Luke, Leia, and Han all take a back seat in this issue, as Vader takes center stage for the first issue of a two-part arc, though, through the eyes of the newly appointed Ensign Nanda, a woman detailed to Darth Vader as his special assistant. With Birra Seah now MIA, I wasn’t at all surprised to see another woman by Vader’s side given Brian Wood’s attention to female characters, both in this series and his X-Men series, and I welcome the idea of using his arc to bring more women into the original trilogy’s universe.

Vader and Ensign Nanda are on an “unsanctioned” mission, backed by Vader’s own personal band of special Stormtroopers, to find out just how Colonel Bircher was able to infiltrate their ranks. I love how Vader is portrayed here. The Emperor has basically punished him from overseeing the construction of the second Death Star and is now using his free time to regain his honor. He’s a man with a mission, and he’s not going to let anything stand in his way. It’s especially fun to see other Imperial Officers call him out on some of the recent events, and, well, we already know what happens to people who talk back to the Dark Lord of the Sith.

There was another pretty big, surprising moment in this issue that I don’t want to spoil here, but it really got me to thinking about some things. Needless to say, you’ll know what part I’m speaking about when you get to it, but I had a serious nerd freak out after reading it.

Next month, we’ll see the conclusion of this arc, which I couldn’t be more excited about, and then we’re back to seeing how Luke and the gang are doing. I’m very interested to see what Brian Wood has in store for us next.