While we also get the start of a new fight with Vader and the two subordinates of Cylo's, that's more setup for what's to come next time around – as wonderfully illustrated and laid out as it is. This issue keeps the events of Shu-Torun moving forward well and I like that this detour is giving us a look at how a particular planet and its uniqueness is being handled while also show just how involved Vader will get from time to time in such things. There's always been more a sense of a hands off and implied threat through the original movies, so seeing him digging into it and doing the dirty work as necessary really is great. It makes his time in A New Hope all the more interesting under Tarkin's leash and wondering just how controlled he was – and what Tarkin had him doing. Read Full Review

This series has been great about showcasing the full range of Vader's Dark Side powers. That, in turn, requires Kieron Gillen to conjure up some truly awesome threats to properly challenge the Dark Lord of the Sith. This current story arc has been especially successful in that regard. Read Full Review

Scene settings, sounds, droid speak and hologram transmissions (the same font), and dialogue are created Joe Caramagna of VC. I'm pleased to see that droid dialogue is different from the sentients' speech, though I did wish it were in a font that wasn't the same as the one employed for hologram transmissions: they sound different in the films, so they should be differently constructed in the comics. The dialogue continues to be too svelte for the characters, rendering their speech wispy, and that's unbecoming of a Sith. Read Full Review

The “Shu-Torun War” arc of DARTH VADER has been solid so far, and this issue definitely takes the story to new heights. It has its problems to be sure, but Gillen has done a great job of finding this arc's strengths and highlighting them. Unfortunately, the art of Salvador Larroca holds this issue back. It may do Marvel well to give Larroca a break from this series to recharge his batteries. Fans of this series have a lot to look forward to, though, as next issue looks to be explosive. Read Full Review

Next month's installment looks to finally deliver on a long promised showdown, but first you'll have to get through a bit of a lull in the form of Darth Vader #18. Read Full Review

The series as a whole can be read as a validation of Vader's view over and against those of his rivals. The reader, having knowledge of the films, is assured from the start that Vader perseveres over the likes of Karbin and the Astarte twins. That he wins in battle against them is therefore of less importance to the dramatic than that he wins the argument. The fact that he remains Palpatine's apprentice by the start of Episode IV indicates he will have proven to his master the superiority one in a mystic relationship to the Force than those with a more reductive, materialist conception of the universe. Read Full Review

A little too much dialogue and not enough action. The ending is a pretty cool reveal as this arc should come to a fierce close but this issue is the calm before the storm.

Book seems to be going downhill