Salvador Larroca

I was the hugest Star Wars fan when I was a kid, despite, or possibly because, I never saw the films until they had that big cinema rerelease in the eighties. I read the novelisations until they were falling apart and, when I could find them, I read the comics. The comics could be hard to find. I'm not so into Star Wars these days, though it remains fondly remembered, but Marvel put some top talent on the new comics when they acquired the license, and Gillen and Larocca on Vader is the most show more remarkable.

Set in the aftermath of the destruction of the Death Star, Vader's position as the Emperor's chief acolyte is precarious. Shut out, demoted and in danger of being replaced, Vader schemes and conspires and hires lackeys of his own, most notably being the evil-Indiana Jones-in-space Doctor Aphra and her sociopathic pair of oddly familiar bloodthirsty droid helpers. The Emperor expects no less of course.

Anyway, the whole thing is Vader at his formidable indomitable best but it's the scene near the end when Vader hears the name of the rebel pilot who destroyed the Star Wars that deserves to stand as his definitive character moment in any medium. show less

Imperialism! Fighting nasty little wars and installing puppet regimes to ensure control of resources! Only with lasers and lightsabers and killer robots and the Force and lots and lots of lava! The lava must flow! Gonzo epic space opera done proper good with everyone's favourite villain putting the pyre back in Empire.

I enjoyed this a lot. The Tony-Stark-as-Steve-Jobs thing might be wearing a little, but I liked this playboy/presedential spin on it, and I really enjoyed Mark Zuckerberg stand-in, Ezekial Stane (Obadaiah's son). Also with the Stane storyline there was lots of good references back to the Shellhead comics of my teens, and also to the Armor Wars which happened as I was drifting toward more alternative comics (I was going to say "darker", but there was a fair bit of darkness in some of those show more older Shellheads come to think of it).

Mix in a contemporary terrorism plot and some good characters - this was pretty solid. show less

Or, "The one where Vader, somehow, breaks bad." Setting up Vader with his own personal agenda incompatible with that of Imperial command is a great idea, and giving him a personal assistant who's REALLY good at sniffing out criminals is an even better one. Larocca continues to impress with his ability to convey so much with just a simple tilt of Vader's head (check out the page where the Rebels think they've taken Vader by surprise - only to find he's been waiting for them). Stupidly good show more for what a crazy premise it is. show less