"Darth Vader #16: War of the Bounty Hunters: Target Skywalker" by Greg Pak

"Darth Vader #16: War of the Bounty Hunters: Target Skywalker" written by Greg Pak, illustrated by Raffaele Ienco, Jason Keith, and Rachelle Rosenberg

Well, this was another weird one. Looks like this current Vader run is still going down the path of wacky and I'm not the biggest fan. I'm certainly not a fan at all of the way Vader is thinking about Luke. It all just completely negates what Vader went through in the beginning of this run!! Ugh. 

We do get a lot more Sly Moore action which is fun, but I don't see the woman lasting all that much longer now that she's full on trying to take out Vader without any pretense. Sly is out for blood! She claims it's because her loyalty lies with the Empire and the Emperor and Vader is a weak link, but I think she just doesn't like the dark lord. I mean, she's Force sensitive, too, but doesn't get ANY special treatment at all...I would also be pissed. As she puts it to Ochi, after stabbing him (see below), "Now, in your fear, you will return to your true master...humbled. Like me. Just another servant in his shadow."

We start with Vader's thoughts about Luke (the ones that irritate the heck out of me): "Luke. My son. You yearn...for a father. But you will not find him in me. So you cling to your friends. As if you want to disappear in their company. As if you could snuff out the Force within you...that still fills you with so much fear. But none of us can escape who we are. So if you refuse my offer...you will end up more lost than you can ever imagine." Actually, I don't even understand some of the logic behind these thoughts. I don't think Luke is afraid of the Force at all. He might be afraid of becoming like Vader, but that's something else entirely. I certainly don't think Luke will end up feeling lost if he keeps refusing Vader's offer to join him. I don't know. It all just seems non-sensical for Vader to think these things. Plus, Vader was SO close to realizing his soft spot for his son at the beginning of this series run and now it's like he's out to get the man. As I said above, it's weird and wacky and I'm not a fan.

Then we get to the point in the story we've already seen where Vader threatens Luke by saying he'll cut carbonite-encased Han in half if Luke doesn't face him. Luke, of course, veers away from the Vermillion (Crimson Dawn's flagship) in his X-wing, with the intention of leading Vader away from his friends. It works, too. Vader is in hot pursuit of his son via TIE-fighter and in the fracas, Luke gets shot down. He crashes on the planet below with Vader still coming for him. But then Sly Moore sics the Droid Crush (the droid gang that IG-88 is a member of as noted in "Darth Vader #13") on Vader's TIE and what a sight it is to behold (see below). The droids even fly down to Luke's crashed X-wing and fix it, riding atop it as Luke flies back up toward Vader, attacking the TIE. So strange.

I really, truly hope that the future of this series levels out and starts to make some sense. *sigh*