{"id":28035,"date":"2025-04-17T17:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T17:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/28035\/"},"modified":"2025-04-17T17:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T17:02:10","slug":"review-legacy-of-vader-3-is-a-master-class-in-cruelty-and-revenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/28035\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: \u2018Legacy of Vader\u2019 #3 Is a Master Class in Cruelty and Revenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marvel\u2019s Legacy of Vader issue 3<\/a> released today and folks, we\u2019re cooking with gas. Following Ren\u2019s imprisonment at the hands of Gardulla the Hutt at the end of issue two, we take a bit of a detour from Vader memory lane to address the situation at hand. It\u2019s splashy, angsty and violent. All characteristics we\u2019ve come to know and love in our emotionally unstable villain-turned-eventual hero, Kylo Ren.<\/p>\n

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This detour isn\u2019t wholly unproductive for Ren, however, as he leaves with a definitive lesson learned. Vane\u00e9 continues to pull strings in the shadows and the narrative is pushed forward to the next destination on this rather fraught journey. So far Vane\u00e9\u2019s involvement with Ren is somewhat reminiscent of the way the Emperor toyed with Vader, continually testing for loyalty, strength and resolve. As with Vader, I was surprised to see Ren simply put up with this, but perhaps that will all come to a head later on. For now, we have a Hutt to handle.<\/p>\n

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Spoilers ahead\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

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We kick off the issue with a very angry Ren, in chains and being tortured by Gardulla who electrocutes and taunts him via a remote device from the comfort of her home. The torture leads to a brief flashback of Ren speaking with Rey, seamlessly intertwined with Gardulla\u2019s own words. Aside from a brief inclusion in one of the flashback splash panels in issue 1, this is the first time we see him think of Rey. It\u2019s telling that his own derisive words are served up so quickly to him. He doesn\u2019t believe he\u2019s nothing and he never truly believed that of Rey either.<\/p>\n

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Ross and Woodard do a phenomenal job of making the torture panels hard to ignore. They\u2019re frenzied and intrusive on the page and the effect is distracting and challenging for the reader, pulling you into the raw pain of it and forcing you to reorient yourself in the narrative.<\/p>\n

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Conveniently for us, Gardulla\u2019s torture machine also includes a dream function? It strains the ropes of narrative convenience, but we soldier on. And anyway, it\u2019s an interesting dream. Ren suddenly finds himself witness to one of Vader\u2019s massacres. This one looks like it could be Vader boarding the Tantive IV at the beginning of A New Hope with rebel crewmembers wiped out in sweeps of Vader\u2019s lightsaber. Death commands space here with all else taking a backseat. What dialogue occurs is minimal, yet significant. While at first Ren appears to be appalled by Vader\u2019s actions, this horror quickly transforms into gross, sycophantic worship. Even the language feels icky and out of place with the use of \u201cmagnificent\u201d to describe the cruelty of his grandfather. A word choice that I assume was very intentional by Soule.<\/p>\n

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Dream Vader abandons Ren, telling him all of his \u201cmagnificence\u201d he achieved alone. This is the harsh reality of life as a Sith Lord. Abandon all connections of love and support, and latch, parasitically, onto a false master who offers you the illusion of power, but very real pain. Still, it\u2019s a useful lesson for Ren to learn. There is no real power, imagined or otherwise, in Vader\u2019s legacy. He must forge his own path.<\/p>\n

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Here, the panels start to move the narrative so quickly I felt lost at times and frequently had to go back and check to ensure I hadn\u2019t accidentally skipped a page. I guess Vader\u2019s message sunk in, because Ren calls on the Force and destroys his torture chamber, is apparently unscathed, promptly kills some desert megafauna, skins it, puts on the hide like a poncho, kills some traders, contacts the First Order and calls in a strike on Gardulla. Easy peezy!<\/p>\n

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Ren\u2019s \u201cno\u201d against the backdrop of destruction is his final response to Gardulla\u2019s repeated attempts to get him to \u201cobey.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Back on the ship, he contacts Vane\u00e9 and they seem pretty chummy, so clearly Ren is either not clued in to his own manipulation or doesn\u2019t care. Either way, the journey continues. Next stop, Naboo. This will be very interesting. How much does Ren know of Anakin\u2019s relationship with Padm\u00e9 and Vader\u2019s pining and grief? Will this be another portion of his family history that he feels the need to erase or will it insert a modicum of humanity back into him? How much will Vane\u00e9 share?<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ll find out in issue 4, releasing May 21.<\/p>\n

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Rating: 10\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

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When she isn’t watching her friends and family’s eyes glaze over at the mention of The Clone Wars, she’s at the park with her dog, Melvin, or on the couch with a book in one hand and a drink in the other. Physically, she lives in Ohio; spiritually, she lives in Naboo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marvel\u2019s Legacy of Vader issue 3 released today and folks, we\u2019re cooking with gas. Following Ren\u2019s imprisonment at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,16903,6766,3943,4242,16904,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-28035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-legacy-of-vader","10":"tag-marvel-comics","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-star-wars","13":"tag-star-wars-comics","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}