A review by revengelyne
Star Wars: Darth Vader, Volume 4: End of Games by Kieron Gillen

5.0

Real Rating: 4.5

This books ends with the last several issues of the comic series, Darth Vader.

The droids, Triple Zero and Beetee, have been sent out to capture Doctor Aphra. Once she is captured, she decides it is time to tell exactly what Vader has been secretly doing behind the back of the Emperor.

Vader returns to Palpatine and learns the reason behind everything. As a Master/Apprentice, Palpatine wanted to make sure that he had chosen the right person to turn to the Dark Side of the Force. He believed that by orchestrating all of this, he believed by teaching Vader that Vader would not disappoint him in the least. Of course, Vader delivers and Palpatine believes he has become what he has desired in an Apprentice.

Cylo has escaped and Palpatine sends Vader once more out on the mission to destroy him. Vader does exactly what he was told to do and destroys Cylo completely but not without complications. Vader is captured and deactivated.

Or at least what Cylo believes Vader to be. Unfortunately while "deactivated", the Sith inside him destroys any remains of his humanity before regaining control to destroy Cylo.

When Vader returns he finds that Alphra has made the Emperor's acquaintance and this displeases Vader immensely because he does not want the Emperor to know of his side plan to find Luke. Of course Alphra does not tell and the Emperor is even more proud of Vader building up his own army, but Vader is still displeased by this act of betrayal. He has her follow him where she tells him that she did not tell the Emperor of his little side job of trying to find Skywalker. Still, Vader is displeased that he pushes Aphra into an airlock and sets her out into space.

Think that was the end of Aphra? Think again. She is rescued by the two homicidal droids and the Wookie Bounty Hunter.

As for Vader, he goes to Tatooine and while waiting for two Bounty Hunters, he destroys an entire village of Tusken Raiders....or he so thoughts..?

This was the perfect ending to the series. It was nice to see the change in Vader between Episodes IV and V. To see him destroy the last remanents of his humanity was interesting. I never thought he would resort to something like that but maybe he didn't entirely kill it off as it does appear once more in Episode VI. Maybe at the moment, he thought he had but those moments with Luke might have brought that part of him rearing back to life. I would love to see this series continue inbetween Episode V and VI. It would be interesting to see what exactly he was doing there too.