The current story in Darth Vader continues to tease more insight into the planet of Exogol as the Sith Lord makes his way to Palpatine's hidden world looking for answers.
There isn't a huge amount of story that happens in this issue, instead Greg Pak is using his time to spread out the story and show just how brutal and skilled Vader is, throwing huge obstacles in his way. Upon arriving at the nebula that surrounds Exogol Vader and his prisoner, the Sith assassin Ochi, come face to face with a summa-verminoth, a giant space monster that fans will be familiar with from Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Not only is this huge, Cthulhu-like monster blocking their path to the planet, but three Star Destroyers are blocking their rear, ships that aren't there to help Vader. Under the command of Sly Moore, Palpatine's Umbaran aid. Rather than assisting Vader with the monstrosity, she sends dozens of TIE Fighters against him, determined to kill him. Luckily for him, Vader is an amazing pilot, and used to flying in a Jedi Starfighter, and is able to survive the assault and escapes into the nebula.
During the flight through the nebula Vader is subjected to a series of visions in which he sees his defeat at the hands of Obi-Wan, as well as imagining Luke killing him and joining with the Emperor. Once landing on the planet Vader discovers that the summa-verminoth has followed him, and uses The Force to bring it down, bending it to his will. The final page of the comic sees Vader riding atop this giant monster as he approaches Palpatine's Sith temple.
So yeah, no a hug amount happened in regards to moving the story forward, but that was still a hell of an impressive issue. Whether it was Vader proving to be a match for entire squadrons of TIE Fighters even though he was in a decades old ship with and escape pod strapped to it, or him riding a gigantic space monster like an absolute boss, you can't deny that this issue didn't sell Vader as a truly terrifying individual.
With a book that's centred on a character like Vader, one that we know isn't going to die here, who's going to be alive for the events of Return of the Jedi, and will be by the Emperor's side there's not a huge amount you can do in regards to peril. We're not going to think that anything seriously bad is going to happen to the man, because they can't kill him; but this story has done a lot to push him in less obvious ways, testing him to his limits in other regards. Here it's the mental strain he's made to go through when travelling through the nebula, forced to face visions that are designed to disturb him. Considering that Vader is quite a different person in Return of the Jedi than he was in Empire Strikes Back, with the goodness within him closer to the surface and easier for Luke to reach, perhaps his journey here, and what he could come to discover inside the Sith temple will help the old Anakin start to break through.
With this issue out of the way the stage is set for some interesting stuff in the next one. We could be getting more insight into the plans Palpatine had in place. We could get hints at Snoke and his creation. We might learn very little that ties into The Rise of Skywalker, but whatever Vader finds inside that temple it's sure to be exciting, especially with the cover for the next issue teases him going up against dozens of light sabre wielding Sith acolytes.
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