Ricky Church reviews Star Wars Adventures: Tales from Vader’s Castle #1…
With Halloween coming up on us, IDW has taken Star Wars somewhere it has rarely gone before: the horror genre. Star Wars Adventures: Tales from Vader’s Castle #1 tells a light horror story on – appropriately enough – the Ghost while another unlucky crew stumbles upon Mustafar and the castle of a certain Dark Lord. It’s a fun issue that manages to mix together Star Wars‘ classic sci-fi aspects with some common horror tropes fairly well.
Writer Cavin Scott depicts a good take on Hera and Kanan as Chopper is possessed by a spirit out for revenge against the Jedi. It’s a fun little story that captures their personalities well enough and puts the characters in interesting situations that are classic to a horror film. From the bay doors opening up to suck them into space or Kanan suddenly getting locked in a room, the issue had all the elements of a regular ghost story.
However, Scott also focuses more on the least interesting story of the two. The adventure Hera, Kanan and Chopper go through is recounted through a droid who knew Chopper while his crew crash lands on Mustafar and traverse the planet. Unluckily for them, though, they start making their way to Darth Vader’s infamous castle from Rogue One, which can only end in bad news for them. It’s definitely more intriguing than the events on the Ghost, but Scott doesn’t realize the potential of their story just yet. With the cliffhanger ending that they plan to head directly to the castle, it has the earmarks of a classic slasher film in the future issues.
The art is divided by Derek Charm, who focuses on the Mustafar sequences, and Chris Fenoglio, who focuses on the Ghost. Both artists do well in the Star Wars universe, particularly Fenoglio as he captures Hera and Kanan’s characteristics through his use of facial expressions and body language. Charm doesn’t get too much to do compared to Fenoglio, but his rendition of Mustafar is spot on and his character designs give some nice detail to this new group. One thing that isn’t immediately noticeable is how their droid is a mismatch of different types of droids, giving it a very unique look.
Star Wars Adventures: Tales from Vader’s Castle #1 is a fun issue that blends the sci-fi and horror genres well. It will be interesting to see how Scott manages to play around with other horror tropes as the mini-series goes on, but so far it offers a different look at the galaxy far, far away.
Rating: 7/10
Ricky Church
