This post contains a PREVIEW for Darth Vader #41Darth Vader is igniting his final endgame against Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars canon. Set in the months before Vader’s ultimate redemption in Return of the Jedi, the Dark Lord of the Sith is still trying to overthrow his master as seen in the canonical comics. To that end, Vader is forging a new source of power, one that isn’t under the influence of Palpatine himself.
As seen in the new preview for Darth Vader #41 from Greg Pak and Raffaele Ienco, the galaxy is currently in crisis thanks to the ongoing Dark Droids crossover and Star Wars’ new AI villain known as the Scourge who’s seeking to corrupt both droids and organics into its dark hivemind. Although the previous issue shockingly features Vader willingly joining the Scourge, this new preview reveals a deeper endgame in the works. The preview pages can be viewed below:
Using his own aptitude when it comes to droids, Darth Vader has found a way to make the Scourge’s power his own, finally offering him a force that can’t be taken away or turned against him like his Darktroopers who ultimately betrayed Vader by proving their true loyalty to Palpatine as seen in the previous issue.
Darth Vader Is Building His Own Army To Face Palpatine
He’s Claimed The Power of the Scourge
Upon merging with Darth Vader, the Scourge initially saw it as a great victory. It had long desired the cyborg Sith lord, existing not only as a bridge between claiming droids and later claiming organics, but also as a means to claim the power of the Force itself. However, Vader clearly had other plans beyond simply submitting to the sentient virus.
Disrupting the Scourge’s signal and keeping him within a closed circuit inside his armor, Vader is seen creating new disk droids that will allow him to infect droids himself, thereby allowing him to fashion his very own droid army completely under his control. To that end, it’s clear that Vader intends to use them against Palpatine, telling the Imperial forces surrounding him in the preview that he’ll be choosing the consequences of not surrendering to face Palpatine’s judgment after he tried to kill the Emperor in the last issue.
This Isn’t The First Time Vader Tried Using Droids
And He’s Going To Fail
As seen in 2015’s Darth Vader series set in the aftermath of A New Hope, the Dark Lord has tried using droids against Palpatine before. Locating a secret droid foundry on Geonosis, Vader intended to create his very own army of battle droids to eventually overthrow Palpatine. However, Palpatine had learned of Vader’s plot before it could even begin. Now, it seems as though Vader has his second chance with a droid army now that he has the power of the Scourge. Nevertheless, this new (and likely final) attempt by Darth Vader to overthrow Palpatine will inevitably fail ahead of Return of the Jedi.
Darth Vader #41 is available on December 20th from Marvel Comics.
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