As far as the Star Wars movies are concerned, the Skywalker Saga ended with The Rise of Skywalker, but Marvel Comics is still fleshing out that story in new and unexpected ways. The new Darth Vader series by writer Greg Pak and artist Raffaele Ienco just threw a curveball for the ages by bringing back a character from Darth Vader’s past.
Warning: full spoilers for Star Wars: Darth Vader #1 ahead!
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The comic picks up after the events of The Empire Strikes Back and shows Darth Vader on a personal mission to hunt down those who hid Luke from him. Vader is fixated on punishing those responsible for hiding his son from him and “making him weak.” His investigation takes him back to his home on Tatooine where Luke was raised in secret, which obviously brings back some painful memories about losing his mother Shmi Skywalker and his wife Padme Amidala. Curiously, he finds the gravestones of Owen and Beru Lars, but his forensics droid Z-67 says the bodies are not buried beneath.
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Vader leaves empty-handed and heads to Coruscant, where he looks for clues inside the abandoned and sealed apartment of Senator Padme Amidala. Given that she was Luke’s mother, Vader is looking for any evidence that would reveal who helped her hide Luke away. The droid spots a tiny scout transmitter stuck to the wall, and they follow its signal back to its owner on the planet Vendaxa.
On Vendaxa, Vader traces the transmitter to a small base under siege by wild beasts. We see a Gungan defender get killed by one of them, and then Vader chops them down with his lightsaber. Once all the commotion has died down inside the base, Vader turns and reacts in shock at the presence of what appears to be Padme Amidala, alive and well.
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That is quite the unexpected reveal! We saw Padme die at the end of Revenge of the Sith after “losing the will to live,” but given how that’s always been a rather strange and vague cause of death, it could be that she didn’t actually die.
Then again, this is Star Wars where the Force works in mysterious ways, so it could be a Force Ghost, or even a Force Memory like Han Solo in The Rise of Skywalker. However, those sorts of Force apparitions are usually based around a Force user, but Padme was presumably fighting off these beasts alongside her Gungan soldiers before Vader even showed up, so she seems to exist separately from Vader and therefore she may not be a vision of the Force.
Perhaps it’s not Padme at all and we’re instead seeing one of her body doubles we saw utilized throughout the Prequels. Padme’s remaining personal guard could be luring Vader into a trap using her lookalikes. Although, surely Vader would be able to detect the deception with the Force.
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One clue to Padme’s “return” may have been subtly given early on in the issue. When Vader goes off the grid for this personal mission, we see a quick shot of the Emperor, who just does his Emperor laugh. Is he laughing because he heard a funny joke, or is he taking pleasure in watching his servant follow breadcrumbs that he left for him? Perhaps the Emperor used an unnatural power from the Dark Side of the Force to create a false Padme in order to test Vader. That sounds like the kind of twisted thing he might do. Maybe the Emperor even grew a new Padme using the same technology that he used to create Snoke.
The possibilities are endless, but as of now, we’re just left to wonder how Vader will react. The next two issues of this series show Padme on the covers (which are viewable in the slideshow gallery above), so in hindsight we should have seen the reveal coming a mile away.
Keep in mind that all of Marvel’s Star Wars comics are canon, so this is a real story that is actually taking place within the established continuity. The same goes for the recently relaunched Star Wars series, which just revealed how Luke’s blue lightsaber was recovered on Cloud City.
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What are your thoughts on Padme’s return? Is it really her or some kind of trick? Give us your best theory in the comments.
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Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.
Source: IGN.com Star Wars Shocker: Darth Vader Learns [SPOILER] Survived