Star Wars: Darth Vader #32: It’s been months since I’ve read an issue of this series, but I’m still over this Sabé story.
Vader appeals to Sabé to help him take out Jul Tambor, since she now knows what type of man Jul is. When it appears Sabé is ready to take up Vader on his offer, Eirtaé (I think) grabs her and bolts. Using their anti-gravity belts, the Handmaidens fly her to their ship, where Ochi is waiting. But Sabé unbuckles her belt and falls, knowing Vader would use his powers to catch her. (The full-page image of Sabé floating to Vader is spectacular.)
With Sabé now in his corner, Vader puts the mission to take out Jul under her command. Rather than bombarding his location, as the Empire would do, Sabé informs Jul of Vader’s location but asks him to hold off attacking it, as 12 Skakoan refugees are there. Jul bombs it anyway. In a conversation with Sabé, he exults about ruling Skako Minor once again. Sabé reveals that she recorded his words and plays them for the refugees who realize he was willing to kill him to rule (and not just defeat the Empire).
The Skakoans quickly turn against Jul, and Sabé consolidates Imperial control over Skako Minor. Vader is disappointed she didn’t kill Jul, though she correctly notes he would’ve become a martyr, rather than disgraced, if she did. Sabé praises the peace that now exists there, though Vader corrects her, calling it “order.” It’s a nice reminder that Anakin's obsession with order turned him to the Dark Side (if you buy him having any motivation other than Lucas needing him to become Vader by the end of "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith").
Sabé tells Vader that she left the Handmaidens so they could go about their lives. It took me a second read to realize that Sabé, probably correctly, assumed Vader would've killed them all if Sabé had returned to the fold since she would've presumably told them that he's Anakin Skywalker. Now, she tells him, she'll be the only one to lose her soul. Weirdly, Vader reacts to this conversation the way he did when he discovered that he killed Padmé at the end of “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith," inadvertently crushing items around him while uttering, “You are not the only one.”
Despite my dislike of this arc, I do buy that ending. That said, I buy it because, after all these years, I still find myself wanting to find a connection between Vader and Anakin. Pak uses Sabé as a way to tease out that evolution, one of the only effective efforts I've seen. At the end of the day, though, Lucas did so little in terms of justifying Anakin's fall that nothing I've seen since really convinces me they're the same person. Pak tried his best, but it remains Star Wars' original sin.
Undiscovered Country #24: Snyder and Soule resort to a few dei ex machina to move us from Zone History to Zone Bounty. It isn't the most satisfying ending to an arc, but at least it's an ending.
Levant takes Charlotte and Valentina to the space beneath Apollo 11 on the day it launches. A raving Levant reveals that all this colleagues (and likely he) went insane when they realized that, in every simulation they ran, the timeline ended at the same point. Levant "had to take care" of his colleagues, which clearly means that he killed them. Levant apparently asked Aurora about it, but he tells the women that Aurora is losing it.
Given their connection to someone they love in the real world (Daniel for Charlotte, Ace for Valentina), they refuse Levant's offer to pick an era where they could stay. Disappointed, he decides to leave for 1981 America, since he has roughly 20 years left. It's a little convenient, but it's actually kind of refreshing that Levant isn't the sort of crazed monster that Destiny Man or Dr. Jain was. Before Apollo 11 launches, though, a portal opens.
Meanwhile, in Beijing, Ace conveniently kills Emperors Chang and Janet before they can reveal what they learned that turned them against America ("What we learned was that in order for Aurora to --"). Ace asks Janet if she expected him to stand there while her future self justified murdering him, to which, if I were Janet, I would've responded, "Yes, you fucking tool!" Before he dies, Emperor Chang passes a device to Chang.
Suddenly, Charlotte and Valentina arrive, and Bukowski arrests everyone. However, Future Valentina appears via a holographic projection from Buzz and convinces Bukowski to let them go because they matter whereas she and Bukowski will disappear when Aurora shuts down the experiment. Bukowski agrees to help them to the next zone. Poignantly, Janet asks him what they'll do now, and Bukowski responds, "I don't think it matters."
It's very "Matrix"-esque, elevating the lived experience of people in the "real world" above the "people" within the simulated one. That said, in the "Matrix," the people within the simulated world had physical counterparts in the "real world." Here, you realize these people - except for Bukowski and Valentina - think they're real, which raises the question of whether they are. Cogito ergo sum.
In Zone Bounty, Janet is unexpectedly overcome with emotion that Charlotte and Valentina are alive, which is weird. Is she feeling proxy guilt for a version of herself killing them? At any rate, Charlotte and Valentina relate their experience, though Chang and Janet aren't buying what Aurora is selling. As Chang says, of course Aurora is going to advocate a position discouraging anyone from invading America. Janet also points out it's a convoluted way of getting to a pretty obvious message. (It is indeed, Janet.)
As the team continues through the forest of corn, Chang uses the device Future Chang handed him, enabling him to contact the PAPZ ships just off the California coastline. Dun-dun-DUN!
X-O Manowar Unconqured #1: I know little of Aric of Dacia, but I heard this miniseries was a good introduction to him. It is, though I'm not sure it's a good thing.
Under orders, a soothsayer (whose name we later learn is Nimane) tells her emperor (whose name we later learn is Ursus Nox) her vision of Aric surrounded by a sea of bodies. Distrurbed, she refuses to consider the scene more, so the frustrated Nox pushes for her to focus on the present and tell him where Aric is now. She reveals that he and his armor, Shanhara, are trying to prevent a comet from striking Earth.
Turning to Aric, he and Shanhara succeed, crashing onto a frozen planet that Aric dubs Scythia. Shanhara scans the comet's remains and reveals that it was a mand-made explosive meant for them not Earth. (I’m not sure how she knew it was meant for them but details.) Aric informs Shanhara that they have to stay on Scythia until the enemy presents itself lest they endanger Earth.
Back at Nox's HQ, one of his generals, Cadmus, suggests to Commander Aurum that they have a backup plan if they're unable to pry Shanhara off Aric. Cadmus complains that Shanhara is a legend with which Nox is obsessed, and Aurum warns him that he's tip-toeing on the line between loyalty and treason.
Later, on Scythia, Nox’s troops arrive and reveal to Aric that Nox rules the Imperium Novus Romanus. Aric is surprised to encounter Romans. That said, I’m not sure they're really are or if they picked bait they knew Aric the Visigoth would take, given Cadmus and Aurum fear Aric has figured out it’s a trap. Otherwise, I'm not sure what the trap is.
Re-reading the recap, this issue sounds more exciting than it felt reading it. I mostly felt like I was just getting an AI-generated story about a Visigoth fighting the Romans in space. I’m going to bail here while the bailing is good.
No comments:
Post a Comment