Following up on last issue’s mic drop, Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca show no signs of slowing down or lessening the quality of this great book with the release of Darth Vader #10 today.

Darth Vader #10 is the issue that really lets Dr. Aphra shine. Readers have certainly gotten to know her for the last six or so issues but this is the one where it really made sense to me why she is the way she is. Or, in other words, why she continues to work for Vader. We’ve known that her character was grounded in the idea of a darker version of Indiana Jones but never has it been more evident than here. Not only do we get some of her backstory but we get a little more clarity into how she views the galaxy. Her conversation with Than is absolutely fascinating. My only question is how Commodex Than knows everything that he knows. (It’ll make more sense when you read the issue.)

Larroca clearly had a ton of fun with getting to design a Naboo house and it makes me wish we could see more of the planet more often. My only artistic complaint is that there’s one really weird panel with Aphra’s butt that just looks… odd and unnecessary? Oh. And I’m pretty sure that taking selfies is canon in Star Wars now unless I interpreted a panel completely wrong. So that’s cool. (Not a complaint, just a comment!)

The issue isn’t all Aphra though. Inspector Thanoth is going to be a problem and that in turn is going to be a problem for him. Just wait… I can feel it.

Gillen and Larroca continue to knock it out of the park and #10 gets a very strong recommendation from me this week.