MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
STORY: Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum
ART: Paolo Villanelli
COLORS: Arif Prianto
LETTERS: VC's Joe Caramagna
EDITOR: Mark Paniccia
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Akira Yoshida a.k.a. C.B. Cebulski
COVER: Greg Smallwood
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Giuseppe Camuncoli & Elia Bonetti; Leinil Franics Yu with Romulo Fajardo, Jr.
36pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (May 2019)
Rated T
“Part 1 of 5
Star Wars: Vader – Dark Visions is a new five-issue, Star Wars comic book miniseries from Marvel Comics. The series presents characters who view the Star Wars universe's ultimate villain, Darth Vader, in ways that are different from how most familiar Star Wars characters view the Sith Lord. Star Wars: Vader – Dark Visions is written by Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum. The art team for the first issue is comprised of illustrator Paolo Villanelli; colorist Arif Prianto; and letterer Joe Caramagna.
Star Wars: Vader – Dark Visions #1 opens on a lush green, but devastated world where we meet a young native boy. The boy, who also narrates this story, refers to his world as “Cianap.” His people live underground, but enjoy a brief time above ground, a time called “the Slumber.” While enjoying the current season of the Slumber, our narrator witnesses a fireball that explodes above Cianap's atmosphere. This conflagration is the result of a fierce battle above the planet between forces of the Galactic Empire and of the Rebel Alliance.
One of the participants in the battle is Darth Vader, whose TIE fighter is damaged, forcing him to crash land on Cianap. When Vader emerges from his fighter, to the boy, he looks like a “Black Knight.” To the boy, this Black Knight may be the one to save his world from the god called “Ender.”
Fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, especially the Star Wars novels, remember the series of novels now known as the “Thrawn trilogy.” In the second novel of the three, Dark Force Rising (1992), Princess Leia visits the planet, Honoghr, where the denizens of the world view Darth Vader as a savior (a matter which turns out to be a bit more complicated). When I first read the novel, I became intrigued by the idea of people and sentient beings who viewed Vader as some kind of hero or savior, especially people that did not directly serve or work for the Empire. In the years since, I have waited for someone to take that idea present in Dark Force Rising and expand on it.
In this standalone story that is Star Wars: Vader – Dark Visions #1, the writer Dennis Hallum (who previously wrote under the pen name, “Dennis Hopeless”) offers a nice tale that satisfies may craving for Vader-as-hero. Hallum's story has a fairy tale quality, and it strips Darth Vader of the complexities that surround the character and focuses on his power and on the striking nature of his black costume-suit and physicality. At thirty pages in length, this story, which is more like a campfire tale, is a nice Star Wars tale, a desert for readers who are used to the main Star Wars narratives, which often seem like the storytelling equivalent of a elaborate, dark, and heavy 12-course meal.
Artist Paolo Villanelli's illustrations for Star Wars: Vader – Dark Visions #1 have an eye-catching quality and remind me of the work of Bryan Hitch. Villanelli's storytelling here is stirring and always seems to be striving forward, carrying the reader just as the boy-narrator is dragged along by the circumstances of an epic battle. Colorist Arif Prianto offers a muted palette that still manages to make the story crackle, and, as usual, Joe Caramagna delivers lettering that makes the story bigger.
I hope the rest of Star Wars: Vader – Dark Visions is like this really nice first issue. I heartily recommend it to Star Wars comic book readers. And it gives me what I want – characters who have a view askew of Darth Vader.
8 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.
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