Anakin Races A Sandstorm In 'Darth Vader' #26
Image Source: Comixology
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR DARTH VADER #26
Now, this is podracing!
Star Wars: Darth Vader #26 by Greg Pak served as an epic action-packed end to the comic’s current arc. We had been following the titular Sith Lord on his ongoing mission to find and destroy Crimson Dawn agents within the Galactic Empire. In pursuit of this goal, Vader is being manipulated by Sabé, Padmé Amidala’s former decoy and handmaiden, into helping innocent refugees. After determining Vader’s true identity, Sabé informed Vader of a group of former Tatooine slaves that she and her partner Tonra relocated to a colony on Gabredor III. However, the colony was now being exploited by corrupt Imperial Governor Tauntaza, who was secretly working for Crimson Dawn. With this, Sabé offered Vader a deal. If he helped save the refugees on Gabredor III, he would get to destroy another Crimson Dawn cell within the Empire. Dedicated to his new objective, Vader reluctantly agreed, though he rejected Sabé’s claim that this would prove Padmé’s belief in the goodness within him.
Upon arriving at Gabredor III, Vader was met by the refugees. They were none other than the adult Wald and Kitster Banai, Anakin’s old childhood friends from Tatooine. After defending the colony from a pack of monsters, Vader, Sabé, and Ochi took off to capture Governor Tauntaza. However, Tuantaza managed to escape and activated a new Imperial weapon capable of draining life energy and creating artificial storms. As Vader tracked Tauntaza to her secret base, her weapon created a fierce sandstorm that caused Vader’s shuttle to crash. Regrouping with the colony, Vader asked one of the colonists if there were any ships he could use. The colonist said the only ship left that hadn’t been confiscated or destroyed was a podracer-inspired vehicle that Kitster and Wald had been building. Without any other options, Vader boarded the racer and flew off into the sandstorm.
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Image Source: Comixology
Throughout this sequence, we got various flashbacks to Vader’s previous struggles and failures as he attempted to find rescue Sabé in the storm. Although Vader did not care about Sabé personally, he saw her as one of the last remaining vestiges of Padmé’s legacy. Thus, he saw it as his personal responsibility to keep one of his wife’s closest friends alive. While using his lightsaber to clear away the flying debris, Vader found Kitster attempting to move a large tank off of Sabé. After using the Force to save her, the three of them were overwhelmed by the storm which has grown in intensity. In an act of desperation, Vader ordered Admiral Piett to have the Executor open fire on their location. While Piett was reluctant at first to fire on Vader’s position, a Force choke from Vader quickly changed his mind. The Executor then opened fire on the tank from orbit, destroying it and causing the storm to vanish. Having used the tank for cover, Vader cut himself out from its remains and took Sabé from Kitster, carrying her off into the distance as he did with his mother nearly three decades prior.
Image Source: Comixology
Darth Vader #26 ended with a cut to Emperor Palpatine in the Imperial Palace on Coruscant. He could sense Vader’s rescue of Sabé and laughed at his need to fix his previous failures. It appeared that Vader was trying to atone for his past and do better by Padmé and the legacy she left behind. This development put Vader on a path towards a possible redemption and return to the light, which we would later see in Return of the Jedi. Greg Pak had done an excellent job setting up Vader’s eventual turn from the dark side through his connection with Sabé and how her life represented all of the lives that Anakin could not save. If Vader was finally starting to care about people again, then perhaps Anakin Skywalker was not truly dead after all.
Rating: 9/10
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