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Darth Vader (2017) 24: Fortress Vader: Part 6

What is it ? : The gateway opening causes Lava eruptions and lightning, a blast of which hit Vader launching him from the cavern. The Imperial forces are about to retreat under the assault of the Mustafarians and their Lava Fleas, but Vader rallies their forces and they charge back into combat.
But the Mustafarians call on the blood of Mustafar, and the lava sweeps over the ground around Fortress Vader, killing the imperial forces and destroying their walkers. Vader shields himself using the Force, but his armour and cape is beginning to burn, so he manipulates the severed head of an AT-AT into position and launches himself out of the Lava, climbing up the beach much as he did as Anakin, with his armour still burning.
He marches into the cave as the Mustafarians race forward to destroy him and Fortress Vader, but he uses the force within the cave to cause another eruption, destroying the Mustafarian forces. Momin emerges from the shadows, thanking Vader for saving the Fortress, one of his finest works. But Vader responds that he'd warned Momin of the consequences of betrayal, and Momin attacks wielding two Lightsabers.
As they fight Momin points out that Vader is damaged, his servos are grinding, and that as Vader saw Momin's memories, he saw Vaders and knows that he believes he is the Chosen One, that the Dark Side serves him. But asks if that is so, why is Vader a charred stub of meat in a cape, and moreso if the force serves him, why is his wife dead.
Momin explains that he thinks they serve the Dark Side, glorifying it with their acts, and that Empires have come and gone since his time, but he prevails because he serves the Dark Side, but if you try to control it, well just look at Vader, as he severs one of Vaders arms.
Vader questions him whether he lied about what lies beyond the gateway, and Momin tells him no, but Vader will not pass through it as the Dark Side would not permit it, as he has been badly taught about the Force, and it saddens him to see the Sith as Jedi obsessed weaklings. But Vader uses the force to smash him with one of the massive rune covered stones that fill the cave. Momin claims Vader isn't powerful enough to hold him, but Vader presses down with the stone, and with a crunch it kills Momin, his helmet falling free from his pulped body.
The Fortress flares with energy, it's runes illuminating the sky, and Vader strides through the gateway, saying that his destiny is his own. . . .

High Points : I know it's just dialogue, but Momin gets a good speech, but even among all the pages of monologuing he gets, I do adore his question asking Vader that if he is the chosen one and controls the Dark Side, why is Vader a charred stub of meat in a cape. It's a brutal insult to Vader, and given Momin just caused Vader to have to climb out of the Lava up a beach once again is particularly cutting.
And while I don't find much of Momin's monologue to be particularly convincing, it is at least interesting, that he believes that the Sith serve the Dark Side and not control it. This does of course reflects on the voice of the Dark Side he hears is probably his own insanity, as he was skinning animals and making balloon animals of their intestines long before he became a Sith. And the difference between the Sith and the Jedi has always been that the Sith force the Force, where the Jedi go with it's flow, the will of the force as they say. But this makes Momin more interesting, because for all his words about the Jedi, he seems to follow their idea of going along with what the Force wants, it's just his idea of what the Force wants is bad stuff.

Low Points : The Mustafarians being a challenge to the might of the Empire still annoys me, that the Empire is considering running away from these guys in armour, riding bugs, carrying blasters, against the AT-AT walkers, and control of the sky the Empire has with a Star Destroyer overhead. But all of this doesn't matter, as the Mustafarians have magic powers to cause Lava eruptions, which kill all the Imperial forces, and then Vader causes another eruption which kills all the Mustafarian forces, so it is all resolved in two pages as everyone burns in Lava.

So what do you really think ? : For a character I could never take serious because of his name being so close to the Moomin's, Momin himself turned out to be an interesting character. His beliefs in the Force and the Dark Side makes him very different from anyone else Vader has faced, and I find myself wanting to have seen more of him. Not saying he can't turn up again, the helmet with his mind in it seems to have survived, but this was his big chance since he'd retrieved his own body, and that happening again would stretch credibility beyond what Star Wars usually stretches it. All in all a really enjoyable issue.

Final Words : So one issue to go, with Vader entering the realm beyond the Gateway, where the dead seem to exist. Momin retrieved his own body from the Gateway, can Vader retrieve Amidala, we assume not, but how he fails could be very interesting indeed, especially to finish off this series. It really seems to be prepared to go out on a high.

Score : 8.5/10

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