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Darth Vader (2017) 5: The Chosen One: Part 5

What is it ? : Vader is returning to Coruscant, but is redirected by Palpatine to Mustafar, where beneath the surface the Dark Side calls to him. He lands and enters a cave, finding a plinth inside, where he disassembles Kirak Infil'a's Lightsaber and attempts to bleed the crystal, it blasts him with energy and he exclaims "What have I done".
He reassembles the lightsaber and returns to Palpatine, who tells him to show his blade, which Vader does and the blade is still green. Palpatine tells Vader he has made his decision and the two fight until Vader defeats and kills Palpatine. He seeks out and finds Obi-Wan Kenobi on a wooded world where he is meditating. Obi-Wan reacts to the dark armoured warrior, but instead of responding Vader removes his helmet preparing himself to be struck down, but Obi-Wan disengages his lightsaber exclaiming "Anakin".
Vader reawakens in the cave with the crystal, and tries once more to bleed it, refusing the vision it has given him, leading to a blast of energy engulfing Vader and the crystal.
On Coruscant, Palpatine is meeting with Tarkin and Mas Amedda guarded by Royal Guardsmen. Vader enters, hurling the guardsmen aside and knocking them unconscious. Tarkin steps forward to defend Palpatine, but is dismissed by him and when they are alone, Palpatine addresses Vader as apprentice, and Vader ignites Kirak Infil'a's Lightsaber which now has a red blade and responds "Master". . . .

High Points : The slow transition from Anakin to Vader continues, and I do like the way they're doing this piece by piece, with Vader now having a red bladed lightsaber by the end of this issue, but at this point it's just Kirak Infil'a's Lightsaber with the crystal having been bled, a curved hilt lightsaber. I'm guessing this one won't last too long and get damaged or destroyed at some point.
The vision itself is interesting, with Vader breaking out of it, not because he is under threat, but more interestingly because Obi-Wan shows him empathy, his self loathing wants him to be punished, but he sees that down this path lies redemption, but that means he would have to live with everything he's done, including the murder of his own wife.

Low Points : But a vision where Vader sees himself striking down Palpatine? We've seen this trope so often, and it's just not that interesting. While as addressed above, it's interesting to see where Vader's self loathing leads him, that he can't reverse the path he's taken as that would be to take responsibility for what he's done. But the concept itself just feels so worn out and done to death.

So what do you really think ? : So Vader goes to Mustafar and bleeds his crystal, and that's it. There's not much in here except the vision, it really feels short and bereft of any interesting ideas. The appearance of Tarkin maybe means we're going to get some interesting stuff showing Vader and Tarkins relationship before the Death Star, but that is for later if it happens.

Final Words : The issue is just so brief that there's nothing much to like or hate in here, it's just done with what it has to say. I wondered when Palpatine tells Vader there is something dark under Mustafar if it was going to be the Eye of Webbish Mog, who turns up in the caves beneath Mustafar in the later Darth Vader series, but it turns out to just be a piece of rock. An evil piece of rock, but a piece of rock none-the-less, so not really the most interesting concept to be introduced to drive the story forward.

Score : 7/10

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