Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows #5 is the conclusion to the series featuring Hock Malsuum, the former clone trooper, as he and Darth Vader lead a final assault against the Ostor separatists. It opens up with Hock squaring off against another former clone trooper, Kadak, as they met on opposite sides at the end of last issue with Kadak being the hero for the separatists. It’s a bloody fight as Kadak holds off his separatist allies and fights one on one against Hock, and Darth Vader does the same with his forces and observes the fight. Kadak is making light work of Hock at one point and is ready to finish him off until Hock delivers a fatal blow at the last minute dropping the separatists’ hero. But the separatists don’t give up and instead fight even harder than before because what they believe in is bigger than Kadak and this only infuriates the Empire’s forces even more, especially Hock. He doesn’t understand why they continue to fight or what they hope to achieve by doing so. What will this last stand by the separatists mean for Hock? Will he continue on this path he has chosen or will it ultimately change him?

I had relatively high hopes for this series because the premise seemed very interesting and the potential for a fresh story with a fresh perspective was there. A clone trooper struggling to survive and define himself outside of his original parameters as a trooper was definitely enough to pique my interest. Yet the execution was sorely lacking as I waited for the story to gain some traction and give me a reason to care but one issue after another just scratched the surface of that at best. So this issue had a tall order to fulfill if it was gonna make me feel like this series was interesting or worth it in the end. And this issue doesn’t suffer from most of the same problems that has plagued this series but the main problem remained, and once again I wished small parts of the story were pursued more instead of the actual result. It started off good in terms of the first fight between the two former clone troopers and I liked the way the quintessential struggle between the two sides was shown as a metaphor during this fight, and a reminder that the clone troopers did play a huge role in the Empire’s plan to seize control initially. It also represented the internal struggle, the greater struggle, and the winner would define Hock’s path. But it speaks volumes about a series when I was very disappointed the protagonist actually won. One can guess how the rest plays out but there were some very perplexing moments in this issue that raises questions about the series too. I understand Hock was angry at the Jedi for being left behind and his will to survive is why he believed he was different. Maybe he wasn’t intended to be portrayed as different and his anger towards the Jedi was all still part of the programming and he was unaware of that until late. Either way he wasn’t a gripping protagonist nor was his story. But unless Darth Vader had a PR firm promoting good things about him I don’t understand how Hock could’ve been unaware of his most notorious actions such as slaughtering children and the many battles they fought had to consist of this. One doesn’t have to witness someone slaughtering children firsthand before thinking that’s wrong. There are other points I can raise but it all comes back to me asking, “why wasn’t that storyline pursued instead?” And the conclusion in and of itself would have been good but then I wished that was used as the narrative viewpoint all along because it would have been more interesting if it was the first issue and the series was built on that. Darth Vader was more menacing and haunting in one panel at the end than he was the entire series and in that moment I actually cared about the protagonist. It’s unfortunate I didn’t feel that way throughout this series.

SUMMARY

Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows #5 as a standalone issue would’ve been decent and enjoyable but as the conclusion to the series it doesn’t make up for the uninteresting storyline and protagonist, and only confirms there were more interesting story threads that should’ve been pursued. The pacing of the series hurt it ultimately because the ending wasn’t satisfying and only raised more questions that can’t be answered. So unfortunately this series never reached the full potential of its premise and there are other Star Wars series that are more enjoyable.

Release Date: 4/16/14

Writer: Tim Siedell

Artist: Gabriel Guzman