Star Wars: Purge – The Tyrant’s Fist #1
Script by Alexander Freed
Art by Marco Castiello & Andrea Chella
Colors by Michael Atiyeh
Letters by Michael Heisler
Cover by Dan Scott
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: December 5, 2012
Cover Price: $3.50

It’s Darth Vader baby! Yeah! Fans of the classic AND prequel trilogy can rejoice because Star Wars: Purge – The Tyrant’s Fist #1 features what everyone loves-Darth Vader being an awesome bad-ass villain. What more could we want? Thank you Dark Horse!

Alexander Freed writes an…unusual Darth Vader. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. He writes a Darth Vader that, quite honestly, we’ve never seen before. We now know the WHOLE story of Anakin Skywalker (At least, until Episode 7 comes out) so Freed takes advantage of that and writes him with little hints of Anakin from the prequels thrown in. Now, he’s not crying out for his mom or yelling “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!,” but you see subtle hints of the character that we watched evolve during Episodes 1-3.

Just like the previous Purge titles, Darth Vader is on a mission to take out the Jedi. My only problem with this issue is that Darth Vader has SUCH a HATRED for the Jedi. Doesn’t he really just hate Obi-Wan? I have no idea where his “I must destroy all the Jedi” motivation comes from. Other than that, it’s a really enjoyable issue, definitely up there with the other books in the Purge series.

Artists Marco Castiello & Andrea Chella are the most unique part of this book. They are not really your normal Star Wars artists. Their art gives off a more painted look than normal, and that’s not the norm for a book in the Star Wars family. Everything looks great, just different from what you’re expecting. But, in a good way. Richer, softer, and all-around more professional, I guess is the word that I’m looking for. What often bothers me in Star Wars books is that a lot of artists draw things that look like they DO NOT belong in the Star Wars universe. That’s not the case here. Everything on the page, you can envision on the big screen in a Star Wars movie.

All in all, this comic is better than your average Star Wars book. First off, it’s got characters that you CARE about. Not some Jedi from a video game that took place 5,000 years before the movies. Second, it seems that there was a lot of effort put into this book to make sure it was extra good. Guess what? Mission accomplished.