The Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series has come and gone, marking the latest small-screen story set in that galaxy far, far away. But there’s plenty more to Star Wars than just film and TV. The comic Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, by Charles Soule and Giuseppe Camuncoli, serves as a perfect counterpoint to the show, and fans who enjoyed the series would be remiss not to read it.
Dark Lord of the Sith, published by Marvel, ran for 25 issues between 2017 and 2018. Like Obi-Wan, the comic is set between Episodes III and IV, and thus explores a rawer Vader, one who still hasn’t let go of his old life and is adjusting to his role as the Empire’s iron fist. In the Obi-Wan finale, Vader declares, “I [killed Anakin Skywalker].” Dark Lord of the Sith is the story of how he did so.
Visions of Obi-Wan
The comic opens during the last moments of Revenge of the Sith, recreating the well-memed instance when a despondent, freshly-armored Vader cries out with a drawling “nooooooo” over how much he’s lost. Since we see what’s going through Vader’s mind, the emotion is felt more than in the film itself. This instantly establishes one of the comic’s greatest strengths: montage and panel-by-panel contrasts. The juxtaposition of a choking Padmé and gleeful Sidious is particularly effective.
Vader’s first assignment is to acquire a new lightsaber. After killing Jedi master Kirak Infil'a and journeying to Mustafar, Vader must corrupt the saber’s kyber crystal so it will shine red as blood. Darth Sidious instructs his apprentice, “Teach it your pain. Teach it your anger. Hear it sing a hymn of darkness. Make it bleed.”
The crystal fights back, imploring Vader to return to the light. The yellow in his eyes fades, replaced by their natural blue. He slays Sidious and returns to Obi-Wan, begging for atonement by execution, only to be met with true forgiveness instead. But just as this fantasy Obi-Wan refuses to strike his former friend down, Vader refuses to turn his back on the dark. As Vader finishes turning the crystal red, he declares, “This is all there is.”
This is the first of these sorts of visions in the book, where Vader imagines different courses his life could’ve taken. Issue #13 opens with Vader returning to the conclusion of his Mustafar duel with Obi-Wan, only this time, it’s he who strikes his master down; Obi-Wan’s impassioned “You were the chosen one!” speech is delivered even as he burns just like Anakin did. Outside this fantasy, though, Vader is alone, with only dreams of vengeance sustaining him.
Vader imagines different courses his life could’ve taken.
The strength of the book’s art really comes through in these moments. Marvel’s first Darth Vader comic, by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca, was a strongly written series held back by off-putting art. Larroca’s work, which relies on an especially heavy-handed use of photo references from Star Wars movies, was less pencils and more traced stills. Seeing familiar scenes and actors’ faces painted over with ink was distracting and left the moments feeling stiff and uncanny.
Camuncoli’s art is slicker and more animated, lending itself to the fantasy of Vader’s imagination better. Camuncoli and Francesco Mattina’s cover to issue #8 depicts a levitating Vader meditating before a sun, his armor levitating in pieces behind him. The issue’s interior art doesn’t disappoint either. A splash page of Vader in meditation shows how discordant his mind is even when at peace. Vader himself appears as a black-red mass of energy, humanoid only in its shape, while his severed limbs are pure white. He hovers above a raging black sea while the sky above him screams with cries of purple lightning. Some flocks of blue, glowing butterflies are the only signs of the light remaining in Vader. The surreality of this image requires a less photo-realistic touch, and Camuncoli delivers.
Origins of the Inquisitors
Aside from Vader himself, the main protagonists of Dark Lord of the Sith are the Inquisitors, Jedi hunters in the employ of the Empire. They’ve been recurring faces in Star Wars media since their debut on Rebels, but Dark Lord of the Sith explores their origins.
Obi-Wan introduced a new Inquisitor, Reva/the Third Sister (Moses Ingram). An anti-hero playing the role of a villain, Reva had one of the strongest character arcs of the Disney+ series. The other Inquisitors, not so much. The Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend), in both Obi-Wan Kenobi and his previous appearance in Star Wars: Rebels (where he was voiced by Jason Isaacs), was just a snobbish bully. Dark Lord of the Sith explores more about where he came from.
The Inquisitors debut in the series’ second arc, “The Dying Light.” They turn out to be former Jedi who, like Anakin, fell under the sway of the dark side. We already know why Anakin fell; love and fear of losing it. Reva fell in a quest for revenge against Vader, who slaughtered her fellow younglings during Order 66. The Jedi who became the Grand Inquisitor, on the other hand, fell for a much colder reason. Why did he forsake his Order? Not to save or avenge those he loved, but for knowledge. By turning to the dark, the Grand Inquisitor learned secrets of the Force his Jedi superiors would’ve never permitted him to. To complete his quest, he plans to read every book in the Jedi archives.
Despite their common origins, Vader is no more forgiving of them than he is their shared prey. During lightsaber sparring, he robs two of their right arms and one of an eye. He claims it’s to teach them lessons in loss, but it’s clear he just wants them to know his exact pain. Near the end of the series, he kills two Inquisitors whose crime was falling in love with each other. The Sixth Sister observes that Vader is, “Dying to fight, dying to die.” Spreading pain is all that distracts him from his own, but he’s still in search of a permanent end to it.
Accepting Your Path
The final arc of the series is “Fortress Vader,” where the Dark Lord constructs the Mustafar citadel that’s often been his base of operations since its debut in Rogue One. Vader picked the planet for more than just its memories. Mustafar is strong in the Dark Side of the Force, and Vader believes he can channel that energy to tear open the door to a world beyond and reunite with Padmé. In the penultimate issue, he succeeds in opening the door.
Issue #25, the final and best chapter of the series, is almost completely a vision quest, where Vader walks through his whole life. He remembers his childhood on Tatooine — in a moment recalling a famous Phantom Menace poster, Vader bursts from the young Anakin’s shadow. He recalls his adventures with Ahsoka Tano during the Clone Wars and glimpses their future duel in Star Wars: Rebels. In place of narration, there are echoes of moments past and moments yet to come. For instance, when Vader makes it to the Jedi temple and slaughters the Jedi Council single-handedly, the words of his grandson, Kylo Ren, reverberate across time: “Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.”
That is what the Force is trying to teach Vader, but he remains torn. After dispatching the Jedi, he meets apparitions of Obi-Wan and Palpatine. In a masterful use of text placement, Vader’s own most famous proclamation, “I am your father,” appears between a close-up of the pair, their heads on opposite sides of the panel.
When Vader finally makes it to Padmé, he appears as Anakin again for a moment. But she refuses his pleas, declaring “Anakin Skywalker is dead!” before hurling herself to her doom. But when Palpatine contacts his apprentice, asking if his time on Mustafar has been a success, Vader answers, “Yes.” What he found wasn’t what he sought, but it was what he needed. By retracing the steps of his past, he accepts they are unchangeable and that his path is forward, not behind.
In an interview with StarWars.com, Charles Soule highlighted the bookend between his first and final issues. “[Vader] goes from no to yes in the series…” he said. “What he realizes in 25, and it was a very pointed choice to not show possibilities, everything he’s seen is stuff that’s already happened… What’s the point of doing anything other than this? This is all there is for me.”
However, while Vader’s path is set, it doesn’t end in darkness. Before he returns to reality, the last thing he sees is a figure wielding a blue lightsaber, his old lightsaber, in the distance. Both Dark Lord of the Sith and Obi-Wan Kenobi are about their titular characters learning to move forward; sure enough, their paths are leading them to the same place.
