Darth Vader 48 is the forty-eighth issue of the 2020 canon comic book series Star Wars: Darth Vader. The issue was written by Greg Pak, illustrated by Raffaele Ienco and Federico Blee, and published by Marvel Comics on July 24, 2024.
Publisher's summary[]
LUKE…JOINS THE DARK SIDE?! It is said there can be only two SITH, the EMPEROR AND DARTH VADER. But could it someday be PALPATINE and LUKE SKYWALKER? Or Vader and his son? THE HANDMAIDEN SABÉ finally tests Luke – with WARBA'S life in the balance! And THE SCHISM IMPERIAL reveals its hidden hand!
Opening crawl[]
| SON OF VADER |
|---|
Plot summary[]
On the Outer Rim planet Caranthanax B, former handmaiden of Naboo Sabé attempts to bait Jedi-in-training Luke Skywalker by firing her blaster pistol at him repeatedly while her droid carries the stunned Jedi pretender Warba Calip onto her H-type Nubian yacht. Luke recognizes they are baiting him, but needs to know why. As the starship takes off, Luke makes a massive Force jump onto the hull before slashing into the hull with his lightsaber. This causes massive systems failures on the ship and it begins to plummet. Skywalker uses the Force to guide the ship to a safe landing.
Calip and Sabé exit the ship, the former upset that she was double-crossed. Sabé defends herself, saying that she needs to know who Luke really is, needs to know if he has the heart of a Sith. To provoke anger from Luke, she fires repeatedly at Warba. The Jedi blocks most of the shots, but one grazes Warba's shoulder, sending him into anger.
This surge of emotion is sensed by Darth Vader, and he calls to his son through the Force letting him know that he is seen by Vader. The Sith Lord, wielding an electrostaff and a Zaly Shield both retrofitted with red Kyber crystals, disregards warnings from ZED-6-7 that the shield is creating a feedback loop that could cause backfire. He calls for Senior Lieutenant Enric Pryde, Governor Tauntaza, Agent Fabarian and Administrator Sly Moore to prepare for an incoming fight.
Over the cliff side a starship rises, carrying with it a message from the Rebel cyborgs of M.A.R. Corps, who survived a neural takeover from Vader's droid brains. Vader uses his Kyber-infused electrostaff to destroy the ship. As he performs this action, he thinks of how anger leads to hate, which leads to power. He imbues these thoughts with a call to Luke to accept this darkness within himself.
Back on Caranthanax B, Luke's anger rises as Sabé's relentless assault continues. He eventually cleaves her blaster in two and yells at her in anger to stop. Sabé then says she sees the potential of a Sith within him. But Luke hears the call from his father, and he suspects Sabé was sent by him. The handmaiden, however, clarifies that she is there because she knows Vader and the Emperor are looking for him; she wants to test Luke's heart to see if he would join them, which would spell doom for everyone. Luke rebuts her logic, saying that one does not need to be perfect in order to choose a path of light. For Sabé, Vader made her choose for her anger either leading to suffering or power. She refused the choice, but thinks she defaulted to suffering. She then admits that she planned to kill Luke if she saw any glimmer of Sith within him. Now, she realizes that Luke is different from his father, perhaps more like his mother.
Warba awakens and affirms that Luke really is a good person and admits that Vader tasked her with finding Luke and sending the coordinates of his location. She chose not to reveal it, realizing she is sealing her fate. Luke has the idea, though, to send him the location since Vader already sensed his presence. He even goes as far as activating the device himself.
As Vader receives the coordinates, his allies in the Schism Imperial examine the crashed ship, only to find it was operated remotely, meaning the M.A.R. Corps members are still out there. Vader opts not to go after Luke, seeing that he is not ready to be turned to the dark side. Sly Moore, however, recognizes that Skywalker should be killed in order to best disrupt the Emperor's plans. Vader lashes out in anger, but Tauntaza hits him with an energy beam in the back of his neck, infecting him with the same type of droid brain Vader used against M.A.R. Corps. This gives Tauntaza and Moore enough time to steal Vader's shield and electrostaff. Before he shakes off the influence of the droid brain, Moore gloats that if she were to kill Vader and Luke, she could become Palpatine's apprentice, giving her the power she needs to reform the Empire.
As Vader emerges from the influence of the droid brain, Tauntaza attacks him with the supercharged electrostaff, incapacitating Vader, but causing a massive feedback loop which takes her out as well. Moore and Fabarian recover the unconscious Tauntaza and the Kyber weapons and flee, leaving Vader, Pryde, and ZED-6-7 behind. But as Vader lies unconscious, the Rebel cyborgs arrive to confront him.
Media[]
Cover gallery[]
Collected in[]
Appearances[]
| Characters | Organisms | Droid models | Events | Locations |
| Organizations and titles | Sentient species | Vehicles and vessels | Weapons and technology | Miscellanea |
Characters
|
Organisms
Droid models
Events
|
Locations
|
Organizations and titles
Sentient species
Vehicles and vessels
Weapons and technology
|
Miscellanea
|
Sources[]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10
Star Wars: Darth Vader (2020) #48 on Marvel Comics' official website (backup link)
- ↑ The events of Darth Vader (2020) 48 take place after the Escape from Cloud City and before the Rescue of Han Solo, which are dated to 3 ABY and 4 ABY, respectively, by Star Wars: Galactic Atlas.
External links[]
