Warning! Spoilers for Star Wars: Darth Vader #1
One of the most iconic moments in Star Wars history is the final face-off between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back. Vader cuts Luke’s hand off and reveals that he is his father. We know how the rest of the story goes from Luke’s perspective, but what happened with Vader after the encounter?
In Star Wars: Darth Vader #1 by Greg Pak, Raffaele Ienco, Neeraj Menon and In-Hyuk Lee, Vader’s perspective after the fight is revealed. Vader immediately begins the search for Luke with the help of a brand new character to Star Wars canon: Forensics droid Zed Six Seven.
After the mission, Vader approaches Zed Six Seven and reprograms him by adjusting his motivator. Vader tells the droid “if you ever reveal what you learn on this mission… you would self-destruct.” Zed Six Seven immediately gets to work on finding the whereabouts of Luke. Vader intends on tracking down everyone who hid his son from him and destroying them. Zed Six Seven pinpoints Tatooine as a place to investigate. Vader heads to Luke’s childhood home.
Vader walks through his old home and is reminded of his childhood and his step-father Cliegg Lars and step-mother Shimi Skywalker. His half-brother Owen Lars and his wife Beru Whitesun adopted and raised Luke in the same location. As Vader recalls past memories, Zed Six Seven finds records indicating Shimi was killed by Tuskens and Cliegg died soon afterward. The story flashes back to Anakin telling Padme he killed the Tusken’s “like animals,” while she pleads with him to leave everything else and raise their child. Anakin is more focused on overthrowing the chancellor and ruling the galaxy. Anakin is shown making a promise to his mom that “I won’t fail again.” In the present, Vader hacks down a hostile ship and it’s passengers.
Vader and Zed Six Seven travel to Coruscant to Padme’s old apartment which has been sealed off since her death. As Vader tries to gain more information about Luke, Zed Six Seven tells him security recordings after her death was missing. Searching the apartment leads to an intriguing, seemingly impossible discovery.
Zed Six Seven provides some comic relief but is actually genuinely useful in providing information to Vader on the whereabouts of his son. After encountering Luke, Vader has learned quite a bit about what happened to his secret child. Zed Six Seven is helping him and might be the key to the Sith learning what happened - it’s too bad Darth Vader has programmed it to self-destruct is it reveals the mission to anyone - I wouldn’t get too attached to the new droid.
Next: The Clone Wars Almost Told Boba Fett’s Epic Origin Story: Why Is Star Wars Saving It?
