"Darth Vader #20--Crimson Reign: Queen's Shadow Returns" by Greg Pak

"Darth Vader #20--Crimson Reign: Queen's Shadow Returns" written by Greg Pak, illustrated by Raffaele Ienco and Alex Sinclair

I LOVED this issue!! It was ALL OVER the place, but in the best of ways. Everything shown and addressed was relevant to the characters and plot so it was totally fine that I as the reader was bounced back and forth and all around. It was like a super enjoyable roller coaster ride! 

I will admit though that I'm a little confused...okay...a lot confused about the timing of everything taking place. In this issue, Ochi is with Vader the whole time except the very end--when does he go off on his own to do his Crimson Dawn business?? Did he kill the Royal Guards before or after this issue? It's especially confusing because there are Royal Guards in this issue...and Vader kills them. So are we to assume that Ochi killed the earlier batch of Royal Guards and just as a new batch came along, Vader killed all of them? Or is there just a legion of Royal Guards to choose from? Palpatine doesn't reference the mass die off brought on by Ochi so I just don't know. 

We start out with Sabe getting CRAZY close to discovering that Anakin and Darth Vader are one and the same. I would have been beyond over the moon if that had happened, but what she does discover is still juicy. 1) Padme had a son. 2) The father of her son was Anakin (see below). 3) Her son is Luke Skywalker, the Rebel who blew up the first Death Star (see below). I mean these are earth-shattering revelations and she clearly exhibits her surprise to the droid (Remember Vader's old droid Z-67?!? The one who went with him on his mission to discover what actually happened to Padme??) who relays these realities to her, both in her face and words. It will be so fascinating to see how she takes and uses these secrets... We also learn Sabe's motivations for joining Crimson Dawn--it's a little more convoluted than I had expected: "When I learned Vader was hunting them...it seemed that my best chance of finding him would be to join them." So, in other words, she's taking advantage of the criminal syndicate to help her own personal mission. 

Fast forward 3 weeks, and we find ourselves at the Crimson Dawn sub-headquarters on Laecor in the Outer Rim. Sabe is standing in a room full of computer terminals as Vader bursts through the wall (see below), Ochi in tow. Sabe manages to escape, but not before she gets a chance to plant a list of "Crimson Dawn operatives" on Vader's Imperial shuttle. Only about half of the people listed are actually working for Crimson Dawn, thus revealing to Vader that someone planted the list. Vader's next mission? Find out who planted it...dun, dun, dun!!!

As for the people who meet their end, there's a bunch of Royal Guards, a bunch of Palpatine's courtiers, Baron Espis Zanchal, and the Baron's security forces. All during the massacre in Palpatine's throne room, the Emperor is just sitting back, amused--taking it all in without comment until, "Perhaps you should have kept one alive for questioning." Fair point, lol. And in regards to Baron Zanchal, regardless of his not actually being affiliated with Crimson Dawn, he appears to be one nasty man--has human prisoners and a captive Narglatch. So I think the Revengers (or "Heroes" as Ochi refers to them) are quite fine with their given target despite him not actually being part of Crimson Dawn. The Assassins get tasked with taking out an Imperial officer in a hangar bay on the Executor...and they take out him along with a whole host of stormtroopers. All three sites are scenes of massacres...and remember, the list of Crimson Dawn operatives was flawed so at least half of the murdered people were loyal Imperials!!! Vader doesn't seem to care one wit though. He sees himself as eliminating chaos, including Crimson Dawn, but not just Crimson Dawn.

Lastly, we see Ochi and Sly Moore meeting in a very normal, traditional-looking tower that functions as a house (see below). Sly is even sitting in a typical armchair. Because of the normality, I find it all incredibly strange. It just doesn't look right amid the usual Star Wars fare. Ochi and Sly are talking about the list and who its real creator might be when Sabe and Z-67 show up out of nowhere, making themselves known by Z-67 electrocuting the tar out of Ochi and Sly (see below). She says she's their new handler and they'll do what she says or she'll make a new and real list with their names at the top...such a bada**!!! 

I CANNOT wait to see what's up this bisexual queen's sleeve!!! (Link is to my Aphra's Artifacts video all about Sabe!!)