Vader: Dark Visions #3: "Tall, Dark and Handsome" by Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum
Vader: Dark Visions #3: "Tall, Dark and Handsome" written by Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum, illustrated by David Lopez, Javi Pina, and Muntsa Vicente
So this was quite a controversial issue and for good reason. I was predisposed to have some concerns based on what I saw on Twitter and they were definitely founded. This comic included overly obsessive behavior by a woman and abusive behavior toward a woman. Neither of which helps women get ahead in this day and age. I do have some thoughts and analyses of my own though...
Synopsis: A nurse on the Death Star works for a doctor who frequently performs surgeries on Darth Vader. She is undeniably in obsessive love with the dark lord and meets her demise when she takes one step too far.
At first, the main character started off like, and I mean absolutely no disrespect here--I'm just remembering the way I wrote in my diary back in those days, a middle school girl obsessing over a crush. It was kind of cute but in a really awkward way. Even the font of the narrative text was very middle school girlish which I thought was in very poor taste for the main character being in actuality a grown woman.
Then it just got super creepy--she was keeping bits and pieces of Vader including what appeared to be a vial of his blood in a box in her room!!
I'm going to give away the ending here because, well, you may have already seen the ending on Twitter or elsewhere, but Vader kills the woman. And honestly, it was in a situation that made perfect sense to me. She saw him without his helmet on...she saw his face beneath the mask. And as soon as she did, she started telling him how beautiful he was and how they could finally be together forever... If I was Vader, I wouldn't want to hear anything of the sort unless it was coming from Padme. And this woman is most definitely not Padme! So, he kills her without a second thought. I don't blame the guy from a Vader perspective at least. It was such an incredibly odd scenario in the first place.
But as a whole, I have to say this issue did put women in a bad light. It makes it appear that all women (since we don't really see many at all in the Empire) are crazy and obsessive over their crushes. Which is absolutely not the case! I'm not sure I agree with the take though that this was written about fans who appreciate Kylo Ren...I think that's stretching the message a bit far. I'm thinking it was supposed to be an odd perspective on Vader that just came across very poorly. I certainly won't be supporting this issue in the series, but I'm not going to give it more credit than it deserves either.
Of course, there's also the verbally abusive doctor who the nurse works for! He constantly calls her stupid and treats her like trash. Not the way I want women to be portrayed in the workplace...
There were some interesting visuals though. First we get the nurse staring off at Vader with goo-goo-ga-ga eyes and it's very reminiscent of that middle school girl aesthetic (see below along with the narrative font).
Then there was a dream image of her dancing with Vader at their wedding and the image was split with the actual her being robed in a wedding dress and her reflection on the floor being her in her normal Imperial scientist get up (see below).
We experience another dream where she's running to Vader's rescue on what just happens to be the planet Mimban--you can tell because of the native Mimbanese lying dead on the ground--which I thought was very interesting (see below).
And lastly, there's a final dream sequence whereby she and Vader are both standing cloaked in black appearing ominous and Sith-y with the nurse threatening the doctor who she serves under and who treats her so badly (see below).
At least there were some interesting visuals because the story itself was sorely lacking in substance and seemed overly trite and offensive from many different perspectives. Personally, I think Vader: Dark Visions #2 was the best of the 3 so far with an amazing design layout and a fairly humorous story. Here's hoping #4 will be a huge step up from what we got in this #3.
Synopsis: A nurse on the Death Star works for a doctor who frequently performs surgeries on Darth Vader. She is undeniably in obsessive love with the dark lord and meets her demise when she takes one step too far.
At first, the main character started off like, and I mean absolutely no disrespect here--I'm just remembering the way I wrote in my diary back in those days, a middle school girl obsessing over a crush. It was kind of cute but in a really awkward way. Even the font of the narrative text was very middle school girlish which I thought was in very poor taste for the main character being in actuality a grown woman.
Then it just got super creepy--she was keeping bits and pieces of Vader including what appeared to be a vial of his blood in a box in her room!!
I'm going to give away the ending here because, well, you may have already seen the ending on Twitter or elsewhere, but Vader kills the woman. And honestly, it was in a situation that made perfect sense to me. She saw him without his helmet on...she saw his face beneath the mask. And as soon as she did, she started telling him how beautiful he was and how they could finally be together forever... If I was Vader, I wouldn't want to hear anything of the sort unless it was coming from Padme. And this woman is most definitely not Padme! So, he kills her without a second thought. I don't blame the guy from a Vader perspective at least. It was such an incredibly odd scenario in the first place.
But as a whole, I have to say this issue did put women in a bad light. It makes it appear that all women (since we don't really see many at all in the Empire) are crazy and obsessive over their crushes. Which is absolutely not the case! I'm not sure I agree with the take though that this was written about fans who appreciate Kylo Ren...I think that's stretching the message a bit far. I'm thinking it was supposed to be an odd perspective on Vader that just came across very poorly. I certainly won't be supporting this issue in the series, but I'm not going to give it more credit than it deserves either.
Of course, there's also the verbally abusive doctor who the nurse works for! He constantly calls her stupid and treats her like trash. Not the way I want women to be portrayed in the workplace...
There were some interesting visuals though. First we get the nurse staring off at Vader with goo-goo-ga-ga eyes and it's very reminiscent of that middle school girl aesthetic (see below along with the narrative font).
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