How far is a father willing to go in order to avenge the loss of his child?  Read on to find out.

The official description from Dark Horse:

Eight assassins hired to murder Darth Vader—eight assassins dead. Now the man who enlisted them seeks a ninth assassin. The price? A cost higher than all the credits in his bottomless coffers. But when it comes to avenging his son, no sacrifice is too great to acquire the one man who can kill the Dark Lord of the Sith…

Following a series of unfortunate events, Darth Vader has found himself to be the victim of an (attempted) murderous plot.  Yep, I meant for that to sound as sarcastic as possible because lets be frank the big guy deserves it and the creative team does a solid job setting up a few reasons why.

Tim Siedell pens the script and the author nails a brisk pace that keeps the book light on depth but full of enough content to get the audience prepared for wherever this mini-series might go next.  I was enthralled by the layers here as a rather intriguing addition to the Star Wars universe emerged, dressed in a cool suit this new assassin is surely ready to face down a Sith.  There were problems here and there that did detract from the experience, such as the inner-dialogue.  It came off uneven when compared to the outer conversations, resulting in a good but not great script.

Stephen Thompson handles the art, and the illustrator does just enough to give this tale that right amount of visual spice in order to allow the birth of a believable extension for this expanded saga.  There were some panels where the renditions of some of the more familiar faces seemed to be off from what one might usually expect, but these instances were few and far between.  Truth be told the work on display does just enough to allow both skill and competency to bubble to the surface.

Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin #1 is a solid start to another interstellar romp.  Recommended.

3.5/5