Padmé's Handmaidens Infiltrate The Empire In 'Darth Vader #29'
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Darth Vader’s past continues to catch up with him. Darth Vader #29 by Greg Pak and Luke Ross has officially kicked off the comic’s next arc. The previous issue saw the Dark Lord and Padmé Amidala’s former handmaiden Sabé sent by the Emperor on a secret assignment. Jul Tambor, the grandson of Separatist Wat Tambor, had begun a regime against the Empire on Skako Minor. Vader and Sabé’s mission was to assassinate Tambor and maintain Imperial control over the planet. The issue ended with Vader sending Sabé to track down Tambor while he took care of the rest. Unbeknownst to either of them, Ochi of Bestoon had been captured by the rest of Padmé’s handmaidens; Dormé, Eirtaé, Saché, and Rabé Tonsort. The handmaidens proceeded to interrogate Ochi for Sabé’s location, claiming they would either rescue their fellow handmaiden or kill her if she had indeed joined the Empire.
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Darth Vader #29 begins with Dormé disguised as Sabé and entering the Executor with the aid of Ochi. We are quickly brought up to speed on this, with Ochi explaining that he and the handmaidens all want the same thing; for Sabé to be gone from the Empire. Therefore, Ochi is assisting Dormé with infiltrating Vader’s flagship so she can determine Sabé’s current location. While on the ship, they find a central terminal and learn about her current mission to kill Jul Tambor. As they search through the files, Ochi shows Dormé everything that Sabé has done in Vader’s service, much to Dormé’s disbelief that her fellow handmaiden could ever kill for the Empire. They are also met by a pair of stormtroopers, who admit to the undercover Dormé that they had accidentally spoken to other troopers about the secret mission, thus making them guilty of treason.
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Meanwhile, we see that Sabé has tracked Jul Tambor to a marketplace on Brentaal IV. As Tambor tells his fellow Skakoans that he will liberate them from the Empire, they are ambushed by Ochi’s former helpers, the Droid Crush Pirates. Sabé assists Tambor in fighting off the pirates, to which he thanks her and shows her how much his fellow Skakoans have been struggling under Imperial rule. However, droid mercenary and former Revenger Gee-Ninety warns Tambor that Sabé is working for Vader, to which Tambor admits that he was hoping to bring her to his side. Tambor tells Sabé he’s planning to kill Vader for killing his father and oppressing his people. To this, Sabé warns Tambor that Vader will kill him and his people.
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We then cut back to the undercover Dormé, who has been summoned by Vader himself. Vader tells her to kill the stormtroopers for their incompetence. As the troopers go for a nearby blaster, Dormé grabs the weapon herself and fires at the troopers, gravely injuring them yet leaving them alive. This confirms Vader’s suspicion that she is in fact another handmaiden posing as Sabé. When Dormé says that Sabé would never kill anyone for the Empire, Vader tells her she doesn’t know Sabé at all. With this, we get one last cut back to Sabé, who has blasted Tambor in the chest.
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Darth Vader 29 does a good job of setting up the inevitable confrontation between Darth Vader and the rest of Padmé’s handmaidens. I’m also interested to see the conflict that will emerge from Sabé’s choice to join Vader, and how this decision will impact her bond with the rest of the handmaidens. Plus, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Jul Tambor, despite him being blasted in the chest. His species have definitely survived worse, and if we got Gee-Ninety back despite being destroyed in a previous issue, I don’t think Jul is incapable of walking (or rolling) this off. Here’s hoping the handmaidens are able to hold their own against Vader in a fight. If they can’t, then Anakin might end up breaking their hearts as well.
Rating: 7/10
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