I’d ask you to guess what comic is out today but given the title of this review, you already know that Darth Vader #8 by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca is in comic stores everywhere now. We now return to our adventure show about a Sith Lord, an archaeologist, and two murderous droids.

The fun thing about this issue is that it’s definitely Aphra heavy and given that she’s been one of the best parts of this book that is a-okay by me. It takes until about halfway through the issue for Vader to show up. Again, this is not a problem which is a testament to what a strong supporting cast Gillen has built up in only a few issues. We are, however, getting to the point where I ask myself, “What exactly are Aphra’s motivations for continuing to work for Vader besides not wanting to, y’know, die?” She seems to be enjoying herself but this latest mission seems a little more out of her wheelhouse.

One of the neat things that this book has been doing is showing that Vader does still share that mind for strategy that Anakin Skywalker but that he still can’t beat a true master. He tries to be careful but he’s not perfect. This book has done a fantastic job at really integrating those last remnants of Anakin into Vader without sacrificing anything in terms of showing the Vader that we first met in the Original Trilogy.

Nothing much to say about the art this week. Larroca continues to do a fantastic job and is clearly having fun with character design. No wait, I’m sorry. I lied. I do have to point out that I appreciate the efforts towards diversity that the comics are making. It would have been very easy to make this new Inspector another white male and instead, we get an older black man so kudos to Larroca for that decision. I do miss the Adi Granov covers though.

Do we even need to say it? Darth Vader #8 gets out recommendation again this month.