Lit Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows #3 (of 5)

Tim Siedell (W), Gabriel Guzman (A), Michael Atiyeh (C), and Felipe Massafera (Cover)
On sale Feb 19
FC, 32 pages
$3.50
Miniseries
Stormtrooper Hock is exactly where he wants to be—under the command of the greatest warrior in the galaxy, Darth Vader! When a mission to assimilate some remnant Separatists becomes a military disaster, Hock has an opportunity to be something more than a soldier in the ranks to Darth Vader . . . if he’s willing to take a life-risking chance!
• Tim Siedell (@badbanana) has one of Time’s 140 Best Twitter Feeds!

 

Resistance is futile.

 

I literally just watched ST: First Contact on a plane to back to SF from Houston, so Trek has been on my mind. Engage!

--Adm. Nick

 

Ugh no please not more Imperial Separatists do you guys even understand how the Empire is the Republic and the Separatists were fighting the Republic and bad guys don't just all magically fuse together so they can be bad together and go out for beers afterward why do you keep doing this.

 

The Separatists were neutral. All of them.

 

Preview:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=20176

 

About all that preview has going for it is Guzman's art.

 

The best thing about Dark Horse losing the license is that at least Tim Siedell won't be doing any more Star Wars comics.

 

It's pretty obvious how this is going to end. The stormtrooper will end up saving the day, the Emperor will commend him, and Vader will end up killing him in a jealous rage.

 

Looks perfectly good to me.

 

I think it goes without saying that the leadership of the Confederacy was wiped out at the end of the Clone Wars. The droids always answered to their masters, ultimately the Sith, I have no trouble believing that the Empire would make use of such droids to augment their military. Certainly when it was Darth Sidious (and initially Darth Plagueis with him) who pulled the strings to begin with. Not exactly "Imperial Separatists", but more to the point a commandeered resource to be exploited by the Empire. In this light it makes more sense IMO. To see it through the prism you have chosen to view it from makes it sound cheesy, I seriously doubt droids, beyond Bender, drink beer at all. Furthermore there would be no "magical fusion" of forces.

 

This is not a bad comic book. Tim's done a decent job.

 

Well at least up to that point.

 

Hey!
"• Tim Siedell (@badbanana) has one of Time’s 140 Best Twitter Feeds!"

 

I didn't like the way the clone protagonist said that in the future, the non-clones soldiers wouldn't even be able to hit anything with their blaster. It encourages that common theory that the OT stormtroopers are bad shooters, which isn't particularly true. (People tend to forget that even sharp shooters often miss, both intentionally and unintentionally.)

 

Am I the only one who thinks this is getting pretty good? It's definitely not the most unique SW story ever, but I'm enjoying Hock a lot and I'm anxious to see what happens next.

 

I'm loving it thus far. I wouldn't say this is the best SW comic, but it's very enjoyable to read, plus the art is great, so thus far no complaints from me

 

This series is by far the second best after DOTJ. I can't wait for the next issue and the art and color are gorgeous. I love the type of story they are telling here and did anyone get the jab and stab at the original trilogy? Probably didn't but the comment made about...................is so like ANH. So Disney wants a more old trilogy feel right, well the comment by Hock in my opinion is a jab at what his kind or those that wear the armor becomes...hahaha Nice jab. Not even Marvel can clean that up unless they become super special soldiers which we know they do not............

 

This issue was awesome. Given what we've seen already in so many other things, Hock's fears for the Imperial Army are well-justified, given that General Rohn is just more or less a template for future Imperial Army officers, like, say, Captain Gage. You know, the whole scene of Commander Hock executing General Rohn brings to mind a similar story involving a stormtrooper executing an Army officer. It too involved walkers. General Irrv got a lot of his men killed, and one of his walker operators, Lieutenant Veers, suggested they attack, but was ordered to stand down. He attacked anyway and saved the day. General Irrv was pissed, rebuked Veers and was threatening him with court-martial when Irrv's stormtrooper commander, Grath, shot him, and promoted Veers to major. Ironically, Veers later had one of his own students, Davin Felth, booted out of the Army and into the Stormtrooper Corps for demonstrating how easy it was to trip a walker during a training exercise by having it crouch so that it couldn't be tripped.

I liked Hock's jab at the trilogy era stormtroopers. Truth be told though, they were pretty damn good shots on the Tantive IV. It's just a little hard to shoot straight when your target has Force powers and a plot shield. Commander Cody had something similar to say about the stormtroopers in The Force Unleashed 2. And some of those creepy flash-cloned stormtroopers from True Colors, Order 66 and Imperial Commando sure raised some eyebrows. It sucks Hock had to kill some of his own troopers who were just following orders and all, but I cracked up when he threw his helmet at the viewport. Reminded me of this:



Then there was that scene with Vader and Hock reporting to Palpatine, Isard, Tarkin and Janus Greejatus. As imposing as they looked it must have been almost comical, were Hock not so unimpressed after fighting in the Shrouded Offensive. He looked about as unenthused as you could get. I especially liked Tarkin in that scene. You could tell he was looking right at Vader and, while saying nothing, knew Hock was lying. Reminded me of Godfather in Generation Kill when Lieutenant Fick lied about the exploding cook stove.

Anyway, all around, a good comic.

 

Palpatine, Tarkin, Isard and Pestage in the same panel. Pretty cool.