Lit Dark Times #32: A Spark Remains, part 5 (of 5) (Republic #115)

"I am finished with war… Perhaps, if the Order one day rises from its ashes, I will once again take up my lightsaber. Until then, the galaxy will have to get along without my sword."
- Kai Hudorra, as he renounces his Jedi ways before the burning Temple.
Into the Unknown Part 2 (2005)

Spoiler

"I am Master Hudorra of the Jedi Order."
- Kai Hudorra, minutes before his death at the hands of Sith Lord, Darth Vader.
A Spark Remains Part 5 (2013)

Thanks for the memories, Dark Times.

 

Does DVAT really get into it? The only Jedi I recall even showing up is the Prism warden.

 

I think it would make sense for DH to publish a third Dark Times omnibus. At least one more DT arc to wrap things up, and then put that in an omnibus with Purge and the DVAT series. It fits perfectly imo. The stories are set in the same period as DT, there are references in DT from Purge 1 in "The Path to Nowhere" #1 and "The Ghost Prison" in "Fire Carrier" #1...

 

I imagine all the Darth Vader stuff will go into 1 omnibus to serve as a paperback release for the hardcover trades, and the Purge stuff will end up with the Honor and Duty material (Including the pre Clone Wars arc the left out of the previous omnis) and maybe the 2 Force Unleashed comics.
What with there being that 4th Darth Vader series announced it'dd make more sense to have them all in one 20 issue omni since they're keeping Dark Times on its own. It would have been cool if they had all the material from this era put into a single Omni series(3 volumes or so), put in the overall canonical order like they did with the pre AOTC republic stuff.

 

*will edit again after I actually get a chance to read the issue. Thought I had picked it up, somehow (was an over-large week for me) I overlooked it at the shop.

 

One thing that those who are critiquing Dark Times and Purge for softening Vader's Jedi hunting should note...

At the start of Cry of Shadows, there is flashback given to a scene of Vader taking down no less than 6 Jedi at once that we've never seen before. Since the context of the scene is when the narrator is describing "rumors" and "Tall tales" about Vader, it may be just that, but chances are it's another encounter that did happen. Vader will 'always' continue to hunt the Jedi aggressively as long as they're still around, no matter what Palpatine says.

Also, Palpatine is an arrogant SOB who was more interested in establishing his power base and wiping out the order and the majority of the Jedi than killing every single one. His arrogance and blindness to his vulnerability is precisely what led to his own demise in Ep VI, in pure classic villian style. Vader is also just as useful for suppressing early rebellions and conquering worlds, so he is an asset not to be taken lightly, despite being a Jedi killing specialist.

I'm not saying I agree with this view 100%, as I had always imagined Vader being the guy who killed pretty much 'every' Jedi singlehandedly before the prequels, and expected EP III to be about suited Vader doing this... but that ship sailed a long time ago, and we've still gotten plenty of that in countless comics, and a few novels and even games, Purge included.

With Dark Times over, I'm sure any "Darth Vader and..." comics will give us plenty of Jedi corpses by his own hand, at least as long as DH holds the license.

 

Plus, you have to wonder why Palpatine went from "Don't worry about the Jedi" to "Hey, we found the Dark Woman. Go kill her for me" in those two decades.

 

Simple answer - 2 decades on the Rebellion's the new threat so the Jedi can all be offed, they're no longer the threat people are fixated on.

 

But if they're even less of a threat, why would Palpatine be more willing to let Vader go kill one?

 

Post-ROTS the Jedi are a useful bogeyman to keep the Senate terrified, jump forward several years and the Rebellion takes its place so Sid's going to go: Say Vades, you know how you wanted to kill some Jedi and you haven't been allowed to for ages, well off you go! He knows every dog has to be let off the leash every now and again.

 

Spoiler

I'm underwhelmed by this issue, as well. Which is a shame, since Dark Times was really the best thing going on back with Blue Harvest, if I'm not mistaken, and the series never found that recipe again. I basically got all that would happen in this issue from the last one - minus the fact that there wasn't a clear resolution. Falco not shot down but instead being given power over Vader. That other guy not having been killed when defenseless, but instead mutilated (just wait for the Jedi who's going to cut a tongue out so a bad guy won't give alarm), which explains why Vader thinks there's two Jedi... while Dennir is still around in the ship that's waiting for its escape until the last minute. Anyway, I guess a surprise wasn't in the cards either way since it was clear that "A Spark Remains".

I don't think the series "ending" is a huge deal (there has been delays and breaks before, hasn't there), especially since the issue doesn't feel like it is. The way it stands, having Dennir go on his merry "altruistic smuggler" tour and then show K'ruhk live seasons of joy and wonder with the padawans in the arc after that would have mae for a better overall ending. But let's be honest, there'll be another one, and just like the double Legacy ending it will be a dramatic change, so there'll be a lot of death in Dark Times after all. Especially with the main character.

Hav, thinking about what you say, cannibalism and the sidekick's baby and all that in the first arc, then the brutal premature end of the human character in Vector, but now everything safe in happy-ending-let's-have-babies-land, I think this is a problem when creators spend too much time with their characters. Quinlan Vos is an example like that; instead of not going near ROTS and having Vos live until someone else declares him dead somewhere, we get a final story that leaves him in the position... to be declared dea by someone else somewhere. And while I love the way KOTOR worked with Zayne, it's also a bit obvious that Zayne not really being a Jedi implies that he won't be a victim of the KOTOR 2 Jedi Purge. But yeah, I guess this is also what happened with TCW and Ahsoka, isn't it - can't face the definitive ending, so you work around it.

 

Your last paragraph is so full of truth.

 

The problem with killing characters who have a following is that, unless done very well indeed, death tends to be seen as a very crappy return on the investment made.

A parallel problem is audience expectations which can sometimes be defied but, again, doing that is more tricky than it sounds.

Applied to Grey's examples (I disagree spoiler code is needed for those), my take would be:

Vos is a case of successfully going counter to the audience expectation that he'd die like all the Jedi - it provides a tiny, ultimately infinitesimally insignificant pinprick of light amidst the absolute darkness of ROTS. That works for me.

Zayne I don't want dead and in any case the story is far, far away from such a point - plus as someone who hasn't played the games and have no plans to, it's an irrelevant link for me. I can say killing him off would likely trigger a major backlash and be a case of killing off a character badly no matter how it was done.

For Dennir, I'll find out the truth of this in about 3 months but from the details supplied here, it looks to be a double failure. The audience expect him to die, ultimately that's where the story is going as there's no way he survives Vader, but that doesn't happen, which turn evades the problem of killing him off only to replace it with the problem of a character who's story is done, who's running on fumes. So yeah, it can't appear anything other than odd when the book is called Dark Times.

 

Spoiler

Plain and simple, after the events in this issue, Vader's motivation to hunt for Jennir and the Uhumele crew is bigger than ever. Vader vs Jennir (for real this time) has to happen sooner or later.

 

Sigh, that Spicer, may be fated to be yet another forgotten hanging plot thread....

 

I can hope...

 

Yeah, we can, probably forlorn, but yeah.

Although, racking it up we know DOTJ Force War concludes March, Rebel Heist starts in April, Star Wood and Legacy run alongside so that's 3, plus the Vader series so there's a wide open patch for Aug-Dec 2014 for 2 titles.

 

Yeah, there's an element of self-deception and avoidance there that I just don't like. I mean, we all know where this has to go. He's a Jedi, it's the Great Jedi Purge, he dies. Unless you cop out and have him survive and turn up fifty years later, but that's an even bigger step than we're talking about here. So he dies. We know he dies (or at a minimum, does not go on living as he has). Vader's hunting him. He's going to get killed eventually. So why avoid the end of the story? Can we really fool ourselves that there's going to be a happily ever after? "Things look happy even though we know they're not" is just such a cop-out as an ending. Self-deceptive. There are ways to tell an upbeat Dark Times story -- friends survive to take up the fight, the Jedi leaves a child or student behind who can someday join Luke's Order, some small victory is achieved at the cost of a life -- but lying to yourself that so-and-so Jedi has a happy life ahead of him now, that this is the end of the story, just feels hollow. It's like writing a story about the buildup to World War II and leaving off at Munich. "Peace in our time!"

 

Especially since it's personal by now. If Jennir remained anonymous to Vader, possibly even turning up a lot more often than Vader suspected (while he suspects a string of unrelated Jedi sightings), it would be more fun and could end with a former Jedi who's turning out to be weaker and weaker in the Force doing good deeds all over the galaxy like, I don't know, a man of faith. Like Sheperd Book in Firefly, not like some enhanced fighting prodigy.

But as it stands now, "not so talented Jedi #28" turns out to be one of Vader's biggest personal nuisances, which is mirrored in Falco being Vader's favourite 80s pop musician confidant. The series really grew around Vader instead of keeping him as the game-over-juggernaut you have to run away from.

And the entire premise of A Spark Remains was... not so good, just like with Purge 2 (Second To Die) you don't get that much mileage out of a third tier Jedi trying to eliminate one of the characters who end up with Luke in the Death Star Throne Room. There was hardly any suspense in A Spark Remains. If they'd played it straight, Jennir would have met his final fate. The only question would have been who of the Uhumele crew lived to tell the tale. The only non-straight version is Jennir living to die another day, which makes the entire mission a joke. The only hope to come out of this was a false hope implanted by a traitor; so let's better not confront Vader anymore, thank you very much. But then again Jennir is number one on Vader's hit list. The end is so inevitable that it's both boring to see it through and pointless to deny it.

 

I. I definitely can agree with the disappointments. The higher ups at DHC seemed to have known or been prepared for the Disney/Marvel/star wars inevitability for awhile. It makes no sense that the story was ended with the hope of future stories in mind.

II. Also, does anyone feel like Wheatley's art in this book was not nearly as impressive as it was in previous arcs? There were some great panels but as a whole I found myself disappointed with the visuals in comparison to his other star wars work.

III. Its sad that with a few changes this could have been a real ending. I don't care if it would seem out of the blue or rushed it could work. Instead of doing flashbacks we could do present day and leave room for Salco or whatever to die.

As for Jennir's fate. I guess I wouldn't have minded the outcome if he had least gotten to confront vader for himself. All that buildup for nothing but a bait and switch.

Maybe if Jennir's fate was falsified to Vader than I could like it more. Vader knowing the truth makes it seem out of character to just back down or give up the chase.

Ultimately I liked the book, particularly the buildup and Sahdett reveal. But as a series finale.....