Comics Vader Down (One-Shot) (Vader Down, part 1 of 6)

Gillen and Aaron interview on Vader Down

http://www.comicbookresources.com/a...wn-in-marvels-first-star-wars-crossover-event

Teasing some Solo / Aphra meet ups and Threepio Artoo / Triple Zero BT1 which should be fun.

 

brb, drooling, wibbling etc.

 

I honestly just hope this leads into an "Everybody Loves Aphra" miniseries.

 

I want the two pairs of droids to meet just so the "evil" ones can bow before Artoo, the one true evil genius of the droid world.

 

Bet when triple zero and threepio meet they kiss

 

I was excited to learn of this. Though I must say, I would have been much more excited if Lords of the Sith wasn't basically the same premise, plus the Emperor. Because I was extremely excited about the announcement of LotS, the Sith being the primary Star Wars pull for me, Vader and Sidious especially. So LotS was a dream come true. Vader Down will also be a must-read, but I won't be able to read it without measuring it against Lords of the Sith.

I mean, "a new kind of Darth Vader story: he's not the hunter, he's the hunted," and, "he's cut off and surrounded and in a really tough spot." My inner cynic can't read that without thinking, "That was Lords of the Sith. But also with the Emperor." In fact, the tagline for the book was the Emperor saying, "It appears things are as you suspected, Lord Vader. We are being hunted."

In any event. Vader Down should be great. But it's not the groundbreaking, never-before-seen spectacle that its creators seem to feel it is.

 

It is a solid hook for a unique Vader story, the only problem is Marvel didn't get there first. But it'll be interesting to see their take on it, and I love the idea of the casts of both books bouncing off each other.

 

I like Aphra but was surprised to see she would still be around after not only the second Darth Vader arc but into the next one as well. I thought she'd be an Evaan type sidekick in the first arc and gone after she served her purpose. Hopefully we see more of Evaan too in another series.

 

It seems you lack familiarity with Marvel marketing!

 

This sounds excellent and can't wait for it to come out.

 

I was curious to see what they would do with Evaan as well. They did give her a task though that would make it realistic for us to never see her again so I am fine with it either way.

 

If we look at the sales figures for the Vader series the sales really shot up once Aphra was introduced (issue #3 had fallen to 85,000 and it has been over a 100,000 ever since). Now that doesn't necessarily mean that Aphra is the main reason the sales have been over a 100,000 since she came in but her inclusion definitely didn't hurt any. I think it would be wise for them to keep her around for awhile and if they do ever decide to kill her off make it a major event and not just one of those random 'oh this particular arc is over so Aphra needs to go now.'

 

I'd say Triple Zero and Bee Tee had more to do with an increase than Aphra. Aphra is a good character for people that were already reading but doesn't have anything to draw in non-readers. However, when non-readers hear of an evil Threepio and Artoo that torture people and blow things up, that's when sales go up.

 

How about just not killing Aphra and 0-0-0, at any given point; and not making estimates like this?

 

If Vader were a tv series, no-one would expect Aphra to be killed off after a few episodes. She's a "cast regular" -- it would seem a popular one, at that -- and unlikely to be going anywhere, any time soon. Of course, things are different when actors and their contracts are involved, but that's not the only reason we don't see cast members getting the boot every five minutes.

The longer Aphra sticks around, the more powerful her exit will be.

 

Jedi Ben, oh wise one of the Marvelous lore, what are the chances of them killing off Aphra? And in the event they DO kill her off, what are the odds she might come back anyway because Marvel does that stuff? This time Han says it's ok to tell us the odds.

 

At first I wanted Aphra gone by the end of the first arc, now I think it'd be best if she popped it after 50 or so issues

 

Being entirely cynical, I'd say at some point, I wouldn't put it past them, nor would I say Gillen's incapable of it either.

If it happened, would she 'get better'? Might depend on the fan outcry or lack of.

Although where killing off a female character is concerned, there is the fridge factor to account for too. Maybe that's why the droids are more likely to 'die'? Perhaps.

 

To go along those lines the walking dead comic generally saves it's killing off of major characters for either major events within the comics or popular comic numbers. Lori and the baby got killed off in the prison attack (along with a handful of others). A big kill came in issue 100. Here recently a bunch of main characters got killed off in issue 144 and that was because it was going to be the final issue of the third compendium.

Now of course some of those characters had been around for close to ten years and it's a lot different than where the Star Wars comics are at at this point in time but those are the types of times they usually kill major characters off in long running popular series.

 

Look at what he did to Leah. Gillen has no heart, and he laughs in the face of fridges or fanboy tears. He's a monster, and should be stopped!

 

I concur with the Gillen is a bad person who makes you love someone and then generally kills them off or does something nasty to them. Since he's the originator of the character, I can see Aphra meeting a tragic end to her story if/when he leaves the book.

It is also entirely possible LFL Story Group will be like "Hey, we like this character added to our IP Star Wars lore. And we can sell toys. No killing her off!" I don't think LFL is breathing now the necks of every single word they write but they do have to run the arcs by LFL.

But also there's a whole lot of dead original Star Wars characters from the Del Rey days that would dispute that point. If they could. But they're dead. And fictional.

Semi-related, picked up a Gillen Marvel book called "Siege" (tied into the Secret Wars event) really wacky stuff and lots of carnage too. As we've seen in the last Vader issue when Vader force-fed a guy to a space alien monster and stabbed it through the head, it happens in his work from time to time.

 

I don't see any reason why Aphra needs to or is going to die. I think she's a good character to have in the Marvel arsenal and no major plot points are leading to her dying. Maybe that will change around Vader Down this fall.

 

I am all for evil people giving us an Aphra action figure, an ArkAngel toy...wouldn't mind the evil!droids either.

 

I really hope Aphra doesn't die, but I'm reading The Wicked + The Divine right now and I don't trust Kieron Gillen. AT ALL. He is a psychopath who is clearly out to break my heart a million times by killing all my faves. Though he didn't kill America Chavez or Kate Bishop when he was writing Young Avengers, so... I guess I give Aphra a 50/50 shot at living.

 

Gillen is a great writer, but don't trust him with your heart because HE WILL destroy everything you love.

*mournfully stares at Journey into Mystery*