Is this tale of one soldier’s idol really something that eager fanboys and fangirls should even bother picking up?  Read on to find out.

The official description from Dark Horse:

Clone trooper Hock has been through much since being left for dead by his Jedi leaders in the Clone Wars. Now, Hock believes he has found a truly great warrior who deserves loyalty and commands respect—Darth Vader! If Hock can impress the Dark Lord as a stormtrooper, he will have earned respect of his own from the leader he admires most.

It’s hard to not enter this story with a heavy amount of skepticism, because at this point in accepted lore we’ve delved heavily into the life and times of this particular dark lord. In truth what makes this unique is the creative team’s attempt to offer up a different angle. We get a grunt’s perspective on a Sith following the fall of the Old Republic. And that right there is interesting enough to garner attention.

Tim Siedell pens the script, which carries a rather simple but honest structure. The plot follows the life of a clone formerly known as CT-5539, as he regales us with his quest for identity in a existence where he was meant to have none. It’s an interesting dynamic, and the author plays with it in the right ways but there were some hiccups along the way. Some of the more key occurrences, such as when our protagonist adopts the name Hock felt unnecessarily rushed leaving me a tad bit underwhelmed.

The art by Gabriel Guzman matches the quality of the text. He effortlessly throws in memorabilia to pull at the strings of devoted Star Wars followers while giving his own spin to the proceedings. As goofy as it was, the fact that our primary alters his own mask to help himself stand out from the crowd looked really cool to me. But a sub-character’s bodily transformation came off as too odd and somewhat visually unsettling.

Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows #2 is a sturdy romp in this everlasting intergalactic odyssey. Recommended.

3.5/5