‘Legacy of Vader’ #4 Is Weighed Down By Exposition — Review

Naboo as a planet holds a curious place in the Star Wars narrative. As the central locale of The Phantom Menace and a key world in the Prequel Trilogy, it plays a notable role in the shaping of Anakin Skywalker and the legacy of Darth Vader. So it makes sense that this series — which is, you know, all about exploring that legacy — would turn its narrative eyes to Naboo sooner rather than later.

Yet Naboo is largely a world of the Prequels, and once Padme Amidala leaves the story, so too does Naboo — despite it also being the home-world of the Emperor. This is hardly surprising, given the way these stories were initially released and these plot points developed (the Emperor wasn’t even named in the Original Trilogy).

But when a series like this comes along that wants to look at the sweep of the Star Wars saga, it can bump up against the fact that Naboo disappears from that narrative for large swaths of it. All of which is to say, Legacy of Vader #4 is the first truly wobbly issue of the series, in large part because it has to spend most of its time delivering exposition on the state of Naboo during and after the reign of the Empire, because so few other stories have done it.

To be sure, it helps that said exposition is delivered by a floating head in a jar attached to giant robot spider body to a ruggedly handsome man-child with anger issues, which lends at least some visual flair even in panels where its just Vanae giving a history lesson on life in Naboo during the reign of the Palpatine.

Writer Charles Soule is also careful to work in an action sequence in the back half of the book, as Kylo Ren fights off a group of local thugs, and ties it in to Ren’s larger epiphany about Naboo that sets up the issue ending cliffhanger (so the action sequence isn’t just there for the sake of action).

Yet it doesn’t change the fact that large chunks of the issue are just Vanae going on about Naboo history as the pair move through picturesque backdrops. The “arrive on planet, get in a fight” plot sequence also illustrates the pattern the series is falling into: Kylo Ren goes to a planet, fights some locals, has an epiphany. These aren’t done-in-one issues, so the repetition is more subtle, but hopefully wherever the series goes next, events unfold a little differently.

It also doesn’t help that Legacy of Vader #4 lacks the visual punch of the previous issues. Artist Stefano Raffaele is no slouch, and the art here is perfectly fine. But it isn’t as polished as Luke Ross‘ earlier work on the series, who was routinely given similar plot beats but managed to punch them up visually more effectively.

This is much more workmanlike, with the exception of a flashback sequence in which two locals tell Kylo Ren of an attack by Vader which is rendered in the book’s standard “red means flashback” colorization but with a Vader who is more monster than man, a dark, expressionist representation of what it felt like to be attacked by Vader rather than what it looked like. It’s just one page, but it’s the highlight of the issue.

None of this means Legacy of Vader #4 is a failure. Naboo *is* an important but underused locale to the Skywalker Saga, and there’s something neat in seeing the trilogies get bridged as Kylo Ren tromps around his grandma’s old stomping grounds, and Soule manages to propel the plot along without losing track of Kylo Ren’s character arc. The execution is simply a little lacking compared to earlier issues, the tension between Kylo Ren’s perception of reality and reality less pronounced, the narrative more bogged down by exposition and repetition, the art a little less punchy.