The Darth Vader Fan Girl Comic And How It Went Wrong

Yep, we're back to talking about Star Wars again, specifically the lackluster part of it. While it would be easy to make that joke given that we are talking about a Marvel comics helmed part of the setting - one established by Jason "I am right, everyone else is wrong, and I will re-write whole histories to support my argument" Aaron - there have been a few shining gems among them. The big one was Charles Soule's run on Darth Vader, which actually managed to take full advantage of the reboot and do some fun things with the character. Even as someone who vehemently dislikes the quality of current Star Wars products, this one was a rare example of getting things right. It showed what could be done when there was some proper thought and planning put into a new saga, and even put one of the facepalming additions to the new lore to good use.

Well, ever since Soule stopped writing for the character, such praise has rapidly dissipated from any series involving the character. First a follow-up series was given to Chuck "What kind of deal with Satan did this man make to have a career?" Wendig, and then once he was mercifully booted off of the comic, the sequel somehow got worse. This should not be possible. This is akin to reaching rock bottom, only to break through it and plunge into an abyssal trench beneath it. However, the work was so bad that this was another situation where someone both supplied me with a copy of Darth Vader: Dark Visions #3 with a simple request: Please explain how this went so horribly wrong, and why it was published.

The story here is a rather bizarre take attempting to show how Vader is regarded by others. In this case, a demented and borderline insane nurse becomes rapidly infatuated with Vader's power, to the point of approaching him with romantic interests in mind. She grows more daring, until she approaches Vader within his personal chambers. He takes this poorly, and one stabbing later he departs, leaving her corpse to be disposed of by someone else.

So, why was this published? That part is simple: Marvel will publish almost anything these days. Please understand, there are plenty of good writers still producing work for the company, and a fair few good characters. However, if you pick up the average Avengers comic, or any major title it seems, you are met with a wave of "lol ironic lol" humour, edgelord diatribes, nihilism and puerile commentary. Here are two such examples just to show you how bad it is, and why I largely read DC, IDW and Dark Horse comics these days:

Oh, trust me, it only gets worse.

With that in mind, it's almost surprising that we did not get something even more obscene, like Vader revealing that he is a cannibal, or that he regularly sodomizes Padme's corpse.

So, with that disgusting image out of the way, how did this go so horribly wrong? The answer is down to its execution. Oddly enough, the actual idea behind the story could work well if given to a writer familiar with satire or stealth parody. Any one of the writers working for 2000AD or with some experience writing Judge Dredd comics could pull this off. Make it an open parody of toxic love, or how obsession can go horribly wrong, but go further. If it went full Fifty Shades of Grey on this stuff, creating an open mockery of how such a relationship can go wrong, it would work well. The problem, in this case, is that the story lacked that satirical edge, and as a result it approaches its subject matter with a straight face.

To explain how this goes so badly wrong, let's break down the story piece by piece:

The initial beats to the story start to follow elements of a female power fantasy - the good and/or entertaining sort of one, mind you, and yes those do exist - with the unnamed nurse breaking ranks to catch a glimpse of Vader. She is berated by her equally unnamed superior for her actions, and derided for the risks she takes. This would be a reasonable start toward establishing a tone to subvert, but it is quickly undermined by just how deranged the protagonist is. Right out of the starting gate the comic goes out of its way to present her in a poor state of mind, with bizarre romantic fantasies about Vader. It's spur-of-the-moment and comes into focus with no reason or real establishment beyond "She be crazy".

Things only get gradually worse throughout the story, and it keeps beating the reader about the head with the simple message of her insanity. Unfortunately, it never bothers to explore it beyond that. It never pushes to try and show how poisonous her thoughts are to herself, or showing even a good person slipping away. Instead it's simply carrying a rather crass message of "This woman is mad and she brought this upon herself". Even if you ignore that, however, it's also remarkably dull due to how monotone this is in its approach, and how little reason the reader is given to engage with this tale. Harley Quinn might have a few questionable issues with her character, but her stories at least show a depth to her personality, and her history with the Joker is one where she is the victim.

Even when it does start to delve deeper into the power fantasy angle, perhaps the one area that it could have developed some theme or subtext with, it fails there as well. Due to the protagonist's deluded nature, it doesn't explore any themes so much as treat her thoughts as a joke. Even as someone who has criticised Rey's development in the past for its problems, this open mockery of such a subject is at best eye-rolling. It's edgy for the sake of being edgy, and it offers nothing in the way of commentary or subversion on the subject. Hell, it doesn't even offer a good take on the dangers of dreams as, again, the mental state of the protagonist is so quickly presented as being damaged beyond repair.

The protagonist is then driven further over the edge as it enters creepy fan territory as well. She begins to gather pieces of Vader's armour or bits left over from battlefields, leading to dreams of joining him or even saving his life. Sadly, this is the part where it comes closest to having some meaning as there are some slight parallels which can be drawn with Kylo Ren in terms of his obsessive nature. They're tangential, but you can see a link as to where this could shed light on how such a view influences, strengthens and yet undermines people. Unfortunately, it only appears in this one segment and it's never built upon, meaning that the real potential here is wasted.

This only gets worse in the final pages, where the protagonist's superior destroys her collection and throws it into a trash compactor. This is done more of out spite than anything else but, because the comic has done nothing to establish sympathy for the protagonist, it rings hollow. It's just one more step down her disintegrating mental state, and that's it. You're given no reason to react to this beyond realizing what has happened, and acknowledging it.

Up until that final point, much of what has been written could be mistaken as tone-deaf writing on the part of Dennis Hopeless AKA the Avengers Arena writer. As the story shows one final delusion, it features the protagonist as another Sith Lord, crushing the life from those who abused her. The problem is, this is not too dissimilar to how some power fantasies are written with other characters, and a few of those are typically presented in a positive light. By taking this here and showing it as a mistake, almost an error formed by a deranged mind, it becomes an open mockery of one part of the fandom.

The final pages themselves then only finish by cementing this detail. She is seen approaching Vader without reaction, offering some words of reassurance. When Vader stabs her and then moves on, there's no sense of tragedy or loss to the act. It just happens, like so much of the work here. She is left dead, and Vader, the reader and the protagonist are left having gained nothing from the experience beyond a story of nihilism.

The artwork hardly helps, presenting the protagonist with a frog-like appearance which is demented if not outright mad much of the time. This only further assists in removing any reason to feel sympathy for the character or subtext within many scenes. It's one more mark against the comic, and one more reason to feel no engagement with the work.

As a final note, one sad detail is that we have seen a similar story executed much better before now. This is admittedly not quite another "The EU did it before, so why are we repeating ourselves" moment, so much as showing how this can and has been done better before. Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison gave a chance for a reader to see Vader as a hero of the Empire, opposing a massed rebellion by Imperial officers and seeing him through the eyes of a subordinate. It has a similarly dark twist to it, but whereas this one adds nothing to the story, in that case it serves to display what kind of monster he truly is. It's really astounding to see a story like this fail so spectacularly when a perfectly excellent example of how to pull it off can be easily found with a quick Google search.

As a final note, and just a detail more for myself than anything else, this should show that quality is never assured. A constant attitude that I personally keep seeing among fans is simply this: Disney = Good, Legends = Bad. It's a narrow opinion, but one far too many fans seem hell bent upon retaining. Works like this prove that, no matter how fresh a start a setting is given, bad stories will always crop up. It's the role of fans, critics and reviewers to judge what they like for themselves, and stay true to their standards. 

If you enjoy something then feel free to do so without regret, but do not simply support something because of a brand. Hold it to your standards, and if it falls short of them, do not defend it. A poor story will always be a poor story, and being disingenuous of that fact will not change them for the better. If you wish for the new setting to ignore and avoid tales like this in the future, shout loudly and oppose it, then close your wallets to them. Nothing else will get their attention, or encourage them to change for the better.