Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: Anakin Skywalker, charles soule, darth vader, fantasy, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Jedi, jocasta nu, Marvel Comics, sci-fi, sith, star wars, stormtroopers, the emperor, the empire, the grand inquisitor

Darth Vader #9 Review: The Dark Lord vs the Librarian

Darth Vader has been alerted to the infiltration of former Jedi Archivist Jocasta Nu. The Jedi has already confronted the Grand Inquisitor, whom is intent on slaying her. Vader cannot allow this on the orders of the Emperor himself. The Dark Lord must intervene, but Jocasta may have some tricks up her sleeve.

The Jocasta Nu arc has finally hit its climax, as the Jedi has revealed herself for the Grand Inquisitor and Darth Vader. The battle is enjoyable. Jocasta may not be a master swordswoman, but she is clever and resourceful. Plus, she knows the Temple better than the Sith and the Empire ever could. This makes for a good dynamic between the brute force of Vader and the evasive plays of Jocasta.

The Inquisitor turns out to be something of a petulant child, and this makes him pretty enjoyable in a scummy sort of way. Darth Vader's preventing the Grand Inquisitor from killing Jocasta sets up some more animosity between the two. This will surely set up for another confrontation soon.

Also, Darth Vader being sassy to the stormtrooper commander is kind of awesome.

The comic comes and goes quite quickly, leaving the story to feel pretty thin. The plot advances to the aforementioned confrontation but doesn't end or go anywhere unexpected. This goes to pacing and layout planning. Contradicting what one would expect, despite the high action, the narrative pace grinds to a halt. This does allow for a lot of cool snapshots of the battle, but the story itself goes nowhere.

Giuseppe Camuncoli does some solid work here. Despite my feeling that his style may not be the best suited for an ultra-dark and serious book like this, he gets some good angles of Vader in all his menacing might. He's also quite good at constructing battle scenes, meaning issues like this which have more action tend to be his strong entries. David Curiel plays with the color work quite well too, making for some rather dazzling moments throughout the comic.

Despite not moving the ball very far, Darth Vader #9 is an exciting and high-octane issue. It has spent a lot of time building up to this showdown between Vader and Nu, so one could understand why the book may want to savor the confrontation. It is an overall fun read, and Camuncoli puts some great work in this issue. I can recommend it, and you should feel free to check it out.

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