STAR WARS: DARK DROIDS (graphic novel) by Charles Soule (Author), Luke Ross (Illustrator), Leinil Yu (Cover Art)

Published by Marvel Universe in 2024.

Star Wars: Dark Droids is a collection of the first five comics in an extensive Dark Droids story arc. 

The basic story goes likes this: A group of Imperial droids and soldiers encounter a self-aware droid in the form of a tiny disc. This would be between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The disc attaches itself to an imperial droid and takes it over. Then it takes over another droid and another and another. 

The self-aware droid is known as The Scourge. It quickly spreads through both Imperial and Rebel forces - even taking over C3PO!

As it spreads, it tries to bring together a union of droid and organics in order to truly be able to control the galaxy. When it discovers that the force exists and can only be controlled by biologics, it redoubles its efforts. Then, it discovers that there is a a force user that is already a mixture of organic and mechanical parts - Darth Vader.

My Review

I liked the idea of this story, but it has a basic problem - this threat is so big that it threatens to overthrow both the Empire and the Rebels at the same time. It is a bigger threat to each of them than they are to each other. It is like a virus that spreads quickly and could literally kill everyone. 

Yet, there is no mention of any of this immense threat and the trauma it would cause in Episode VI. 

I appreciate the difficulty of creating a story arc that fills in the middle of two movies that were made more than 40 years before that poses enough of a threat to the main characters to make it interesting, but you can't actually hurt them too much. For example, we know that The Scourge doesn't effect Princess Leia because she is alive, intact, and healthy in Episode VI. 

*****Spoiler Alert*****

The Scourge is so big and so dangerous that it actually kidnaps Darth Vader when he is out of his suit receiving medical treatment on Mustafar. If it is that much of a threat, it would have actually changed the events of Episode VI. Everyone would have scrapped their droids out of fear.

*****End Spoilers******

To sum up, nice idea, but the bad guy is overpowered and it is poorly placed in the timeline. I really liked the art, though.

I rate this graphic novel 2 stars out of 5. I am NOT reading other parts of the collection. This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Star Wars: Dark Droids.