

to sort of wind both runs down in a pretty amazing series of adventures that tied together these two disparate threads, but it was really complimentary of how those things fit together. DC pushed this too far, I think, with like the new 52 or whatever it was, where you would have these crossover events that's like, and now we'll check in with the C tier, heroes around this major event and we'll have everything happening. But it does account for why I think, and overall, I enjoyed reading these. it's fun comic action.

Yeah. But Vader and Afra in particular, I think you're ill served by it because they become stock characters in a story where people don't, where it's not sort of presumed that people fully know who these characters are. And you're trying to give them sort of cut down easily, like snack versions of the characters right, like easily consumed a lot of the nuance left behind, right? There's no, there's no trace of the after we saw at the end of the last run talking to that guy on Nabu about like her history and not at all.

You know, what is what is justice and goodness? What's due to people in the universe? That's all gone. Instead, it's very quippy. It's very, here are the bad guys. You know, here are anti-heroes clashing with our, whether heroes and our anti-heroes are so much fun. You definitely want to read comics about these guys. Yeah.

On the other hand, I am someone for whom I will just eat this shit up. Like this, I'm sending you a frame here of Vader's tie advance plunging toward, and by the way, when I say they could draw spaces. They draw a motherfachshops. I mean, sometimes some of the faces. look a little silly. This is unfortunate moments. The spaceships look fucking phenomenal. Yeah, that's up's great. So does the, so is the lighting throughout this.

The shading, the, the line work around shadows and the pools of throughout a lot of this run. There's really dramatic, cinematic, like lighting and framing. But this is something where I have no, I have a bottomless appetite for this. If you're like, do you remember, fighter and X-Wing, do you remember those games? Do you remember, like, are you sitting here knowing these guys are in trouble because they don't know that that's a tie advanced and has shields? They don't know how sheels.

Right. And so you get this moment of them realizing, like, this is not a normal tie fighter. It's name of Thai interceptor. Bader can just do this. And this fight culminates in Luke doing something that everyone who played these fucking games, and I'm certain Gillen played these games, I'm certain whoever's writing the, the, the, the comics about the side of the rebels

was aware of this as well. Ship with shields versus another ship sometimes you just ram them. Sometimes you're like, I'm not going to be destroyed by this. You just go bongk. And you crush them. And that is how Luke.

And it's also a good way for Luke to get a draw here that doesn't feel like, wait, he can actually go toe to toe of Vader. Not really. Like, Vader blows through an entire wing of X-wing. here and Luke tries to save the day, realizes he can't do it. And so he simply decides to stop dogfighting him and just rams him. Just hates him with a shit. And a neat little resolution,

but I am I am always here for this stuff. And they're serving that up in spades. Something really interesting actually. I think like we talked about the friction that comes from these characters interacting before they're due to in Empire and Return of the Jedi. And I actually think one piece of characterization that does feel like it works for me for both Luke and Leah here is they're both ready to die to kill Darth Vader. They are both ready to fucking die to kill Darth Vader. It's an easy trait for them. They don't see themselves as the heroes and protagonists of the rebellion. Yes. And Luke has no idea about Vader yet. And so of course he's just like, this is the guy who killed my dad. I got to kill this guy. And, and, you know,

especially for Leah, for laying, doing the calculus on it, like, I am nothing compared to Darth Vader. Like, it's so worth you doing a bombing run on my location to kill Darth Vader. And I actually think that's like, that's a really good characterization for both of those characters. And then shout out to Han, who throughout this is like, I'm going to save my friends because I care about my friends. Darth Vader, I don't care about Darth Vader. Which I think is a fun interpretation of his selfishness. Yeah.

Yeah. that like, no, he is like ride or die for the things and people he cares about. That does not extend to causes, except in very special circumstances. Yes. And so Leah being like, Vader stood on the Death Star and destroyed Alderan. And it's like, that's terrible, but Luke is out there right now. We have to get him. Can you get me one speeder?

Yeah. Yeah. No. Very neatly with, you know, the decision at Hoth, where it's like, sorry, if my friends are in trouble. Yes. I will do anything required to, I have no risk, sense of risk or danger. I'm just going to go get my friends. Yeah.

When you talk about causes, then it's like, well, where's my end? Where's the money? But I like that a lot. I also love, again, just things that feel very true to the movies. We talked about like the darkness of the Jedi, of the rebel like hangar in the temples. I do love this idea of like rebel bases. as these like gloomy caverns with just warships like lurking in lurking

amidst encroaching shadow all around them. It's it's really excellent. You know, I love how this stuff is, it feels again, very true to the particular look of the original trilogy as we just watched. But then you do have moments like a few pages later.

Tress effects. chewy hanging out with with Land 3PO where it's like damn he looks glossy he looks like they just brushed him out yeah he just had he's got to blow out maybe they might have I don't know

maybe the terrible poison actually gave him like had a side effect which was glossy hair you know yeah I like this intro section though Rob been going back to what you were talking about before the space battle above Vrogas

is really cool. All the ship design is great. You know, I guess the other person who you could be who might love this set of issues is someone who wants to see Darth Vader be a badass. Because he just like wrecks these guys. And then we get to like, I think the panel that I first saw from this series is from the end of this first issue where the rebels, you know, they, Vader and Luke both Crashland on the planet. They send bombers out after, they send Wye wings out after Vader. Vader destroys them with debris

He force throws debris into them all Luke's in the distance I'm like damn I guess this plan didn't work out exactly right And then like a whole company of soldiers With troop transports and rifles And everything else Falls in on Vader

It's like D-Day is happening It's V-Day but bad It's V-Day not Victory Day V-V-Day Vader Day They're landing They're literally landers here Or at least like APCs or something On the shoreline

of people surrounding him and they go, you're surrounded. And he says, the only thing, all I am surrounded by is fear and dead men. And so like, if what you wanted was Vader to get a, you're locked in here with me line off, that's what this comic is. His cape billowing behind him is sick as shit.

Yeah, exactly. So that's what this comic really is. Yeah. He like activates their thermal detonators with the force. He's constantly, He's throwing their missiles back at them with the force. Oh, when he detours the proton torpedoes, the X-Wing to throw at him.

And again, it is kind of fun. The, like, why is this guy unstoppable? Because he's breaking the fundamental rules of what everyone else has to play by. Yeah. That, like, physics, logic kind of breakdown around him. It's kind of fun. I also like this notion that in the same way, Luke lacks a lot of information about Vader, the rebellion hasn't fully internalized.

Like, you know, maybe he's known as like the emperor is heavy. But people don't know his move set. Right. It's like he's like, yeah, he's, you know, they're like, yeah, it's Vader. He's really dangerous. He's killed a ton of people. But they still fundamentally think it's like going after Hydric or something in World War II. And it's like, no, this is like if Hydric could turn into the incredible

Hulk. Anthropoid ends up with like the Hulk just tearing through Czechoslovakia. That is kind of what is happening here where they keep thinking they're amping up the stakes. They're like, okay, send everyone, right? It's very, you know, we're doing D-Day, but for one man. Yeah. And here they're going to learn, okay, that isn't even going to work. This is, again, just a different category of threat and not someone you can be treated as a military target.

Yeah, well, I feel like it's probably quite rare that anyone that goes up against Darth Vader lives to be able to share some military analysis of it. Like, he's so catastrophic. Han coming back from the Death Star being like, that guy wasn't shit, probably not helped the situation. While Leah was in the room. Speaking of Han coming back and speaking of people reporting back on people, an important detail. of the comics, of the Star Wars comics that I did the read on is Han gets wrecking, Han,

um, they let someone go after, Han does a scheme to like get into an imperial base and says he's Han Solo and everybody's like, that's Han Solo, he works her job of the hut sometimes, he's a smuggler, and then Imperial officer gets away and reports that. So everyone at this point in the empire knows that Han Solo, the smuggler, is part of the Rebel Alliance.

So, huh, and like, that meant something in the moment. Leah is like, are you sure you're going to let that guy go? Like, he knows you're part of the rebels now. Like, part of your high ground is that no one knows that you're part of the rebel alliance. And Han commits at that moment effectively to be like, yeah, well, I work for a lot of people. You know, it's whatever. Who cares that they know that?

But obviously, it's him, like, throwing in for real at that beat. And I thought that beat was good. And that's kind of like, you kind of, to me, that does color some of the stuff here where Han is like, okay, I might be part of the crew, but like I'm part of the crew for my friends and not for this weird general who's telling me whatever, you know, this soldier who's telling me, yeah, we haven't had a moment to spare to look for Luke Skywalker, which, by the way, is a crazy thing to say about the guy who blew up the Death Star. You couldn't send one guy to go look for Luke Skywalker, really? Okay. If you say so, man. Luke can handle himself, I guess. Can he? Does he handle himself in this issue? Because he's constantly getting thrown over someone's shoulder and knock the fuck out. Yeah, well, he's... What did you all think of Afra's appearance here?

Not literal physical appearance. I mean, also some of the... Yeah, yesified Afra? Yeah. I look forward to a rock-homing appearance the next Tomb Raider game. Oh, she is kind of giving Lara Croft Tomb Raider. Yeah. What do you all think of her no-selling Han Solo being like,

I've never heard of that guy? Well, it was funny because she was like, she was like, I've never heard of that guy, but also, I've heard of that guy. Like, wasn't she? No, what she says is, so I don't know, the way I read that is so she sees like the hologram all three of them um and she goes han solo the han solo oh me oh my

what are we going to do facing han solo and the droid says is he particularly fearsome mistress and she goes no idea never heard of him and so i think that she's like playing off this idea oh they have han solo who the hell is han solo why i'm supposed to care about han solo but i think he's supposed to have of her of her for real right no right She is Indiana Jones. People know who Dr. Jones is. Right. He tries to be like, yeah, I've never heard of you.

He's like, oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. It's on your after. It's a little bit, it's a little bit, um, Jack Sparrow being, like being introduced to people in terms of how that, that vibe is. And there's also a little bit of, you're trying to improve the booking a little bit, I think, by having Han be like, oh shit, that's Dr. Afra.

So that people who don't know who Dr. Afra is will be like, oh, wow, even Han's concerned about this, Dr. Afra. Yeah, if you've not been reading the Vader comic, but you pick this up because of the crossover, right? If Han cares about Dr. Afra, even though they fight to like a literal, not just a literal draw, but like the same thing gets them both simultaneously. And they use it for Indiana Jones reference. Why doesn't have to be snakes or whatever.

Yeah, what are they actually called? The wasp worms. Wasp worms. I hate wasp worms. Why don't have to be wasp worms? Ali just made a face of like utter, I don't know. Maybe not revolving. That's too strong, but.

No, I think the like, the Indiana Jones of it all is really pushing it for me. I do think, like, Afra's so tough because, like, the, like, Han Solo. I don't know Juan Solo. I'm doing a bit right now. Like, I just have to accept that Afra is my friend who is just going to be a little much sometimes. Like, she's just like, I love her. She's so crazy me. That's just like, that's fine, girl.

Like, go off, I guess. Like, that's okay. I do think that, like, I appreciate what they end up doing with the, like, foil of Afra and Han Solo. Because, like, when you have a character who feels so, like, inspired. by another character who was like pulling the same vibes. Like I think that like them playing it up was more fun than them trying to like dance around it or like make it into a bigger thing than it was. Like I didn't want to feel like, you know, suddenly Dr. Afro was like a big deal to Hansel. Like having heard of her is one thing.

Having her come into the ring as like a new, you know, this, this. girl from this other promotion, this comic that I don't read, and feeling like, oh, they're suddenly rivals and, like, I should know their backstory, and, like, I should definitely know that Hansa Lo and Dr. Offer, like, couldn't be locking horns or whatever.

Like, I didn't want it to feel like that. But, like, doing it, the silly way, I think, was like, oh, okay, I, you know, it feels like it honors both of the characters instead of being, like, oh, you have to root for afra now, or, like,

you know, underplaying her because people who are reading Star Wars are going to prefer Han or whatever else. Like... Yeah, that's interesting. They didn't make it like, oh, now that Hans met Afra, like he's...

They have this funny interaction. It's charming, but it's not... It's just not too serious. We can move on after this and it's not... I don't expect Hans Sola to ever mention Dr. Afra's name again in the near future. I like that they're not as cool as they think they are.

That's the best part. they both have this moment like, you fucking dip shit. Nice, nice sniper position right beneath the wasp worm nest. And then they hit each other. And it's the least dignified panel that they could have gotten them both running around of the head covered in these wasp worms in blind panic, running into each other. Yeah. And then passing out.

And eventually like being scraped off the pavement 20 minutes later. It works. It works. I like it. I like that after we get the, he's heard of Dr. Afra. And she, like, in the end, both of them are not who they, they're not as slick as they think they are. But also, they're both the ones who are there to help. They're both the ones who are there to, like, recover the people for their chosen, you know, ally.

It's true. Buddy. Sorry, Natalie. What were you going to say? I think just overall, it does feel like kind of thinking about the crossover of it all again. I do feel like this crossover feels like it's bringing the Star Wars comic existing audience over to Darth Vader more so than it is bringing the Darth Vader-sided audience over. Like if, you know, I'm sure people are reading these at the same time, of course.

but because they're so different tonally, there's, at least in how they've been described and in look and everything, I feel like I'm, as someone who's only been reading the Darth Vader one so far, I'm being sold on what Star Wars, the Star Wars run has to offer more so than I feel like I'm bringing what Darth Vader has been offering up to Star Wars.

And I think maybe that's where this run feels a little shallow to me because it's more in the kind of adventurey, quippy, you know, here's these two squads kind of going face to face. Because the interesting moments where Luke is engaging with the Jedi Temple or Vader even, having a moment with the Jedi Temple. Like, I think the balance is just more heavily weighted in the kind of Star Wars. We both have wasp worms on our head

and we're running around and running into each other. It just feels weighted more towards that tone. And I... It's not my... It's fun. I guess it's fun. It's fun to have... This is the thing, right?

It's like, we've gotten... they've earned our patience, I think, a little bit with the previous two arcs. And it's so clearly not like this is the new direction for this comic. And it feels like there's a crossover event. Natalie, you're so aligned with me. One of the notes that I wrote down was that it reminded me of the quote we read from Kieran Gillen in the first, during our first episode about these comics, where he talks about how like all of the big action hero stuff,

that's just what Vader gets up to on a Tuesday. my book is about all the other stuff, the kind of like administrative stuff, the responsibilities and the maneuvering and the politicking and the detective and all that other stuff that we've really enjoyed about the Vader comic so far. It's like, oh, well, this is, this is what you just said,

this is Vader inside of that comic all the way through this run. This is the big action adventure story. This is not the, you know, Thanoth, the cool detective guy, just like isn't in these issues, straight up. And he'll be back, I think, in the future. Tag is not in these issues.

Carbon shows up, and he's like the most appropriate of the Vader rivals from the Vader book to show up because he's just like a big goopy mom cow. He's easy to communicate. He's like he's a guy with a lot of enhancement, like modulated enhancements. He has four light servers versus Darth Vader's two lightsaberers. He's clearly like, I'm next gen and your last gen. and I'm going to be the one sitting at the side of the emperor. Like, he's not talking about whoever was the other guy involved in,

who was the other guy involved in the creation of him? It's not just the emperor or someone else. Anyway. Dr. Cyborg. I don't remember his title. Right. Whatever that guy's name is. It's like, it doesn't, we only need to know enough about him to convey the relevant information to the Star Wars.

to the Star Wars audience who hasn't met him before. Because, and that is, here's a guy that is, quote, unquote, the future of a lightsaber wielder, of a warrior, of what the emperor wants and an apprentice. And then here's the old guard, Darth Vader, who is going to continue to dominate. And I think it's interesting that on, conversely, the gang that comes with the Star Wars comics

is just the gang we already know. There's no other character that we don't know that we get a very limited introduction to that just conveys just enough information you need to be able to kind of get a sense of who they are in the context of the Star Wars comics. Yeah, I hadn't considered that. Again, it feels like more weighted

in the Star Wars direction of introducing From lack of talent card and margin. Yeah. Yeah, I think the only character like that in the Star Wars comic is the character who I described earlier. I didn't describe her, but she describes herself as being Hans Solo's wife, even though she isn't. That is Sana. Sara, Starrose or something is her real last name. But she's not part of the crew in that comic.

She shows up for one arc and then she's gone. There is no Dr. Afrox. or Black Cresantin or Carbon. There's not like that style of character is not in that book in the same way. And so I think that, which I also think is like part of why the books are different because that book feels a lot more like

one arc after another, here are heroes, they're running into bad guys, they're fighting the bad guys, and they're going to move on. Whereas it does feel like the Vader comic has been growing a cast of rivals and sidekicks that are tied to him. Because he doesn't have a crew.

You know, He doesn't have, there is no Han, Luke and Leia on the Vader side. So they have to, like, give him Dr. Afrin her evil droids. You know what occurs to me here, though, is also, you can tell me more if if the, sorry, what's the rebels series called? It's just called Star Wars. Star Wars? Yeah, it's just called Star Wars. One issue is, like, you got this entire thing is precipitated by Luke being on the trail of Jedi lore and Jedi secrets and all that.

and I think one reason So I think Vader starts in his position of what Gillen looking at what else is he up to? He's a guy who's in the middle of a career crisis. Yeah. You know,

he's people are coming for the throne. People are trying to replace him at work. Also, he realized he just realized he hates his job and he's fucked up his entire life. Really interesting stakes. But the

Star Wars characters, I think, I think something maybe is, it's already sort of pointing so clearly in this direction of like, well, you know, Luke's Jedi journey is the really critical thing here. Yeah. And it's like, I don't know that in the wake of Yavin IV, it is. Like, when we look at, when we check in with them in Empire Strikes Back, it sure doesn't seem like Luke has been hitting the books about the Jedi to date. Yeah.

They've been busy doing jobs with this like shoestring rebellion and trying to. And like, to a degree, it feels like they're kind of, as cool as spaceships look and as good as the action is, they're kind of shrinking from like the military sci-fi angles that can help build out a setting as well because those introduced, like, what are the complications? What are the things that create underlying narrative logics for why something can't just happen or can't happen now? Right. Um, there's, there's all sorts of like low stakes crises that you can get into rebels at times was very, very good at this, uh, as a show where like sometimes it's about, we need gas. Like the stakes here are we don't have gas and we need gas.

That's it. That's why we're here. And here we've got Luke being like, I just need to learn about the Jedi and get these Jedi secrets. And having all these moments where it's like, the force is with him. Look, all the holocrons are opening. I don't want him to have all the holokrons opening at this point.

I kind of like the Luke that we meet an empire where it's like he's talking to his droid about like which transports go out first. Yeah. What do we load up with what gear? And so I think that further has them juxtaposing somewhat unfortunately where we come from this place where Vader has this richly imagined comment. of like his job as being in the empire and right now the job is not going well. With when we check in with the Star Wars gang, their job is being the heroes of Star Wars.

Not working with the rebellion at this pivotal moment necessarily. That's kind of the vibe I'm getting at least. Yeah. And it's a bit lacking for that. What I would say is there's so much more of the Star Wars comic than there was of the Vader one. There's 75 issues of Star Wars. And so there's like 12 or 13 full different arts. All set before empire? I believe all set before empire.

I believe so. And I think that a lot of those are military sci-fi in the more traditional sense. But I do think that you're hitting on something that I was thinking a lot of during this arc, which is how much it reminded me of rebels. And how rebels would sometimes sideline the military stuff to be like, well, what's up with Ezra and Canaan and the Jedi? And there were definitely times when we were watching rebels where we were like, I get it. I know that Star Wars is about Jedi and that they're important. And I'm not saying they're not important.

But I really wish we were dealing a little bit more with the rebels in the name of the show, Rebels. Because that stuff was working for us in key moments. And I kind of felt that a little bit here. Again, I think, Natalie, I'm a lot with you and you're kind of tone a few minutes ago where you're like, it's fun. You know, from being really serious, it's the Yassie Bay. K-A-Mose-Def in Target, Drake, listening to Drake and Target, you know, so many, you see you, so many products, it's listenable, it's fun.

This is fun, you know? Yeah, yeah. I had a fun time with this. I've never heard, Yasser Aung Bay on Drake. Did he ether him in a really, like, a white way? It's a whole time. It's in all-time. Because I think he's a great artist, like, a very serious one, too.

Like, like on both sides of my all-time favorite. Yeah, he's in an interview from the cutting room floor podcast, and someone says, the host says, do you think Drake is hip hop? And he describes this being, he says it's pop. And he's like, like, he's rapping. It's like music you listen to in a Target. It's music that's compatible with shopping. He's like, it's like music you hear in Target with an edge. so many skews, so many products.

And then at the end, he's like, you know, you just have to ask sometimes, like, are we witnessing the collapse of empire? It's really good. I'll link you to it. It's one of my all-time favorite three-minute bits that I reference constantly. It's a brain-altering. It really is.

This is the sort of thing where, like, to agree, our culture suffers from the fact that there's no more like Dick Cavett figure. But also, we do not have a ton of artists and celebrities who are dick-haven-guessed. Who could be that. Occasionally, one makes it through. Yeah. And it's just like absolutely devastates up here.

Yeah. But in a really off-handed way where it's, well, you put me on the spot. Yeah. Yeah. It's likeable. But I think he signals the collapse of our society. That's, yeah. Uh-huh.

Uh, yeah. What happens when the columns start buckling? Are we not? some early stage of that at this present moment. It's so good. Anyway. But that's like, that is kind of like, this is, this is, it's very light. It's tasty.

It's likable, you know? Yeah, like Chubaka gets poisoned and then they have the antidote in the car, in the trunk. In the trunk. In the truck. They have R2 shoot him with the antidote. New R2 ability. Syringe launcher. Surringe launcher.

Okay. But he's up again. against BT. Okay, so legend, so two things here I love. One, BT realizes that Luke and Leah have a protocol droid that they're tied with.

And so he just spray paints himself gold and walks up to Luke and R2 begins like panicking and Luke can't see it. He just sees 3PO with and it's kind of funny what they do with the the issue almost has like

a color grading effect. for how the palate is used. Triple zero has red eyes. Yes. In the, with where the, what you'd call in photography, like the white point

of these exterior scenes, his eyes look kind of gold. Yeah. If you look closely, they are still red eyes, but they're not reading as red in that light and Luke cannot see it. He looks a lot like the RPO.

And so he just walks into this trap while R2 is panicking. And then you get very fine. on a little bit of, um, B.T is a Frank Millerified version of R2, where him and R2 square up and R2 pulls out his little, uh, welding, uh, his little soldering iron thing. Yeah. And B.T. Breaking the laws of physics from literally nowhere reveals like a heavy battlemex worth of,

of like artillery tucked behind his back and on his head. Like it's multiple, it's like four Gatling guns, multiple rocket launcher, missile racks on each side. It's Roger Rabbit. It's cartoon. And then we see... And then R2 suddenly turns

into Roadrunner, able to drive away from this like onslaught of gunfire. And it's, it's cute. It's funny. It's deeply silly, but like we're here to have a good time. That's his comic. It's, it's, it's, R2 is going to fight evil R2.

Chubacca's going to fight evil Chubacca. Han is going to fight evil Han, right? And Darth Vader's going to kill countless rebels. That's why I think, like, the, like, the thing you said before about, like, they've sort of earned our patience here is really on point. Because I fear to think of, like, what R2 fights evil R2 would have been like if they played it straight. Like, I don't know that I would have needed that. And then, like, the version of Darth Vader that's like, oh, he's going to, like, kill 100 guys at once and, like, say a cool thing. Like, I know that if I was, like, looking at the restaurant menu for the Darth, like, the Star Wars comics, before I was going there, I would be like, I don't really know about this.

I don't know that that's for me. But I think that, like, because there's something about, like, being able to see Darth Vader and Dr. Afra after, like, I have an affinity for them. And I like reading these comics that like being able to see them as this sort of like monster of the week. Like they are different than the way that we are seeing them is like kind of enjoyable if it only has to be for like these three paperbacks or whatever it is. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I'm very curious where we go from here in terms of all of that. Did you do? Go ahead. Well, did you feel like since you have the context of the Star Wars comics that like it felt like there was also a tonal shift for those? because it's like, oh, Darth Vader is here now? Or was it really just like a,

we are a Monster of the Week comic. Our Monster of the Week is Darth Vader and evil or 222. The thing is he already shows up. He shows up so early. In that comic, you might remember me talking about this in the first of our Vader comic things where he fights Luke with a lightsaber.

And then the next week after that, Luke fights Boba Fett to a standstill. Now that I've run it more closely, Luke has also been blinded in that fight. So BobaFed has gotten two Ls against people who have been blinded. So it's like, which again is like that's a little cute. That's a little too cute by measure. You know what I mean?

Like the idea like, oh, it's sort of like when Han is blinded and he backs up into Boa Fett to beat him or whatever. And it's like, I'd say the first arc that really worked for me in the Star Wars comic was the previous one with Luke on Narcadah with the hut who's collecting Jedi artifacts just because he's like a collector because he's. like an obsessive collector. That basically worked for me. And I would say that, like, coming to this after that,

I will say that it felt like these were the same characters. It's the same version of Luke Leia and Han that I'm used to from that book. But I don't know that I like... I don't know. Maybe I liked this more because I was able to, like, put it into continuity with that mode, with that... It does feel like issues of that comic

and not issues of Gillen and Laraca's Vader so much. And so I do think that may be part of, why I was able to just be like, yeah, okay, like they're just, they're just jamming. They're just doing a funny one, you know, is because I can put it into that context. And in some ways, in some ways, Afra and the droids do feel like they fit into the Star Wars comic. Not more than the Vader one, but like this version of those characters, you know, it's interesting. We've spent so many issues where BT and Triple Zero have been like, please let me kill a bunch of people. And there's always some reason for them not to be able to do it.

And this is the issue where finally they are like allowed in order to do it. And it feels right that that's happening in the Star Wars book and not in the Vader book. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. So. Because like casualties have like such a more of a ripple effect of the Vader books because we're like so much more zoomed in on the situation. Exactly.

Exactly. Exactly. I also, I don't want to undersell how hard I think it is to do a run like this. because I'd be fucking terrified, both as a comics writer but also an artist. If it's like, and here's the script. And it's like, I need eight pages of action in a row here. One page of dialogue.

And then we're going to do about four more pages of action. And it's like Chubaca and Black Cresanth fight. And something to do well here is that all the fights have a distinct style to them like chewing chrysanton are in an old school wrestling match oh yeah literally big like you know huge sweeping gestures flexing at each other bringing their fists down on each other's guys being laid out and be like no don't don't put don't use a finisher on me and then oh he gets finished and then you have sort of the comical sniper duel between han and afra you have the droids caught in a cartoon version of themselves.

You have Vader in the midst of kind of a Rogue One-style horror movie when he's fighting the Rebels, but then also in a sort of Western-style showdown with first Leah and then Carbon. And I have seen other comics, like where, all right, it's time to do a bunch of action, where visually and tonally, it just gets incredibly monotonous. because it's like, yep, there goes Batman. He's jumping off a thing. Yeah.

Yep, landing on those guys, grabbing the other. And it gets worse sometimes where it's like they kind of shrink from it. It's like, well, how about the characters, X-Men comics, I think, are huge offenders in this historically. These characters are going to get into deep conversations about what's going on with them while they're doing just like epic shit in the background. Yeah. And it's like, wow, they're just like carrying on a serious chat while just like ragged. dawling dudes around, you know, around the battlefield. Here, they do kind of commit to this notion of when people are in the middle of like a

knockdown, drag out and fight in Star Wars, they're not talking. Luke and Vader are not talking on Bestbin until Luke is trapped in corner and then they can sort of talk. Right. They do a good job of like moving between modes here and giving you different things to look at and having the series of one of the ones feel. like there is character and personality each one that's unique to them. Yeah.

The one thing that I think I expected a little bit more from, I actually have like a real plotty plot question about this, is Vader and Leah, which when it wound up like, ooh, Vader and Leah are going to be together for part of this. I was like, ooh, I'm locked in. Like, what's going to happen here? So first, let me just say the plotty plot thing.

There's the bit in issue 14, where they first meet in the kind of fog, the Vrogas Voss gets this kind of like, I don't know if it's from all the explosions or what, but there's a lot of this issue with like, they're just like people are moving in and out of the fog and like seeing each other in the fog, and Vader and Leah kind of like bump into each other in the fog,

and they kind of like face off. And she says, you'll pay for everything you've done. Not today. not today, one day. I know this. You can kill me, but you can't kill what I stand for, and you won't stop justice. And he says, you misunderstand.

Your end will not be like your precious Alderan. That was far too swift. You will find that. And then like something gets his attention and he turns and he says, what? You dare? Do you think you can truly ambush a dark lord of the Sith? And then Leia looks off to the side and is like, what are you looking at? And she says, your mind is so diseased.

It's playing tricks. you, Vader, and then she runs away into the mists, and he says, run, princess, tell your friends where you are, lure the boy to me. What is distracting him here? Is he sensing that carbon is coming? Is there someone, at first I was like, did Leah do something here? Who is he saying is trying to ambush him? Because the next time we see him, he's just with Leah again.

He's just tracked Leah down. So it's not like he then gets into a fight. So, like, sometimes there's, like, action happening that I'm not sure I follow cleanly. Did anybody else have, like, a clear reading of what was happening on that sequence? No, I stumbled over this, too. This is, okay. Okay. Because then, like, he finds Leah, she calls in the bombing run, and then Carbon shows up.

And so I'm guessing that what's happening is he's, like, sensed Carbon's arrival, but, like, we don't get confirmation of that for many, many pages. More importantly, I'm curious what you all thought of Vader. and Leah here, which is like the opportunity for these two characters who we have seen interact in the movie at this point once

in a new hope with the torture sequence or the interrogation, or I guess the interrogation sequence. And I was curious what the kind of post-Alderon exchange would be for them. What it sort of does is like

he clearly is going to torture her here and is threatening her. But then Carbin shows up and so there's a situation where it's like he has to deal with carbon arriving and Leah is like a third party to that and sees him fight carbon and then runs away but like there's not I just expected I don't know what I expected but I expected like that felt like a big opportunity to have the two of them interact in some way and I don't know what I would have done with it but I did leave it feeling kind of like

if this is what we're going to do do we even need them on the same page together if we're going to go through the effort to get them together in the fog and the mist in this kind of dreamlike place is what's going to happen is like she's going to like talk a little shit and be like justice is going to out in the end, Vader. I don't know. It just didn't work for me that

well. Yeah, it's weird. It does feel clunky because she goes after him herself, right? And Right, to begin with. But then she has to leave in order to give

the call to the rebel base to send all the artillery to her when she gives the signal. Which I like. I like her being like I'm willing to sacrifice. Like I don't want to. No, I like that as a concept. I like that as like her like I think I think Leah is being given more to do here than she usually does get. Yeah.

And, you know, her placing this amount of value, the value of her. life on getting Darth Vader finally is significant and it's it's nice to be able to see her make a big sacrifice or attempt to make a big sacrifice. I mean, I'm glad she doesn't get killed obviously, but like I think it's just

it's nice to see her values and motivations and priorities at play here. But it does feel unnecessarily staggered. like why couldn't she have already made the plan to have them like fire on her before she ran into dark? Yeah, it just feels like there's an extra step here that's unnecessary. And to have had that Vader confrontation all in one moment, I think would have maintained the impact of that moment rather than

staggering it out across like a big confrins like Vader and Leo face to face that's his daughter and he doesn't know that and this is crazy and then she runs away and then he's there with her again like he doesn't run into carbon before he runs into her he just yeah if it were a movie you'd be convinced they were stitching around something in editing that's how it feels it feels it feels so

that you're like they something got cut or removed or changed in order, because if it was the bombers these senses coming in, then that's Leah's ambush, and that would be a moment for her to be like, ha-ha, like each kid. But carbon doesn't show up until later. And then Vader seems surprised again, but these are not my soldiers. So that part doesn't work. But the other part of it is this. With an encounter like this, the stuff that tends to, I think, really resonate when we're

thinking about like these sort of iconic meetings of adversaries, the one archetype is that they understand each other better than you would expect. that they sort of, that they, they sort of exchange, sort of, you know, sort of Pacino and De Niro in the diner in heat, right? That, like, they're opposite sides of things, but there's a certain commonality or some sort of shared framework reference and worldview that they understand each other.

But, and I think it's correct here, they shouldn't understand each other. And if I think about, like, the best version of that, it's when Smiley is relating his one encounter with Carla in Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy, where he thinks he's having the De Niro and Pacino conversation with his opposite number in the KGB and ends up revealing something really profound

and dangerous about himself. He's sort of a cold warrior without conviction, and Carla is a true believer, and that becomes the edge that Carla holds over him. And so that's the other way you can handle it, is the characters, or at least one of the characters, profoundly misunderstands the other. And so the encounter becomes dramatic,

but also revealing on this different axis of, oh, there is a lack of understanding of the nature of your enemy here. And what we get here is kind of a dull speech from Leah that's a warmed over version of what she tells Tarkin. The more the tighter you squeeze, the more systems will, you know,

slip out of your grasp. but also I think and this is maybe to the point where they're kind of too committed to having these characters be who they are in the rest of the movies narratively this isn't three years

since Aldrin was destroyed right this was maybe closer to three weeks certainly but it's like her entire planet and her entire family and everything she grew up knowing has been destroyed and

And not to be like, I would like to see a little more of a dark Leah, but these aren't hinted at that, right? Where it's like, I'm going to go out there and we're going to kill him. No matter what it takes, he's got to die here. He's got to die today. And then she gives this kind of very generic, like, Princess Leia speech about justice. And it's like, no, this is a moment where, yes, from her perspective, it would be justice. Vader dies here. But that is not why she is willing to have herself be blown apart by rebel bombs to kill this guy. And I think that's kind of what is what is missing in this is that she gives

him sort of the standard good guy speech. But this isn't the moment for that. This is a very personal like, here's the last person she can hold responsible for the destruction of her planet. He comes back at her with, this is not a war princess, wars are for lesser men than the emperor and myself. is a series of executions, and yours is long overdue. One of the reason this is maybe a little unsatisfying is, is Vader still in that headspace in the other scenes we've seen? Right. He is starting to realize, like,

Yemper doesn't see him as a man like myself. It is very clear that, like, now, is this a thing that he is fronting with Leah, where it's like, to my enemy, I'll pretend that I'm still on the inn with Palpatine and I'm still as powerful and prestigious as I was. Maybe, but the scene doesn't quite bring that subtext through either. And so it becomes the speech about this isn't even a fight. I'm just here to execute you, effectively the same as I did, your planet.

The only missing here is like, and your little dog too. But I think there's more effective versions of it where you could have Vader be dismissive or callous or maybe even surprising where it's like, I didn't destroy your planet. You know, where it's like, that was Tarkin. But it's irrelevant to me. Something. There's various versions of this that he can play.

But instead, they both end up as reheated versions of characters we saw in the movie, where Leah is going to speak about the inevitable triumph of justice, that she's like, even if I'm facing my death, I have hope that certainty. that inevitably evil will be defeated. And Vader is there being high-handed and unimpressed by all this. And just from where the two characters are in this story, you would hope they would be in a more interesting place with her sort of reeling from the rage and anger and grief and guilt of Alderon.

And Vader from the realization that he is in the service of a piece of shit. Right. I guess we've forgotten that like six issues ago the emperor shows up, but is like, who, who he, he, he found my little circus of freaks who I'm going to replace you with. And like, that should be in his head at this point in a different way, maybe. And the Vader knows that like, again, this dude hid your family from you. Yeah. Or at least its existence. Right.

So, yeah, there's all of it is kind of badly aligned with where the characters, interesting places the characters could be. and Vader's case have been. Yeah. And so we get kind of a sauceless confrontation. The resolution to this to this is that, you know, we go into issue 15, which, by the way, I'm thinking about it and like maybe part of the structural editing thing that we're feeling, this sort of like this feels like a movie that's been, something happened and they're cutting around something, might be that that she has to deliver a version of that speech in both Star Wars and Darth Vader.

And so the first version of it happens in Star Wars. The classic, there's two thin issues that basically have to give different versions of the same encounter. Yeah, Al, you're squinting. Yeah, that happens all the time. Like different dialogue? Yeah, that happens all the time in this sort of crossover event in comics. She used to really bother me when I was a little kid. I just read that scene, but now it's drawn differently.

Yeah. And they don't even say the same things. And so sometimes it's literally the same scene shows up in both books. But other times it's like, well, you. may have just bought this issue from the newsstand or from the comic shop by itself as a single issue. And so we need to like reestablish what would have been established in either the last issue or especially in these crossover issues where like, okay, Leis said something like that in the last issue on Star Wars, but you might not have read Star Wars. You might only be reading the Vader

ones for some reason. And so we're going to have her say a similar thing here to restate what her position is. And that happens all the time in these sorts of crossover events. And it sucks. and it's part of my American comics, this kind of like, you know, the kind of big two publishers that do these sorts of crossover events. It's one of the reasons people get frustrated by these crossover events

is because it's both, I feel like I have to buy all these books I don't normally buy to get the full picture. And, oh my God, are we really going to spend another page setting the same thing up in a book? I already read the other book, right? It's like, you're getting me from both sides.

So, do you think that that's born of, like, a like inability to you know like have those two teams work together in such a way that those it's like okay we're going to do the same scene here's what the script is so at least we'll when the cutscene plays you know

the same clip or whatever you know what I mean sometimes it is the same dialogue to be clear but okay yeah yeah I like the idea of like not using that as an opportunity to even either be like, okay, we're in lockstep here. And like, it's going to be cool that you are going to see this same scene and, like,

it's going to be the same thing, but it's going to be a different artist here and like, geta-gada. Or, like, the, you're going to buy these two books and, like, it's going to be the same scene. But, you know, this guy is going to be the person, like, the narrative, like, the perspective character in this thing instead of this other guy. And, like, when it's done right, it's exactly. It seems really hard.

So, yeah. The thing you're describing does happen. When it happens, it's great. or it feels like the it feels like oh this is why we do this this is why we do this big crossover event is so that you could see it from superman's perspective and then see it from Batman's perspective

and oh my God Batman Batman has on the special specter I don't know why I didn't say SuperRank because Superin is X-ray vision oh my God Superan has X-ray vision so he sees something Batman doesn't see like that sort of thing does happen and when it happens it can be really cool but importantly

you never know if people read both issues you just don't know the way that comics fandom works is that you have a list of comics that you get every week at your comic shop or this is historically the way it worked and so you go and you just get your comics and so like theoretically you have someone who's just

getting Batman every week or getting their three Batman books a month or whatever and they're not reading Superman even during the crossover event and so you end up needing to repeat stuff and also you can't put like if there's a meta plot going off there's the big picture

thing that thing has to pop in every issue because otherwise you didn't get the core, whatever the core central idea is. I don't know that that's what happened here, but what it feels like is a soft version of that where it's not literally the same scene happening, but it's like we need Leia to state her position, which is fuck Darth Vader,

justice is coming for you in both of those issues. And I think the reason that, or both of those books, I think the reason for that is the actual resolution for the Leia stuff comes in the final issue in Vader-15, where while Vader is dueling with carbon, again, K-A-R-B-I-N, boo, I hate this guy. She has like a shot on both of them and is hearing C-3Pio being like, Luke is getting kidnapped and I think someone's headshoting Han Solo right now.

And she's like trying to like get the shot off on Vader while he's dueling. And she's remembering Alderon blowing up. And like there's like a few panels of like her seeing Alderan blow up in her head. And then a cut in of what I imagine is her imagining or maybe maybe getting a force vision. If we go back to that, Rob, you're like, does she have some already developed force powers here? A vision of Luke Han and Chewy dead on the ground in front of her. And she decides in that moment, like, this is, you know, try to help them. We're going to get out of here.

I'm going to get this out of here, basically. So she decides to put vengeance aside for the moment and instead save her friends. And like, I think that part's basically okay. I think it's really interesting in the overall conversation with Han. Han being the guy who's like, I want to save my friends and her being like, no, we have to kill Vader. Resolving that here is a fun character beat. And I think it's a good, like, elbowing out room inside of who are these characters in the way that we were talking about before. With, like, the movies kind of hem you in, you can't do too much.

and having her here be like, oh yeah, I care about these people enough to not try to shoot Darth Vader with a blaster rifle and instead focus on saving my friends. I think that's a perfectly fine resolution. But it does still kind of feel like heatless. Like the whole, her whole arc here just doesn't have the juice in the way that I would like. But I will say, if you want more, more Leah getting up to hijinks and, you know, doing stuff and being an action hero and being a romance hero and all of that, stuff. The Star Wars book does also do that. So in talking about all this, I've kind of remembered like, oh yeah, that's another reason you might go read Star Wars. It's like you were listening to us talk about Leo over the course of the original trilogy and going, yeah, I would like to see

Leah get up to more shit. The comics do do that for her. You know, like she does get to be a primary character in that way for real. But yeah, that's, I think of the arcs here, it's the one that kind of landed weakest for me, even though they're kind of trying to do the most. I don't know. Yeah, I do think it's like, it's such, it ends up being in such a weird place because it feels like it's like a painting where I really enjoy the colors that they used. Yeah. But like the full thing like just didn't come together because like, you know, especially in the early arc just sort of feeling like the, or the early pages of this, I should say, of feeling like, you know, Leah is so much more focused on Vader than Hans Solo is. like this sort of like, you know, conversation that they're having and they're like, you know, their differences in beliefs and like, you know, Leah being somebody who's going to make

different decisions and go out on her own and like focus on them and like, you know, that there are so many pieces of it and feeling like she's pointing herself at Vader because she has all of this anger and this desire for revenge and like all of this on her shoulders. And then sort of feeling like, oh, they have this confrontation now. they've written themselves into a corner because like Star Wars still has to happen. You know what I mean? Yeah. So like it's just like, oh, you know, like there's because I'm reading the Omnius or I guess we all are.

Like I think my favorite part of the lay of pages is like the one like in between chapter thing where it's like both her and Vader and like Vader is behind her. So it like kind of looks like she's in his grasp, but like she looks really badass in that illustration. And, like, I think that was the moment that I, like, popped for the most because it was, like, just a good illustration. Yeah. And, like, hey, I love looking at pictures of Princess Leia. I'm not going to say that I don't want that. But I also, like, would like if her characterization would have, like, made me feel as good as that.

I had the same thought, Ellie. Yeah, that's the cover of Star Wars, issue 13, the one that you're talking about, where it's, like, such a classic pulp, like, adventure story. drawing because it's Vader with the lightsaber in one hand and then his his hand reaching out as if to grab her and she's in the all-white body suit with a pistol out in front of him and doesn't see that he's there and at like the bottom of it in the like the depth of his cloak is just like the stars you know it's a great illustration and I was like oh is that what this issue is going to be about I think it's just like not really like like a little a little bit but mostly it's going to be about the droids fighting each other and about chewy ripping the arms off of

evil C3PO and it's gonna be about, you know, like, that's really where the issue is in that, in that, in fact, I don't think that the latest stuff happens in that issue, literally at all, now that I think about it, so. It's odd because like the reversal of that image comes at the end of Star Wars 14, or is the Star Wars 14, or Vader 14, where she's standing behind Vader as he's dueling with, or, or Vader 14, where she's dealing with, carbon with a gun has him dead to rights essentially while C3PO is trying to call her on the phone and is like I hope

Leah is okay and then the beginning of that next comic is actually she makes the decision not to take like the perspective shifts and you realize that she's not as close

as kind of the end of the previous comic suggested, where she's actually in this, like, lookout location, this kind of like Eagle's point of view where she's looking down on the fight happening and all this. And I think, I don't know if we said this earlier, but when Vrogas Voss is first introduced to us, it's introduced as, like, it's described as a gaseous planet.

So I think that's what a lot of this fog and debris... Oh, that makes sense. Is this, it's like this very... very gaseous, foggy planet or whatever. But it's then when she decides to abandon taking the shot at Darth Vader and goes to help her friends. But that being said, even though it seems like she has Vader dead to rights here, we know that he's really good at not getting. Yeah, unfortunately, this is the arc in which he's killed countless dudes who shot at him with rifles. So it's like, I think this was a good, a good choice here to not try and take the one shot.

Like, everyone always says you just got to get lucky once, but I don't know, that, those odds are like minisheal. It's, you're looking for just, yeah, it's, it's not going to go well, buddy. So, but that's to say that, yeah, it's, again, like, I don't know if there's somewhat of like an, of an editors, like, I don't know where the kind of disjointed feeling is coming. Like, I think if I were to have read these individually, and instead of reading it in this full run, I would have felt more disoriented going through. them of just keeping track of the place and where I'm at and what's happened so far and where is everyone else at. But having having the full run, I think, keeps things making sense, essentially, for me at least. Yeah, that makes sense.

There's just a couple of places where it feels like we're missing something or that we lost a scene or we lost a page that might have had something. useful or connective there. To your point about losing your place, like, don't forget that this all ran as individual floppy issues of a comic to begin with. So not only would it be like you're reading them one issue at a time.

You're reading Vader-downe 1 on November 18th. You're reading Darth Vader 13 on November 25th. You're reading Star Wars 13 on December 2nd. You're reading Darth Vader-14 on December 23rd. You're reading Star Wars 14th on January 6th and Darth Vader 15 on January, on January 6th. So it's like, it's a month and a half of reading these six issues. It's so brutal.

It's like, it's already can be tough when you're just reading one book this way, you know, month at a time or every other week or whatever. But doing it across six weeks or eight weeks can be, it can be, and you're jumping from like one writer and one artist to another writer and a different artist. It can really, it can really be a little trying. There's a lot of like rereading the comic that came out the week before, the month before, while doing this sort of thing. It can be, we can be frustrating. I'm just flashing back now to the death of Superman.

Oh, yeah. But then also the long arc of resurrecting Superman in kind of like. Reading all those little. I swear to God, him and Doom, we're beating the shit out of each other for what's not like a year. You know, it took a long time. And then you have to deal with all the imposter Superman that show up. The funeral for a friend arc Where it was like all the DC comics

You're gonna show up to Superman's funeral And it's like 500 pages Yeah Almost make funeral Everything yeah And here's the lantern core Yeah Okay

Cool they're sad about it Sorry were you gonna say something No I was gonna start asking about comics I mean just asked this question about comics It would probably funny I was like I'm trying to like Remember two or like a big comic made. So was there one where Superman died and also one where Captain America died? Or am I just

going to get fixed up? Those are two different things. Yes. Okay. Like a decade apart. Right more than that. Is that the Superman? We were kids, Rob. We were like, news. People were covering it where it's like, DC comp, Superman has died. Totally. Yes. I was in New York on the day Superman died. and there were newspaper boys in the street saying, you know, extra, extra, Superman's dead. D.C. paid to put those newspaper boys out there, and they printed fake newspapers. And I actually know the person who spearheaded that. And all says, Allie, so do you. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. I was, that question was on my mind and I.

Uh-huh. Yes. So. That is wild. But, yeah, I think that that sort of thing. is that, yeah, Ali, those are two different things. Really interesting. You know, we're not,

I don't think, I don't think the death of Superman is a watch this space potential thing. It's, but it's fascinating. All that stuff is fascinating. It informs my worldview of certain, of the medium in some ways.

It's like, oh, I learned a lot. Yeah. From reading, seeing that entire thing unfold. Yeah. Yeah, you sort of see the scene. But yeah, a funeral for a friend ran for six months. The Superman's funeral ran from January,

to June across like six different books. So, you know. Incredible. Yeah, it's very funny. The actual end to the lay a part of this, by the way, is that she punches Dr. Affrey in the face and kiddows her. Not the best finale to this. I think it sort of feels like Jamie Lee Curtis decking that woman in...

True lies. True lies. Yeah, I'm with you. Where it's like, and now the fox fight. Maybe another movie. that shaped some big picture ideas for me. True Lies, a movie that I loved as a kid, and then, like, could feel every time I went back and watched it.

I have watched it in 20 years. Brother, you probably don't want to. You probably don't want to. There's some comedy bits that hold up, but there's some, that's... I mostly remember Tom Arnold holding that thing together. Yeah, I think that's probably right still. I just think the...

It's a real, the comedy has changed, and it turns out that the... leveraging deeply racist, anti-Islamic, Islamophobic, uh, caricature. Hey,

but one of the gang was, oh, of course. Islamic? Or he would, they did at least have one of the unit, the guys in the unit was, yeah.

But boy. So he was cool with it. Uh huh. Yeah. Classic. Um, but yes, true lies.

Uh, big, big shaped my sense of humor for too long, uh, movie. Uh, just another quick thing here. I think a moment where I was like, oh, boy, we need to stop. I wish they'd had more time to maybe revisit some of these panels as the gangs are heading off in different directions.

This pit with Luke and Han talking in the cockpit. That second panel, that second panel below feels. Which one is this? What page is it? Is it the very, very end? Oh, I see it. I think he's one of our way to get to get Leia. I see.

Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. Luke's face looks a little, he's a little dead-eyed here. It looks like an action figure or a doll. Yes, yes. He really does.

Look. He looks like Hans-O-Petheelian. No, it's like the autopilot in airplane. Yeah. Just suddenly inflates out of the chair. Wait, which one are you saying? Check the chat. Rob posted an image.

It's when they are going to. Yeah, that one is not good. It's funny because this comic has one of my Fave Luke illustrations as well. Which one? This one. I mean, it's kind of basic vibes, but I just thought it was,

I just thought it was a nice photo of the young boy, Luke. I just thought he looked nice in this. That one's good. That one's good. He's saying, oh, no. It's weird. I don't know why, after. After Han says to Leah, like there's a certain blonde kid who's always trying to save you or whatever. Yeah.

That then Luke became, like, got his hair bleached. Like he's never looked at this blonde before. I swear, like, this is very much like bad die job, Luke. Yeah. And then also this picture of the Natalie Post is a nice picture. It does feel like he turned into David Caradine for the best. purposes of that that image though it's like the Mark Hamill escapes

and now it's like Pomey Kane we haven't talked at all about Luke's thing here right which is like he's here because there's an ancient Jedi temple here he wants to learn some he must to talk about he wants to learn about Jedi he wants to learn all about him and unfortunately the comic

happens instead and so he's never going to get to learn about them here I like the imagery I mean I'm a sucker for it It works in Fallen Order as well where it's like all the Jedi locations or ruins, their monuments and graveyards.

Luke wandering past the beheaded statues and the collapsed pillars. I mean, you know, we like it. It's a version of the cover. It's the same idea we had for our cover art for this podcast.

Like we are suckers for, it's true. Like Star Wars has strata of history and meaning accumulating around it. I like that stuff. But again, I can't actually learn shit about the Jedi. So he's just going to be like, damn,

it looks like there was lightsabers here at one point. It's like, yeah. Probably were, Luke. But also, hey. But then Darth Vader has like an actual moment, kind of, in the Jedi Temple, right before Carbon comes out where, well I guess he's not in the temple he's like right outside of it

or he's he's in and amongst the ruins and it's only three panels but it starts off with the page before saying he's already engaged with carbon they've already started you know fighting each other and he says it is too late to hide carbon

I've stood alone against a thousand rebels this day and I will still be standing tomorrow while you will be as dead as the Jedi who once walked these and he's looking down into a cavern or some ruins and then the next page is him and

there's like a voice that calls to him that says Anakin I have encountered a virgins in the force he is the chosen one he will bring balance dreams pass in time be mindful of your thoughts

they'll betray you. You have become the very thing you swore to destroy. And he says, and then Vader finishes, or Vader says, ghosts, there's nothing here but, and then carbon attacks him

and interrupts him again. Are these, the way I read these, this blue text here, was that each of these were like individual flashes of something someone has said.

Oh, these are lines from the sequel, from the prequel trilogy lines. I've encountered the verdicts before us is Quigon talking about meeting Anakin. Dreams Pass on Time is what Obi-Wan tells him when he's having dreams about his mother being killed in Attack of the Clones. He is the chosen one. He'll bring balance is one of them, you know. Right, right, right. All of this stuff is either Obi-Wan or Quigon, I think. Okay.

Okay, I was reading it. I forgot, I forgot that the virgins of the force came from quite, this makes sense now. Because at first I was trying to, I was kind of reading it as all one person's train of thought. But, you could read it that way still, right? You could read this as, so at this point in the fiction, first of all, earlier Luke heard, I believe that's in this comic, get out a previous comic that you haven't read. Does Luke hear Obi-Wan in this, or does he just think he sees him?

No, there is another blue text moment. Hold on, I'm trying to find it. So, in the Star Wars comic, there's a bit early on where Obi-Wan, when Luke runs into Vader, Obi-Wan

tells him to run, but that's just what he already told him once, right? Obi-Wan tells Luke to run in a new hope famously, right? He's run, Luke, run, like that bit. And there's one way to read this is like, Obi-Wan hasn't figured out how to be a ghost yet. We're still pre-him seeing Obi-Wan as the physical ghost manifestation.

And there's something kind of cool about the idea that like, Obi-Wan can communicate to Luke and even to Vader, but not openly, not with his own words clearly. And so the idea that, like, it could be that Vader is walking through his own ghost. This could all be happening internally. He's walking through this kind of like haunted Jedi place. But there is a reading of this that's like, Ben is here and is like saying the things that he remembers to Vader or like the presence is echoing those things. And I think that like that's open interpretation.

I don't mind it. I don't mind it either way. I think both ways it being internal to Vader is special and interesting that like walking on the Jedi, you know, burial ground here, triggers all these memories. But actually, they're not, they can't be memories. He wasn't there when Quigon said, I've encountered avergence in the Force. I don't think. I think that that's, I don't think he's there for that.

So some of this is just, it is Jedi ghosts, I think, you know, or is Jedi, is something beyond just his internal guilt or something. Oh, it is in the same issue. It's like a few pages before. It's, yeah, it's Ben speaking to Luke as he's walking around the ruins himself. And it's when Luke tells Ben that he found in his journal. Right. Yes, of course. Yeah, he's, Luke says, the force is strong in this place.

And then Luke is like, Ben, Ben, I did find it. Or I did it. I found your journal on tattooing. I read about the Jedi temple in Vrogas Voss, and I thought if I could find it, Ben, is there something here I can use to, you should not have come to this place, Luke. You are not ready.

Then how do I get ready? Please just tell me, Ben, please. You are not ready for what is coming. What is it, Ben? There he is. A bunch of stormtroopers. You must be at least level 13 for this zone, Luke. And then like three pages later is is this stuff.

Darth Vader having a similar experience. I can confirm. Hearing something from the beyond. That first bit, The Virgins of the Forces, Quaghan talking to the Jedi Council along with Obi-Wan. Anakin is not there in that room. So there's something forcey happening here,

whether that is just the force or if that's Obi-Wan, who knows. Well, then I'm wondering who, who is saying Anakin? Great question. Could be Obi-Wan. Could be Obi-Wan. Could be Quigon. Could be Leia. I mean, Leia. Could be Padmae.

Could be... Padmae's not a ghost, unfortunately. Padmae's just dead, because that's how Star Wars fucking works, unfortunately. I don't think they've ever done that. Have they? Have they ever had Padma's voice show up? Like, was Padma's voice in the big, ridiculous Revenge of the Sith? Not Revenge of the Sith. return and rise of sky.

I mean, James probably terrified of putting like too many women's voices in that in that forest, so. Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking up the list. We have to watch those movies sometimes soon. I just need, I need to, I need to exercise them

at some point soon. Maybe not next, but sometimes soon. Punches Afra and they kidnap Afra, right? And then he just cuts down Corbyn. It's carbon. It's kind of a nothing death for nothing character. Yeah. The character tries to get, it's a bit of a pseudo-tragic ending where like,

a bit like Yabushige and Shogun. Just tell me how the story ends. No, actually. There's no future for you. Actually, he does tell him in Shogun. He does sort of basically tell him what the story's going to be after that guy does. But not carbon. Vader's like, you'll never know and just kills him.

Yeah. Again, there's some weird. page stuff happening here like he pushes Carbon back or something and then Carbon jumps up at him. It's like there's no running from the future and then he kind of lands and it's

like did he land behind him? I don't, it's fine. None of this matters enough. What's important is that he kills him? What's important is that Afra crashes her ship into him and then it has to eject and then he kills

him in the wreckage basically. Vader kills carbon in the wreckage. That feels kind of like an L on Vader's part. I'm not going to lie that you needed the ship assist. Yeah. To take out carbon? I don't know. Yeah.

It's not giving the power of the force is the ultimate power. It's giving the ship is the ultimate force. Being hit by an entire spaceship is what works here. speeds things along is maybe the way I put it. It just comes in. Shortcuts the fight. And I guess throughout the issue, throughout these issues, she's been trying to find for a way, find a way for her to demonstrate that she is on Vader's side, sort of

both keep the headman's axe from, you know, from her neck and also sort of show that she's, she is all in on this, on this project. So that, that kind of gets to that. but yes we're dispensing with a group of characters who are designed to be dispensable and so he is just one of them going down doesn't land does it doesn't land half as well for me as the realization that I think one of the droids is picking off Imperial Garthman in the crash shuttle yeah now that is funny that is funny the emperor's like handpicked elites are clambering out of the shuttle and just getting knocked yeah it's very funny wait a second though

I just realized something I think they're gonna get me I had come into this being like well I just have to read enough Star Wars to know what happens in the lead into this and then I don't have to keep reading it but they leave with Afra

oh god you're right she's not gonna be in the next Darth Vader comic is she she's gonna be the next Star Wars comics yeah they got my ass yeah that's huge

god damn Yeah Oh boy What if she like Yeah I mean yeah Because even if she comes in the next The next

The next Vader Yeah For us Yeah Well what happened in between You won't believe what happened It was crazy

You're gonna have to be like Well I gotta have to see I can read it Oh my God I looked ahead The next Star Wars arc is called Rebel Jail It's about

taking Afra as a prisoner. Oh. The woman who isn't Hans um ex-wife slash ex-wife or whatever knows Dr. Afra. God damn it.

Oh yeah. You're going to have to read those for us. I'm going to have to read them. Anyway, that was the arc. That was it. Yeah. Here's another favorite panel of mine when

when Chewy and C3PO are like almost lip to lip because of Chewy's excitement that C3PO is okay This is very funny They're buddies, they love each other

They love each other But Yeah So, so intimate, so close And then I have to give one shout out to an Unnecessarily sexually knocked down

Dr. Afra who died ass out. Ass out, ass up. I just have to, you know, I think this these comics are pretty good at

like having just the right amount of Dr. Afra is a hot woman. Yeah. But sometimes it's funny when they choose to deploy it. And, like, she gets punched in the face by Leah. And Leah's, like, standing over her, like, cracking her knuckles.

It's, like... It's pretty funny. It's pretty funny. Oh. I've just realized something about Dr. Afra and the not-wife of Han Solo. And... What? Now I'm very curious to see what this next Star Wars set of issues is. I think the two of them are perhaps involved.

You may remember that a few episodes ago, I was like, oh, I know why there's not a Disney Plus Dr. Afra show. And it's because she's gay. And so now I'm like, oh, right, is the connection between the two of them that they're actually X's? So we'll see. I'll have to go do their reading. Damn. Are you saying

Yuri incoming? Yeah, yeah, that I knew it was incoming about Dr. Afra, but I didn't know that would be in the fucking Star Wars comic. I thought it would be in this comic. They played us.

Maybe it's actually in Dr. Afra, her own comic. You know, I'm not sure, but we'll see. I'll find out shortly. I would read Star Wars Yuri. Yeah. Happy too.

well maybe we'll get around to it uh watch the space i'll continue to update you as as we read yeah maybe the update will be sorry we have to we have to detour now after we finish the vater run uh dr afra look i'm 12 issues into they're having a a lesbian wedding and a rebel prison uh so i'm sorry we have to watch these comments we have to read these comics yeah we'll see cool that works uh anyway next time reading the next arc on Vader. I haven't looked into, Austin usually have the issue numbers up. I do.

If you have the omnibus, it's the next, it's pretty easy to see. Yeah, well, I'll just, I can still give them to you once like, here we go. So it is the, it's the other way you could get this as theoretically as just book three of this Darth Vader's 2015 run.

It is, Darth Vader annual one, and then 16 through 19. This whole arc is called the shoe, to run war S-H-U-T-O-R-U-N. It is five issues. Again, A-1, which is the

Darth Vader annual one, and then 16, 17, 18, 19. If you're reading the Omnibus, you're just going to keep reading until you get to the end of issue 19 in the Omnibus. I'm excited. Yeah, I'm really curious because I turn the page

and I don't know who these people are. They got all sorts of shit going on. on. They got crowns and shit, so we shall see. New characters are dropping. Yeah. All right, well, join us next time for that. Until next time, please rate and review us on your podcast

platform of choice. And remember, we must all admit, sometimes bases are hard. I couldn't do it. You know. Nogi. There's got faces everyone knows by heart. That's right.