Darth Vader and The Lost Command Hard Cover

Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Lost Command
Dark Horse Books
Written by Haden Blackman
Art by Rick Leonardi

The Star Wars universe is always expanding from the two setups of trilogies, the cartoon and the comics. Well, Dark Horse has brought another time into the fray, Bringing up the time after Darth Vader was ‘created’ and before we meet him looking for Princess Leia aboard that fateful starship. Here, he is fresh out of the empire academy and has taken his place as second in command behind Emperor Palpatine. Lord Vader is sent on a mission to find a missing Star Destroyer and the son of a high-ranking captain. Because he still has the fragments of Anakin in him, there are flashbacks and visions of Padme. Did you ever think Vader would be so conflicted?

Reading through this, I fell right into this universe. It was spot on and just draws you right in. The only thing you could use is the sound of the constant breathing unit Vader uses to make it complete. They didn’t use any fancy paneling, which in this case really worked. This story didn’t need to have any split boxes or anything that could have taken away from what was being said. My only complaint about the art in the background pages change color for no reason. They go from black to white, then to color and back to white. It took a little away for me. But the art is different from Vader’s visions to what is going on when he’s conscious.

This is a longer book with 118 pages and each one is needed. You can follow along as you can see Vader going from what he was into the merciless, evil character we all know. You can read and see how The Emperor’s influence has changed the character into what he becomes. Also, it shines through how the people around the two of them are thought of and treated. In my humble opinion, if you are a fan of Star Wars, like good sci-fi, or like a good comic, you’ll like this. I give it 4 caps out of 5.