Publisher: Dark Horse
Writer: Brian Wood
Artist: Facundo Percio
Release Date: 8th January 2014

As much as I was looking forward to what happens next, a change is always nice, and Star Wars #13 offers a little change of pace with the first installment of the two-part ‘Five days of The Sith’.

Instead of jumping into the next major arc, Brian Wood has chosen to shift focus a little, and instead introduces us to Ensign Nanda, assigned as Darth Vader’s temporary assistant as he attempts to track down our heroes in the aftermath of an Imperial embarrassment at the hands of the rebels.

It’s a well put together story, and leaves you guessing as to where Nanda will eventually end up. On one hand, Vader has spent most of Brian Wood’s series ‘offing’ his fellow Imps without a second thought, and you can easily see this being Nanda’s outcome. On the other hand, you find yourself rooting for her as she starts to discover how truly torturous Vader can be.

This two-part story initially appears to serve the purpose of making Vader more of a villain than most of us usually see him. As bad as he is supposed to be, he is rarely all that frightening, but Wood portrays him as a really evil b*****d in this issue. That said, it would be nice to see Nanda develop into a really fearless and cold-hearted Imperial officer as a result of spending some time around him. Someone to rival Leia in upcoming stories, perhaps?

Facundo Percio takes over artwork in this issue, and does a fine job, but his linework lacks the sharp, bold pop of Carlos D’andas regular offerings, so the issue does suffer from the artistic samey-ness that I have mentioned when reviewing other recent SW titles.

All in all, Star Wars continues to be a very strong book, and while this arc initially feels unnecessary, there is nothing wrong with taking a breather, and you can trust Brian Wood to tell a decent story nonetheless.

Rating: 7/10.

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The writer of this piece was:

Alan Shields aka (Al)
You can also find Al on  Facebook