Dark Droids #2
PART 2
“SCOURGE OF THE DROIDS”
In an effort to stop the Galactic Empire, Lady Qi’ra gambled on an ancient device to disrupt the Sith’s connection to the Force. She failed, and out of the ruins of her plans emerged an evil entity.
Elsewhere, the droid revolutionary Ajax Sigma has gotten word from a small mouse droid known as Petyr of a deadly scourge that has started corrupting droids, taking away their individual personalities. Ajax has vowed to use his following to fight this emerging evil.
This scourge has started to feed…but it’s already hungry for more….
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Luke Ross
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Cover artist: Leinil Francis Yu
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Release Date: September 6, 2023
As the hive mind fuelled by the Spark Eternal continues to swell and grow, its sentience spread across all droid factions in the galaxy, it determines that in order to succeed it must bond with the ‘meat’. A Stormtrooper is the first target, dying instantly as it borrows into his spine, and the scourge explains how it’s consciousness flits between droids across the galaxcy and we watch as a maintenance droid turns on its master as the scourge realises that anything that is not him, is his enemy.
We switch to the Colony of the Second Revelation as Ajax reminds ther massed droids that the first revelation is always recognition that they exist beyond their programming, and that the second is that they are a unit – the visioned – and they await that third revelation. They know of the scourge, and believe it’s their obligation to face it, so save other visioned droids, and Ajax rallies the droids to his call as we switch to the Rebel Alliance fleet and the end of the last issue as we see C-3PO, the memories of the scourge remembering the last time it was defeated by the Sith who trapped it in the Fermata Cage. We see Threepio as he walks the corridors, and realise the scourge is wary of R2-D2, who it describes as a warrior. Using a story of being assigned to locate signal leakage, the controlled Threepio grabs Artoo’s antennae, drags him to an airlock and ejects him, his sensors still in his hand.
He walks towards Luke Skywalkers quarters, where inside he is training with the Force. Threepio is curious, asking to know more about the Force and whether droids can use it. Luke explains how the Force connects all living things, and how it’s possible for even droids to use the Force, though he’s never heard of such a thing. The scourge wonders of cyborgs can use the Force, and we see ghastly images of human and droid experiments, with humans wearing droid arms and legs, and droids with human appendages. Luke wonders why he’s asking such personal questions, thinknig his programming may be off and the scourge briefly considers ending Luke before reasoning thsat he needs his skills and knowledge.
We return to the Colony as a droid willingly agrees to send its mind into another huge droid body, able to carry the rest of the droids within it and journey to the stricken Star Destroyer from the first issue. This is the perfect target; the Empire themselves don’t yet realise the ISD has been taken, so they need to destroy it without being discovered, as the visioned are always targeted and destroyed.
Back with the Rebel fleet, the scourge is convinced they are the verge of discovery, and so set a divertion – bombs explode across the fleet, and people begin to ask what’s wrong with the droids, and we end eith the scourge realising thsat not only does it need the metal and the meat, but it also needs the Force. To survive and succeed, it needs Darth Vader.
Another engaging issue, and one that builds as the hive mind of the scourge tests different theories and tries new things before coming to the realisation that the second most powerful man in the galaxy is the thing it needs to conquer. The art is striking – some of the torture scenes are quite grizzly – and the script moves along, the key scene being Luke and Threepio’s exchange about the Force. It’s not in high gear yet, the foundations are still being set, but so far this is a fascinating story as we continue the journey to Return of the Jedi.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Soule, Charles (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 24 Pages - 09/06/2023 (Publication Date) - Marvel (Publisher)
