Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader's Castle #1 (Family Comic Friday)

After a terrifying trip through the Dark Side of the Force, Family Comic Friday is daring to Return to Vader’s Castle for more chills set in a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader’s Castle #1
Written by Cavan Scott
Art by Francesco Francavilla and Megan Levins
Published by IDW Publishing
Retail: $3.99

Last year, IDW Publishing took Star Wars fans on a frightening 5-week long countdown to Halloween in the pages of Tales From Vader’s Castle. When I reviewed that book, I predicted that we would see another round of scares this Halloween- and I was right!

Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader’s Castle #1 kicks off a 4-week miniseries that is already slaying it’s predecessor in terms of quality. My big issue with last year’s event was that Vader’s Castle was lacking a proper horror host to tie in the ominous presence of the Sith Lord’s inner sanctum with the spooky stories being recalled.

In this series we finally have a host in the form of Darth Vader’s personal caretaker, Vanee. This character has all of the make-up of a great host of a horror comic. He is really  eerie; possibly deranged. Vanee is also quite ghoulish, and most importantly, he’s a good storyteller!

Of course, the story is actually crafted by Cavan Scott. The main writer from Star Wars Adventures, Cavan Scott really seems to live and breathe Star Wars. That makes him the perfect choice to craft these legends of Lucasfilm!

Once again, the stories aren’t terrifying to the point that young readers can’t enjoy them. The first story, which guest stars Darth Maul, is about as chilling as that scene in Empire where Luke must go into that tree on Dagobah to face the Dark Side of the Force. If your child can tolerate that segment, they’ll get a thrill out of this series.

If you have a young reader who loves to be a little scared during Halloween and loves Star Wars, then Return to Vader’s Castle is the perfect start to get them in the All Hallow’s Eve spirit! Thanks to writer Cavan Scott and Jughead: The Hunger’s Francesco Francavilla and Megan Levens (Spider-Gwen), Star Wars fans of all ages will be in for a treat!

Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader’s Castle #1 is currently available in print and digital formats. Issues #2 debuts on Wednesday, October 9th.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

This review was originally published on October 4, 2019 via Outrightgeekery.com.

Lego Star Wars: Darth Maul's Mission (Family Comic Friday)

Yes- this is a children’s book! It’s either completely wayyyyyyy too young for me or I’m wayyyyyyy too old for it.

  Whichever.

  So, why did I check it out and read it? Well, it was placed in the New Arrival Kids Graphic

Novel shelf at my library. I had recently watched the Freemakers Lego Star Specials Cartoon Network and while geared for kids, I did find them very funny. That explains the Lego Star Wars part, but why is a 38-year old husband trolling the kids section. Over the years, I’ve been working on building up the graphic novel sections (in 13 years, it’s gone from 1 shelf to over a dozen, plus a kids and young adult section.) It doesn’t help that the librarians at my local branches don’t really know what’s appropriate for kids and what’s not. I mean, I found Watchmen in Young Adult once and Death: High Cost of Living in the kids section!

   Anyway, the book wasn’t a comic book or graphic novel by any stretch of the imagination. It needs to be shelved in young readers for sure. Even though the characters used word bubbles to speak, there isn’t any sequential action indicative of the comics medium.

  It’s a children’s book, through and through. Though, there are plot holes as the action goes from Naboo to Tattooine to a dance party on said desert planet and back to Naboo with no answer as to why Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan make the interplanetary u-turn in the first place. Talk about your suspensions of disbelief!

  Parents, expect many laughs and probably even more questions when reading this as a bedtime story.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Volume 8: The Sith Hunters

Last season on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, it was revealed that Darth Maul survived being cut in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi at the end of Phantom Menace. Now, I’m not really keen on this idea. I think the dead should stay dead, especially in Star Wars. We’ve already had the Emperor returned to life (by form of clone inhibition) in at least 2 Star Wars comic books. So, having Darth Maul pop up again really seems to make the Star Wars universe like a comic book or soap opera, where nobody stays dead.

Also, it takes a really cool scene in an otherwise lame movie and diminishes it’s effect.

So, in this issue, we see what happens to Darth Maul after being sliced in half and we learn a little of both Maul and his brother, Opress’s motivations. Sadly, it does little to win me over either as it seems like Opress is more vengeful and Maul is now an opportunist.

It’s really making me wonder in last season’s return of the dark lord has caused Star Wars: The Clone Wars to jump the shark.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.