Legacy of Vader: Reign of Kylo Ren: Part 11
What is it ? : As Kylo floats in the bacta tank, Vanee tells him that despite his great titles, Supreme Leader of The First Order, Leader of the Knights of Ren, Acolyte of Skywalker and Snoke, he is still a child. But to become great like Vader, he must die as Anakin Skywalker died to become Vader, and he injects Kylo and everything fades to black.
Kylo awakens on the operating table with Vaders helmet being lowered onto his head, as the table itself is lowered towards a pit of lava. Kylo reaches out with the Force and drags Vanee towards the pit, but Vanee asks him if he kills him, who will raise him from the pit, as he intends just a brief immersion like Vader had.
But Kylo breaks the straps holding him to the table and leaps out of the pit, discarding the helmet as he hunts for Vanee who has fled.
Kylo in just his underwear searches, as various traps are set off, firing blasters and releasing lava, and he must leap across platforms until he reaches a chamber where a number of modified DT Droids await him, and Kylo fights them taking hits from blasters and a circular saw as Vanee continues to speak about enjoying their time together, and he is sad it has come to an end.
Kylo flees the droids with them in pursuit and reaches a chamber where various Lightsabers are on display, he grabs one and it's green blade instantly changes to red in his grasp as he fights the droids. His rage causes the Kyber crystal within to crack, and the blade begins flaring and crackling like his usual lightsaber.
With the droids dealt with, Kylo finds Vanee and demands to know what is in the vault, whether it is real, whether it contains power, but Vanee tells him he doesn't know, as he isn't powerful enough to enter it himself. So Kylo throws him from the tower into the lava below, telling Vanee his sin was wasting Kylo's time, and that Kylo is everything he needs to be already.
As he falls into the lava, Vanee hearing that tells Kylo that his faith was not misplaced, and Kylo is indeed Vader reborn. And Kylo turns and enters the vault. . . . .
High Points : There's quite a bit of horror in this issue, as Kylo is encased in Vader's helmet and lowered towards a pit of lava. With Vanee thinking that immersing Kylo and burning him as Vader burnt will create a new Vader. The idea that the constant pain, and the hatred Vader felt will be reborn in Kylo if he too is burnt by the lava of Mustafar. For the first time I actually felt for Kylo, as this isn't something I would wish on anyone, and watching someone get tortured to bring out their anger isn't something I enjoy.
And while I'm not the biggest fan of Lightsabers turning red when in the hand of a Sith, the scene where Kylo takes a lightsaber and not only does the blade turn red, but his hatred and anger cracks the Kyber crystal, making the blade flare and crackle, showing Grandee's comment about getting Kylo's saber fixed was pointless, as him just holding it would break it again.
Also briefly, I adored the cover, Kylo's horrified look as Vaders helment is lowered down onto him. The moment from Revenge of the Sith where Anakin is put in the helmet for the first time, recreated but with Kylo aware of what is happening and the pain and suffering that represents. Excellent stuff, and it sold me on the issue before I opened the book (in fact I think it was seeing this cover which made me want to read this entire series some months ago).
Low Points : As mentioned about, I'm not the biggest fan of lightsabers changing colour according to who is holding them, it's something not supported in the movies (Anakins lightsaber doesn't change colour on Mustafar when he's fighting Obi-Wan, and Luke's doesn't change colour when Vader ignites it on Endor) and previously we were told it was all about crystals being synthetic, and then later we were told it was the crystals being tortured. So now lightsabers are all Lightside / Dark Side detectors like those in the Ninth Jedi (which we were led to believe were special), although Kylo's didn't change to another colour when handled be Grandee, so it appears to be a one way switch.
So what do you really think ? : So it's the end of Vanee, which is kind of sad, he's been interesting and although we saw the finale of his plan to create another Vader, I wanted to see more of his manipulation, the story seemed to crash into the one about Tava Ren for a couple of issues. But at least we're back on track, and Kylo is off to discover what Vader kept in his vault, which I suspect is more visions, just as we saw in Vader's meditation sphere.
Final Words : While this issue is far from perfect, it's just so much better than the Tava Ren issues, it's exploring Kylo, it's exploring his heritage, and it's showing us that Vanee was behind all of this. His need to serve a being as powerful as Vader forcing him to destroy Kylo if he isn't good enough, despite actually liking Kylo to a degree. Kylo was almost bad enough to be served, but not quite, he was the diet coke of evil, to quote Dr Evil.
Score : 8/10
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