Because I fondly remember the old original Marvel ones, I'm usually up for a
Star Wars Annual, but I think I was disappointed this one didn't go as far into what it promised. From 2018,
Star Wars Annual #4, written by Cullen Bunn, pencils by Ario Anindito, Roland Boschi, and Marc Laming.
Recurring troublemaker smuggler
Sana Starros isn't visiting fringe world Hradreek for the podracing, but to unload a Sith artifact, the lightsaber of
Darth Atrius...hey, where's the other one? They were supposed to be a set! That's like buying a TV and somebody sold the remote separately! The crime boss buying the saber is less mad, than furiously unhinged, apparently by the lightsaber, as he starts hacking up his own men to set at Sana. Elsewhere, an Imperial officer is practically giddy at delivering the lightsaber of Darth Atrius to Lord Vader, who is more coldly furious, as usual. Which isn't really fair to the officer; Sith stuff was secret, there wasn't an in-universe wiki for him to look up
Darth Atrius!
Luke Skywalker and Artoo were also on Hradreek, since the Rebels were collecting or skimming a piece of gambling percentages for funding. Luke's contact suggests he could double or triple those credits with some betting, but Luke's not the type for that, which is probably why it's him making the pickup. He senses something amiss in the Force, and finds the lightsaber; after the crime boss and his men had murdered each other, right when the stormtroopers show up. Using the Sith saber, Luke chops them into mulch; while nearby Vader does the same to some
Aqualish Sana talked into covering her escape. Luke comes out of it afterwards, possibly when Artoo asks him something like "where'd you go, psycho boy?" They both get caught in an explosion Sana sets to try and delay Vader, and Sana helps herself to Luke's dropped credits.
Separated from Artoo and chased by stormtroopers, Luke is forced to "do something really stupid..." even by his standards: steal a podracer! Which may have been a little faster than he was expecting. Sana misses betting on Luke's race, but does catch Artoo sneaking up on her and kicks him over. Boo! But the little droid pulled the old spilled lubricant trick, and steals back the credits. (Or maybe steals her credits? Whatever, Artoo grabs something.)
Meanwhile, the podrace should be declared force majeure, as Vader uses the Force to disable Luke's pod. (The announcers note humans were not typically equipped for the sport, and had never won a major circuit race...although there were stories from the sticks. I would've thought the Boonta Eve Classic would've been on ESPN 8 or something...)
Luke is pretty angry, but not from the crash, from Atrius's saber, which Luke destroys before Artoo picks him up. Similarly, Vader destroys the other; and Sana gets while the getting is good, to pawn off more artifacts.
This kinda felt like it was trying to do a couple things at once, which didn't leave enough room for either: do the gambling/podracing story first, then the cursed lightsabers one. Also, why did Vader destroy the second lightsaber? Was it affecting him and he didn't like it, or mad the set was broken up? Every once in a while in the Dark Horse stories, Vader seemed to sandbag a bit to keep the Emperor from becoming too powerful, that could've been it.
Probably for both those reasons, as possibly the other lightsaber balanced out the other one from taking over the owner. Sounds as good enough explanation as anything. The question is, wouldn't the Emperor know about them & that Vader was going out to collect them? Surely he would've felt their power & influence within the force? How does Vader explain having nothing to show for it now?
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