Star Wars: Legacy of Vader #4
REIGN OF KYLO REN PART 4
Even after killing Snoke and taking the mantle of Supreme Leader, Kylo Ren
still struggles with forging his own path in the shadow of his family’s legacy.Kylo’s quest to kill the past led him to Darth Vader’s former home, where the young tyrant met the erstwhile aide of the Dark Lord, a man by the name of Vaneé.
Kylo accompanied Vaneé to Tatooine to further explore his grandfather’s origins. But once there, Kylo’s anger quickly drove him into the clutches of the ruthless Gardulla the Hutt, who now holds him captive….
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Luke Ross
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Nolan Woodward
Cover artist: Derrick Chew
Editor: Mark Pannicia
Publication date: May 21 2025
We open issue 4 of Legacy of Vader onboard the Finaliser as Kylo Ren and General Hux look out across the stars. The First Order fleet has been depleted; Starkiller Base and The Supremacy have been destroyed in short order, as well as losing their ruler Snoke, and Ren asks Hux whether or not the Order still have the capability to destroy an entire world. While unable to do it in the way a station or a 60 kilometer wide dreadnaught could, he believes they still have the capability to pound a world into dust, and Ren seems satisfied as we stepo back two days to the Mid Rim world of Naboo, decades removed from the Battle of Naboo that ultimately led to the fall of the Republic and the Jedi. Vaneé and Ren move through the rubble of a world that has fallen far from its glory days when Naboo was famed across the region for its culture and beauty.
Vaneé points to a distant house, once the home of the San Tekka family, and explains to Ren how Naboo was once the home of Sheev Palpatine. He goes on to explain how the association with Palpatine kept Naboo safe during the reign of the Empire (despite doing away with their Democratic Monarchy), but once Palpatine was defeated, distrust shrouded Naboo and its fall began. Ren is impatient, frustrated at why he has been brought to this dusty, wrecked Mid Rim world. Uninterested in Palpatine, his interests only lie with his grandfather Vader, and Vaneé then explains that Naboo was where Anakin and his grandmother Padmé fell in love, explaining that once he fell in love with Padmé, he never let go. Ren misunderstands, believing Vaneé is saying that he needs to feel love to feel power, but Palpatine’s former aide explains that it wasn’t the love but the loss that fed Vader’s power.
Ren believes he is as powerful as he needs to be, that he has nothing, but when Vaneé replies saying if that’s true then strike me down, Ren pauses, thinking back to the battle on the Supremacy when he fought alongside Rey against Snoke’s guards. As they wait in silence, a boat aproaches the dock and a man and a woman clib out, talking about the wrecked building and how a beautiful queen lived there, one who left and only returned in death. He describes an evil spirit – Darth Vader – who scoured the palace of the memory of the queen, forbidding even her name to be uttered. The man explains to Kylo how no one visits this spot anymore, largely because of superstition, but also because of the ‘bad people’ who moved in, and noisily one of those approaches with guards following, informing them that they’re trespassing. Ren is in no mood for games, and over the course of two pagesd he eliminates them all, snapping the next of the final guard. The man and woman are in shock, telling Ren the men he just killed were the henchmen of the Veruna family, who after the fall of the Empire annexed properites across the planet, including this one.
They explains how all of the families on Naboo are connected – Lineage matters – and how the Veruna family will come, and leave, advising Ren and Vaneé to do the same. As they row away, Ren thinks on their words, and eager as ever to destroy the past he ends them from a distance with Force chokes, and we return to the present as Ren cuts into the plenetwide communications system of Naboo and speaks to the populace, telling them he is unimpressed with their slavish hold on the past and that – after being ruled by Queens and Emperors – Kylo Ren is their new king.
Another fascinating issue, and one that, much like the recent Darth Vader run, takes us back to a familiar world and looks at events we know so well through new eyes. It’s sad to see Naboo, one of the most beautiful worlds in the saga, in such poor state. Alderaan, Naboo, worlds that were home to rebellion, destroyed or sacked, and very much in our current line of sight with Andor focusing on the politics of the galaxy and here, as Naboo pays the priced for being home to the wife of the Chosen One, the mother of the Jedi twins and the Emperor of the galaxy.
Beautifully drawn as ever by Luke Ross, Charles Soule once again finds the silky threads of character motivation and plot to weave us fresh insight into an well-trodden story, giving it fresh life a new angle on familiar elements.
