Description

Star Wars: Target Vader                                    Trade Paperback
Writer: Robbie Thompson
Artists: Cris Bolson, Georges Duarte, Marco Failla, Marc Laming, Robert Di Salvo & Stefano Landini
Colorists: Andres Mossa, Federico Blee, Erick Archinega, Giada Marchisio, Neeraj Menon & Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterers: Joe Caramagna & VC’s Clayton Cowles
Editors: Caitlin O’Connell, Jennifer Grunwald, Kateri Woody, Mark D. Beazley, Mark Paniccia, Robert Simpson & Tom Groneman
Cover by: Nic Klein

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise centered on a film series created by George Lucas.  The film series began with Star Wars, released on May 25, 1977. This was followed by two sequels: The Empire Strikes Back, released on May 21, 1980, and Return of the Jedi, released on May 25, 1983. The more than two decades after the release of the original film, the series continued with a prequel trilogy; consisting of Episode I: The Phantom Menace, released on May 19, 1999; Episode II: Attack of the Clones, released on May 16, 2002; and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, released on May 19, 2005, Then Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released on December 18, 2015;  Star Wars: The Last Jedi was released on December 18, 2017. And Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was released on December 20, 2019.

Darth Vader vs. Bounty Hunters!

The Hunter! Darth Vader is on the hunt for a mysterious criminal syndicate operating outside of The Empire’s rule. But little does he know he’s being hunted by a group of the galaxy’s deadliest bounty hunters, hired by the syndicate to take out Vader once and for all. Led by fallen Imperial Officer Beilert Valance, this ragtag group of assassins will stop at nothing to kill the biggest bounty of their lives.

Now, Marvel Comics presents, Star Wars: Targeted Vader. Darth Vader is on the hunt for a mysterious criminal syndicate operating outside of the Empire’s rule. But little does he know that he too is being targeted – by a group of the galaxy’s deadliest bounty hunters, hired by the syndicate to take out Vader once and for all! Led by fallen Imperial Officer Beilert Valance, this ragtag group of assassins will stop at nothing to score the biggest bounty of their lives. Valance and Dengar seek out the perfect weapon to kill the Sith Lord…which they’ll need when Vader turns the tables and corners them! And both the hunters and the hunted will uncover dark secrets behind the criminal syndicate known only as the Hidden Hand!

Story/Spoilers
In part #1, “On the Hunt”, Darth Vader is the most dangerous being in the galaxy. With the entire military might of the Empire at his disposal and the dark side of the Force at his command, no foe can hope to challenge him and win. But someone has a score to settle with the Dark Lord. The hunt is on.

On Fikari, a group of Hidden Hand mercenaries discusses the recent killings of three clans at the hands of Darth Vader. One member, Uro, accepts the risk as part of the Hidden Hand’s secretive dealings, but another, Uro, believes Vader’s involvement to be the organization’s downfall. As they speak, Darth Vader himself stalks the group, silently dispatching all its members except for Holaq. Crushing Holaq’s blaster, Vader demands to know the location of the Hidden Hand, but Holaq claims to know nothing. Vader believes and kills him, then contacts Emperor Palpatine via hologram. Palpatine expresses his disappointment in another dead end, reaffirming the need to eradicate the Hidden Hand for selling weapons to the Rebel Alliance. Unbeknownst to either Sith Lord, a nearby Tarsunt eavesdrops on their conversation. On Coruscant, bounty hunter Xonr arrives at BG-RT’s Tavern and Spirits to find Beilert Valance slumped over at a table. Xonr sits down and points a blaster at Valance, intending to kill him for stealing five of his bounties in violation of the Bounty Hunter Code. Valance asks to finish his drink and points to several other Bounty Hunters’ Guild members already standing around him. Xonr questions why Valance would ever let himself be trapped so easily, but Valance replies that he lured the hunters in and kills him with a charge in his cybernetic hand, since the rules of their code “don’t apply to the dead.” Valance kills the other hunters in the bar before buying another drink. As Valance returns to his ship, the Broken Wing, he stops the Tarsunt following him. The alien reveals himself as Gwi, a messenger for the Hidden Hand, and offers to erase Valance’s debt in exchange for joining a team for a mission. Valance refuses, citing his personal rules about knowing his employers and working alone, but he is convinced when Gwi explains that their target is Darth Vader. Gwi introduces Valance to the team: Honnah, a Gamorrean tracker; Urrr’k, a sniper; Chio Fain, a “possibly insane” slicer; Arr-Nine-Nineteen, a droid who claimed to have hunted Jedi; and Dengar, whom Valance already knew. Citing his third personal rule against having droids, Valance destroys Arr-Nine and reveals him as a debtor being tracked by the Hutt Clan. With the team safe from rival syndicates, Valance rallies his team and sets off to kill Vader.

Next in part #2, “The Plan”, With the power of the dark side of the Force and the might of the Empire, Darth Vader is the most dangerous being in the galaxy. But he is not without his challengers. The cyborg Beilert Valance, along with fellow with bounty hunters Honnah, Urrr’k, Chio Fain and Dengar, have been contracted by the mysterious organization the Hidden Hand to achieve one goal: Kill Vader. But Vader’s also on the hunt for the Hidden Hand. And he’s picked up the bounty hunters’ trail….

Years before the hunt for Vader, a young Beilert Valance asks his father if he would be a miner on Chorin forever like he and his grandfather were. His father says he is proud of his work, but he adds that the Valance family had been miners for centuries as slaves before the Galactic Empire arrived and liberated them. Beilert was born a free man, and his father believed he belonged elsewhere. In the present day, Valance shoots down two TIE fighters in the Broken Wing. Dengar chastises him, but Chio Fain reassures him that the TIEs were just scouts, and Valance had a communications jammer. Landing on Arvina in the Outer Rim Territories, Valance orders Urrr’k to stay with the ship while he takes the rest of the crew to Fetya’s Hollow in search of weapons. Fetya greets them in her shop, and Valance explains that they were hired by the Hidden Hand. Fetya reveals her dealings with the group as well, pointing to a Rebel Alliance starbird left by one of the Hidden Hand’s buyers, but she denies any status as a “good guy” and surrounds the crew with hired guns. Before she can kill them, however, her shop is destroyed by a Star Destroyer overhead. Valance’s team escapes Fetya’s Hollow in a stolen troop transport, and he reveals that he never jammed the TIEs’ communications, rather amplified their signal with Hidden Hand call signs. As a result, Darth Vader himself arrives in his TIE fighter and prepares to shoot the crew down, but they escape aboard the Broken Wing into hyperspace. Once they exit, Chio Fain explains that he sliced into Fetya’s records and has a list of Hidden Hand outposts Vader will soon visit—outposts they can trap him at. Back on Arvina, Vader kills Fetya and her crew, and his stormtroopers secure her weapons supply. They also inform him that Valance has exited hyperspace, as they had received a transmission from an informant about where Valance is going.

Next in part #3, “The Trap”, With the power of the dark side of the Force and the might of the Empire, Darth Vader is the most dangerous being in the galaxy. But he is not without challengers. The cyborg Beilert Valance, along with fellow with bounty hunters Honnah, Urrr’k, Chio Fan and Dengar have been contracted by the mysterious organization the Hidden Hand to achieve one goal: Kill Vader. Vader will stop at nothing to crush the Hidden Hand and eliminate the bounty hunters on his trail. But he may have finally met his match in Valance, who has planned a deadly trap for the Dark Lord….

During a battle between the Galactic Empire and an insurgent force, a stormtrooper asks Beilert Valance if the extensive injuries he sustained during his service as a soldier were “worth it” as the insurgents surround them. Valance expresses content with his possible death because the Empire saved his family. Before Valance and his troops can be executed, Darth Vader arrives and kills the insurgents by use of the Force, ordering his troops to rejoin the battle. In the present, Valance and his team of bounty hunters land the Broken Wing on Heva. Chio Fain asks Valance about the electro-pulse he has, and Valance explains that since Vader is a cyborg, the pulse can deactivate his entire body on contact. Fain then asks Valance why he picked the Heva Hidden Hand outpost as their destination, and Valance presents a fleet of Bot-drones owned by Wef, an arms dealer working at the outpost. Wef explains to Honnah and Dengar that he planned to sell the weapons to someone named Rebak in the Rebel Alliance, and that he first came into contact with the Hidden Hand when they killed his clients and instead offered better deals through middlemen that all reminded him of bounty hunters. As the team approaches the outpost’s command center, Chio Fain begins to activate the bot-drones. Wef protests, but Valance points to the Star Destroyer Formidable in the sky. Darth Vader orders all of the Formidable’s fighters to be scrambled against the drones. Aboard the Broken Wing, Valance asks Urrr’k to man the turret, calling out her false identity as a Tusken and hoping that she could shoot cannons as well as rifles. In his fighter, Vader fires on the Broken Wing, ignoring the drones as they break away from the other TIE fighters. On Valance’s orders, the drones assemble into a giant cannon and destroy the Formidable. Vader, however, continues his chase and shoots down the Broken Wing. He lands and searches the ship himself but finds nobody inside. Outside the ship, the bounty hunter team stands ready to kill Vader, and Valance takes aim.

Next in part #4, “The Shot”, With the power of the dark side of the Force at his command and the might of the Empire to unleash, Darth Vader is the most dangerous being in the galaxy. But he is not without challengers. The cyborg Beilert Valance, along with fellow with bounty hunters Honnah, Urrr’k, Chio Fan and Dengar, have been contracted by the mysterious

organization the Hidden Hand to achieve one goal: Kill Vader. And Valance’s team has finally sprung their deadly trap for the dark lord….

An Imperial II-class Star Destroyer arrives above Heva, and its captain reports to General Gollin that the Formidable and its contingent of TIE fighters were destroyed by bot-drones, leaving Darth Vader alone on the surface. The captain suggests that their own fighters be scrambled to rescue Vader from the bounty hunters pursuing him, but Gollin believes that Vader will have killed the bounty hunters before the pilots can even take off. Down on Heva’s surface, Dengar urges Beilert Valance and the rest of their team to move in on Vader, but Valance and Chio Fain remind him not to reveal their positions. Vader attempts to conceal himself as well, using the Force to raise clouds of dust from the ground. Fain attacks him first with blasters, but Vader deflects the bolts with his lightsaber, striking Valance with a ricochet. Urrr’k rushes to help Valance, removing her Tusken Raider mask and revealing herself as a Human named Gita to him. Valance responds and says that the blast didn’t kill him, but that Vader would quickly kill Fain. Fain continued to attack Vader, but the Sith Lord cuts off three of the Ardennian’s arms and throws him in the path of Honnah’s Gamorrean battle-ax. As Fain dies, he remembers his partner Rone, whom Vader killed. Valance tells Gita to take her shot at Vader to distract him. As Vader uses the Force against Gita and kills Honnah, Valance rushes at him with an electro-pulse. However, he fails to activate the device in time, and Vader turns to face him. Valance is then electrocuted by Dengar, who reveals himself as Vader’s informant.

Next in part #5, “The Past”, With the power of the dark side of the Force at his command and the might of the Empire to unleash, Darth Vader is the most dangerous being in the galaxy. But he is not without challengers. The cyborg Beilert Valance, along with fellow with bounty hunters Honnah, Urrr’k, Chio Fan and Dengar, was contracted by the mysterious organization the Hidden Hand to achieve one goal: kill Vader. But Valance’s team has been wiped out by the Dark Lord, and Valance’s last shot to take him out with an EMP device fizzled…thanks to the betrayal of Dengar!

Years before the hunt for Vader, Beilert Valance prepares to leave Chorin and enlist in the Imperial Navy. His lover, Yuralla Vega, hands him a gemstone to remember their relationship by and tells him to be safe. Valance’s father reminds him that even though his path will be long and hard, it won’t surpass the challenges of mining on Chorin, and he should keep going. Valance does so and continues his career through the Carida Academy, his crash at the Battle of Howlan, and his time as a stormtrooper. Finally, during his participation in the Mimban campaign, Valance and his fellow swamp troopers are pinned down in a trench, unable to summon air support. While two troopers say the Empire doesn’t care about them, Valance refuses to let them die and leads them out of their trench to the rendezvous point. He is caught in an explosion and falls to the ground but uses his father’s words to tell his comrades to “keep going.” In the present, aboard the Star Destroyer Vengeance, Valance lies in a prison cell, continuously repeating the same mantra to the IT-O Interrogation Units around him. In the Vengeance’s hangar, Darth Vader questions Dengar about the Hidden Hand. Dengar says he revealed everything he knew, and that Valance wouldn’t give up any information at all. Vader allows Dengar to go, telling him he knew where to find him if the Galactic Empire needed him again. Returning to Valance’s cell, Vader activates a holo-map and asks what Valance sees on the map. The bounty hunter initially jokes that the map marked his favorite places to drink before explaining that it really marked Hidden Hand outposts Vader already eliminated. Vader presses on with his mind probe. Before, at an Imperial medical facility, Valance grows accustomed to the mechanical arms and legs that replaced those he lost on Mimban. His former instructor, Yurib Nakan, visits him and tells him of his discharge from the Empire, believing him to be lucky to go home unlike so many other Imperial soldiers. Valance returns to Chorin aboard a Zeta-class Heavy Cargo Shuttle and disembarks only to find his village in ruins. He apologizes to his father at his grave, and finds Yuralla, who explains that when the Empire expended their mines and left, raiders returned. Valance resolves to find the raiders and make them pay, leaving his people to stay safe in what remains of their village. Valance awakes and breaks off his left cybernetic arm to escape his interrogation chair. He takes one last look at the Hidden Hand holo-map by plugging himself into the system. He then dispatches his guards outside and uses their stormtrooper armor as a disguise. As he arrives in the hangar bay, he is surprised to find his ship, the Broken Wing, already there and repaired. Darth Vader confronts him and says that it is time he went home. Together they travel to Chorin and land at the site Valance first traveled to when searching for the raiders who destroyed his home. Valance admits that both he and the Empire abandoned Chorin and allowed the raiders to become the Hidden Hand. Vader tells him that the remainder of his people are safe for now and offers Valance a job with the Empire to ensure it. Valance travels to a secret rebel outpost (Lowik) on Lowik to find Gita, who had manage to escape from Vader, and Aeliar, her superior officer. Aeliar is shocked at how Valance found their base, but Valance simply explains that the Rebel Alliance needs weapons, he needs to destroy the Hidden Hand, and a location on the holo-map he connected to contains both.

Finally in part #6, “Free”, Cyborg Beilert Valance was once a loyal solider for the Empire. But he was abandoned by the military after suffering grievous injuries in battle. When he finally returned to his homeworld, Valance found the village had been decimated by raiders. The Empire had abandoned his people as well. Valance swore vengeance upon the raiders and the Imperials. When the mysterious Hidden Hand organization hired him alongside a team of bounty hunters to kill Darth Vader, he couldn’t say no. But Vader, also on the hunt for the Hidden Hand, wiped out the team and captured Valance. Despite gruesome torture at the hands of the dark lord, Valance refused to give up any intel about the shadowy organization and escaped. Vader had a proposition for Valance: help him destroy the Hidden Hand, and what remained of Valance’s people would be protected by the Empire. Now Valance finally has a chance for revenge if he can survive the Hidden Hand and Darth Vader….

After his time in the Galactic Empire, the bounty hunter Cavic flies with Beilert Valance aboard the Broken Wing, fleeing three Arquitens-class light cruisers. Neither hunter expects the Empire to abandon their pursuit, but Cavic says he knows where to hide and flies to a hidden outpost in a nearby asteroid field. They watch as one cruiser is destroyed by asteroids, and Cavic explains that since he and Valance were Imperials, they had an advantage over other hunters by knowing the Empire’s limits. Cavic touted the bounty hunter life, telling Valance that although it was short and rife with debt, at least they would be free.

At the rebel outpost on Lowik, officer Aeliar expresses her disdain to Gita about trusting Valance to secure weapons for the Rebel Alliance. Elsewhere, on the Hidden Hand asteroid base, Valance lands and plants a tracker before being captured. The Hidden Hand members take him to their leader, who reveals himself as Gwi, the “messenger” who initially hired Valance to kill Darth Vader. Gwi punches Valance in frustration, gloating that he spent years to build the Hidden Hand and could fall neither to the Empire nor Valance. Valance claims that the rest of his bounty hunter team died hunting Vader, and that he found the base after realizing that all the other outposts were also in asteroid fields. Gwi asks why Valance would steal from other bounty hunters and bother to return after his failure, and Valance says that all his work was for Chorin. Disappointed in Valance’s motivations, Gwi prepares to kill him, but Darth Vader arrives, having followed Valance’s tracker. In the ensuing fight, Vader captures Gwi to be questioned by Emperor Palpatine, and Valance escapes. Vader orders the Imperial forces on Chorin to destroy any trace of Valance, but by the time stormtroopers arrive at Valance’s village, he had already evacuated its populace to Lowik. Gita promises that his people will be safe and offers Valance a place with the Rebel Alliance, but he refuses and returns the lucky gemstone Yuralla Vega gave him when he first left Chorin. On Coruscant, Dengar gloats to the patrons of a bar about his deal with Darth Vader, but his story is interrupted by the arrival of Valance, who punches him and asks the bartender to buy him a drink. The bartender asks what Valance did with his credits, and he says he simply “blew them all on something stupid,” having actually supplied the rebels with the weapons they needed.

Trade Paperback reprints/collects: Star Wars: Target Vader (2019-2020) Issues #1-6.  Marvel Comics

Trade Paperback is bagged & double boarded and will be carefully / securely packaged then shipped via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that it arrives to you perfectly and quickly.

First Printing
Publisher: Marvel Worldwide Inc.
Publication Date: 2020
Format: FC, 136 pages, TPB, 10.25″ x 6.75″
ISBN-10: 1302918583
ISBN-13: 9781302918583

Collectible Entertainment note: Trade Paperback is in Fine condition.  Nice!  Please See Scans!!  A must have for any serious Star Wars and/or Darth Vader collector / enthusiast.  A fun & entertaining read.  Very Highly Recommended.

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