VECTOR PARTS 5 & 6 (STAR WARS: DARK TIMES ISSUES 11 & 12).
July 15th 2008 02:11
Category: Graphic Novels/Comics
“Two there should be; no more no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it.”
Darth Bane, Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader.
“Darth Plagueis was my master. He taught me the key to his power…before I killed him.”
Chancellor Palpatine to Anakin Skywalker, Revenge of the Sith novel.
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics.
Production Team: Mick Harrison – script, Douglas Wheatley – art, Dave McCaig – colours, Michael Heisler – letters & Trevor Charest – cover art.
Cost: AU $4.95/US $2.99.
The Rule of Two has been the cornerstone of the Sith Order ever since the aftermath of the final struggle between the Sith and the Jedi on the world of Ruusan some one thousand years ago. Now in the wake of Order 66 the reforged Sith have at last had their revenge and gained complete control over the galaxy, or at least those parts of it that were already under the authority of the Republic. Of course treachery is the way of the Sith, after all eventually there comes a time when the apprentice feels that he (or she) should be the one calling the shots and wearing the mantle of mastery, sometimes this can occur when the apprentice finds their own apprentice and begins teaching them the ways of the dark side as well as Sith techniques. Or it can begin simply with the apprentice beginning to search for one to train in order to aid them in taking the mantle of mastery and deposing the current incumbent in a suitably violent manner. Darth Vader, once the Jedi known as Anakin Skywalker, has begun to contemplate this path he chafes under the guidance of Darth Sidious his master and seeks for the means by which he can cast him down and assume the rightful leadership of the Sith. He has already begun to take steps and make inquiries, but has he fully considered the implications of what he is doing or if they are as concealed as he believes them to be?
Meanwhile elsewhere in the galaxy, the crew of Uhumele having escaped the clutches of the evil crimelord Haka via the efforts of Bomo Greenbark are discussing their next course of action in the hold of their vessel. Naturally after having risked his life to save his fellow ship mates and the captain Bomo is genuinely interested in what all the fuss was about, what was it that Haka and his former henchman wanted so badly they would take great efforts to acquire, it seems that it is something that has had a long history of causing trouble. Contained within an ordinary looking crate in the ships hold is something that the captain, Schurk-Heren calls the Jebble Box.
Apparently this particular black featureless box was discovered by ice miners on the ice world of Jebble some fourteen hundred years ago and as so as it cropped up it started to cause friction and problems. The miners who found the box fought over it until one of them managed to kill his comrades and made off world with the box in his possession. Since then the box has changed hands numerous times down through the centuries and has been the source of several wars fought over its possession by various factions and species, the last such conflict occurring several years ago prior to the Uhumele’s current escapades. That was when the box managed to come into the possession of Heren and his crew.
No one knows what precisely is in the box, or even who made it as Jebble is a barren desolate world with no known signs of being inhabited by any indigenous technologically inclined species or even having been a colony of space faring species. Its contents and provenance are such a mystery that it makes it even more desirable for various people of wealth and substance desire to possess it. Haka was one such individual and Heren was planning to deal with him until it all went horribly pear shaped, now that he and his crew have managed to escape the Ishi Tib’s clutches and his jungle fortress on Mimban they’re proceeding to a rendezvous with another interested potential buyer for the box. Bomo feels both reluctant and suspicious about this new buyer, this Fane Peturi, but he’s not the captain and thus is pretty much along for the ride so to speak perhaps because of his misgivings.
For anyone who has been following the Vector saga to this particular point will recognise that black box that Heren and his crew are bearing along an abandoned path towards some ruins on a moon orbiting the planet of Aridus, and certainly Peturi and his patron also are in the same boat. They know exactly what that box is and have a very good idea of what it contains unlike all the other buyers and owners of the Jebble box down through the ages, although they are not completely illuminated as to what the box contains. As happened the last time Heren and his crew find themselves in a deal that has gone truly wrong in all the most horrible ways, Fane Peturi has not only reneged on his end of the bargain but done so with the backing of Imperial Stormtroopers and his mysterious patron; Darth Vader, the Emperor’s right hand. Perhaps Heren should have listened a bit more seriously to Bomo’s misgivings…
In all the years that the Jebble Box has passed from owner to owner not once has it ever been opened, none of them have ever found the means or method by which they could open the box. Darth Vader uses a direct and rather appropriate means to surmount this particular obstacle, he slices the box open with his lightsaber revealing the contents within. What lies within this container is not what the crew of the Uhumele were expecting but it is definitely what the Sith Lord was hoping for, you could almost say for Vader it was like receiving a truly precious and wonderful gift, a female Jedi knight from the days of the Old Republic, and not just any old Jedi, the occupant of the box is Celeste Morne, shadow agent and minion of the Jedi Covenant. She would make a truly devastating apprentice for Lord Vader, one who would no doubt enable him to overthrow his master and establish his reign over the Sith, assuming of course that she can be turned to the Dark Side…
Celeste upon awakening from her sleep of ages is naturally a bit disorientated by the whole affair, forty centuries of stasis would do that to anyone even a Jedi. When she manages to take in the situation into which she finds herself she is not having a bar of Vader or the Sith but she suddenly realises that the longer she fights Vader and his minions the more chance she has of letting loose a terrible calamity onto the rest of the galaxy. It was to try and prevent that calamity from happening that she let Zayne place her in the Jebble box to begin with all those years ago. What an irony to be woken by the very people she and the Covenant had been established to attempt to guard against, the ages old enemy of the Jedi; the Sith. And if that wasn’t bad enough to discover that they now rule the galaxy and have effectively conquered the Republic would be even more galling.
The artwork in this segment of the epic saga is truly fantastic as is the story which has drawn Vector into the era of the Dark Times and thus posed a potential menace to Darth Vader. I certainly loved the whole sleeping beauty style shtick that was used for the first part of this segment; it looked very much in place with the story. And Celeste certainly works and looks fantastic here as the tragic figure trying so hard to do something yet it seems as if events are beyond her control. When I finished reading this I just knew that I would be looking forward to the next instalment in Rebellion and the finale in Star Wars: Legacy, its definitely a tale worth reading and worthy of being a part of the Star Wars expanded universe.
Darth Bane, Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader.
“Darth Plagueis was my master. He taught me the key to his power…before I killed him.”
Chancellor Palpatine to Anakin Skywalker, Revenge of the Sith novel.
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics.
Production Team: Mick Harrison – script, Douglas Wheatley – art, Dave McCaig – colours, Michael Heisler – letters & Trevor Charest – cover art.
Cost: AU $4.95/US $2.99.
The Rule of Two has been the cornerstone of the Sith Order ever since the aftermath of the final struggle between the Sith and the Jedi on the world of Ruusan some one thousand years ago. Now in the wake of Order 66 the reforged Sith have at last had their revenge and gained complete control over the galaxy, or at least those parts of it that were already under the authority of the Republic. Of course treachery is the way of the Sith, after all eventually there comes a time when the apprentice feels that he (or she) should be the one calling the shots and wearing the mantle of mastery, sometimes this can occur when the apprentice finds their own apprentice and begins teaching them the ways of the dark side as well as Sith techniques. Or it can begin simply with the apprentice beginning to search for one to train in order to aid them in taking the mantle of mastery and deposing the current incumbent in a suitably violent manner. Darth Vader, once the Jedi known as Anakin Skywalker, has begun to contemplate this path he chafes under the guidance of Darth Sidious his master and seeks for the means by which he can cast him down and assume the rightful leadership of the Sith. He has already begun to take steps and make inquiries, but has he fully considered the implications of what he is doing or if they are as concealed as he believes them to be?
Apparently this particular black featureless box was discovered by ice miners on the ice world of Jebble some fourteen hundred years ago and as so as it cropped up it started to cause friction and problems. The miners who found the box fought over it until one of them managed to kill his comrades and made off world with the box in his possession. Since then the box has changed hands numerous times down through the centuries and has been the source of several wars fought over its possession by various factions and species, the last such conflict occurring several years ago prior to the Uhumele’s current escapades. That was when the box managed to come into the possession of Heren and his crew.
No one knows what precisely is in the box, or even who made it as Jebble is a barren desolate world with no known signs of being inhabited by any indigenous technologically inclined species or even having been a colony of space faring species. Its contents and provenance are such a mystery that it makes it even more desirable for various people of wealth and substance desire to possess it. Haka was one such individual and Heren was planning to deal with him until it all went horribly pear shaped, now that he and his crew have managed to escape the Ishi Tib’s clutches and his jungle fortress on Mimban they’re proceeding to a rendezvous with another interested potential buyer for the box. Bomo feels both reluctant and suspicious about this new buyer, this Fane Peturi, but he’s not the captain and thus is pretty much along for the ride so to speak perhaps because of his misgivings.
For anyone who has been following the Vector saga to this particular point will recognise that black box that Heren and his crew are bearing along an abandoned path towards some ruins on a moon orbiting the planet of Aridus, and certainly Peturi and his patron also are in the same boat. They know exactly what that box is and have a very good idea of what it contains unlike all the other buyers and owners of the Jebble box down through the ages, although they are not completely illuminated as to what the box contains. As happened the last time Heren and his crew find themselves in a deal that has gone truly wrong in all the most horrible ways, Fane Peturi has not only reneged on his end of the bargain but done so with the backing of Imperial Stormtroopers and his mysterious patron; Darth Vader, the Emperor’s right hand. Perhaps Heren should have listened a bit more seriously to Bomo’s misgivings…
In all the years that the Jebble Box has passed from owner to owner not once has it ever been opened, none of them have ever found the means or method by which they could open the box. Darth Vader uses a direct and rather appropriate means to surmount this particular obstacle, he slices the box open with his lightsaber revealing the contents within. What lies within this container is not what the crew of the Uhumele were expecting but it is definitely what the Sith Lord was hoping for, you could almost say for Vader it was like receiving a truly precious and wonderful gift, a female Jedi knight from the days of the Old Republic, and not just any old Jedi, the occupant of the box is Celeste Morne, shadow agent and minion of the Jedi Covenant. She would make a truly devastating apprentice for Lord Vader, one who would no doubt enable him to overthrow his master and establish his reign over the Sith, assuming of course that she can be turned to the Dark Side…
Celeste upon awakening from her sleep of ages is naturally a bit disorientated by the whole affair, forty centuries of stasis would do that to anyone even a Jedi. When she manages to take in the situation into which she finds herself she is not having a bar of Vader or the Sith but she suddenly realises that the longer she fights Vader and his minions the more chance she has of letting loose a terrible calamity onto the rest of the galaxy. It was to try and prevent that calamity from happening that she let Zayne place her in the Jebble box to begin with all those years ago. What an irony to be woken by the very people she and the Covenant had been established to attempt to guard against, the ages old enemy of the Jedi; the Sith. And if that wasn’t bad enough to discover that they now rule the galaxy and have effectively conquered the Republic would be even more galling.
The artwork in this segment of the epic saga is truly fantastic as is the story which has drawn Vector into the era of the Dark Times and thus posed a potential menace to Darth Vader. I certainly loved the whole sleeping beauty style shtick that was used for the first part of this segment; it looked very much in place with the story. And Celeste certainly works and looks fantastic here as the tragic figure trying so hard to do something yet it seems as if events are beyond her control. When I finished reading this I just knew that I would be looking forward to the next instalment in Rebellion and the finale in Star Wars: Legacy, its definitely a tale worth reading and worthy of being a part of the Star Wars expanded universe.
| 31 |
| Vote |
Shared on
Subscribe to this blog
