Though the primary face of Star Wars is the movies and Disney+ TV shows, there are a ton of interesting stories going on in other media. The High Republic setting is providing a lot of cool new characters, various video games are exploring fresh parts of the universe, and the ongoing Marvel comics series are filling in what happened off screen during the Original Trilogy.
So far, the comics have shown us Luke attempting to retrieve Anakin’s lost blue lightsaber, Padme’s surviving handmaidens protecting her tomb, and now we know that in the months between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader rode a giant space octopus into battle against Palpatine on Exegol. Seriously.
Greg Pak’s upcoming Star Wars: Darth Vader #11 has shown Vader riding the creature (known as a Summa-verminoth) to Exegol, where he attempts to get Palpatine to spill the beans about his children and past. And you can check out the preview below to see how it goes down.
Palpatine shouldn’t be too surprised that his former apprentice is attacking him, as this is a classic Sith move – though he probably didn’t expect him to do it in such grandiose fashion. Still, it seems that the big bad is making short work of the octopus and we’ve seen that the pair are back on speaking terms by the time of Return of the Jedi. But while the Emperor may come out on top here, we know he’s got a date with a reactor core just around the corner.
At some point, the writers are going to run out of events to crowbar in between the films, but for now, I’m simply happy that Disney and Lucasfilm are prepared to let their comics get much weirder than their movies could ever be.
Star Wars: Darth Vader #11 hits stands on April 28th, 2021.