Spoiler alert for Marvel’s Darth Vader #1
Image: The cover of Darth Vader #1
Padmé Amidala doesn’t get the love she deserves. She’s played by Natalie Portman, she’s Luke and Leia’s mom, she’s a literal space queen, and she has the best line in the prequel trilogy. Yet, she spends most of her screentime acting out a romantic subplot with Hayden Christensen, with whom she shares anti-chemistry, and is quickly discarded by the series after giving birth to Luke and Leia, as if she only matters in relation to her husband and children. However, the most recent edition of Marvel’s Darth Vader comic might not only be giving her the additional attention she deserves, but also changing what we know about her death.
Padmé’s death has always seemed too dubious to believe. She seemingly dies immediately after giving birth, with her head gently and somewhat limply laying to the side while ominous music plays in the background. A medical droid later says she was otherwise completely healthy, but just “lost the will to live,” which comes across less as suspicious and more as just standard wooden prequel dialogue. So, fans have taken to generally accepting the truth of the moment while making fun of it nonetheless.
However, the first issue of Marvel’s new Darth Vader comic, set between Episodes V and VI and distinct from previous the publisher’s Darth Vader comics despite carrying the same name, is throwing a wrench into that interpretation of the scene. Perhaps just losing the will to live WAS too suspicious of a diagnosis, after all.
The comic takes place shortly after Vader’s duel with Luke at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, and focuses on his “rage-filled revenge against everything and everyone who had a hand in hiding and corrupting his only son.” I’ll leave the actual plot details for you to discover on your own, but here’s your final spoiler alert for the comic’s end.
The final pages of the issue focus on Vader visiting a mysterious planet called Vendaxa, where he soon finds himself held at gunpoint by someone who looks exactly like his former wife. He calls out “Padmé?,” and the issue ends, leaving us with one Mustafar of a cliffhanger.
So, does this mean Padmé is back from the dead? Possibly. Darth Maul, after all, has famously been brought back to life in canon by non-theatrical material. But Darth Maul’s resurrection didn’t throw any major original trilogy character arcs into flux the way this would. What’s more likely is that Star Wars is repeating a former trick from Episode II, and that this Padmé lookalike is actually her former body double, Sabé.
For those who don’t remember, Padmé employed a number of body doubles during her tenure as Queen of Naboo, one of whom famously dies early into Episode II when an assassin mistakes her for the Queen. However, her body double from Episode I, Sabé, survives the prequel trilogy and goes on to investigate Padmé’s death, according to the canon novel Queen’s Shadow.
So, while the next issue of Darth Vader could resurrect Padmé and undo her handwaved cause of death from the films, we could also open the story with Vader finding himself the latest suspect in a long-running murder investigation. Which, I mean, he did choke the victim while she was pregnant, so…
Darth Vader #2 comes out on March 11, and features Padmé on the cover. Given that previous Star Wars comics have loved their fake-outs, with one going so far as to try to trick the reader into thinking that Vader was going to turn back to the light side before the films even take place (he didn’t, but it was very convincing). So stay tuned to find out who exactly this Padmé lookalike is when the next issue drops early next month.
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