Today saw the release of issue #3 in the Star Wars: Dark Droids – D-Squad spinoff miniseries from Marvel Comics, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
D-Squad #3 begins where the previous issue left off– at the spaceport on the planet Gallios, where IG-88 and 4-LOM find themselves in a three-way showdown with a cyborg who’s been corrupted by the evil artificial intelligence known as the Scourge. One blaster fight later, and all the droids present– including our old friend R2-D2 and the murder-bots Triple-Zero and BT-1, must find common ground in order to accomplish their various goals. They retreat to a hijacked spaceship with the cyborg in tow and formulate a plan to confront the Scourge together, but first they’ll travel to Ryloth to reunite Artoo with an old friend.
On Ryloth, Artoo meets up with QT-KT from an infamous droid-focused arc of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series. The D-Squad’s next task is to track down Ajax Sigma, the self-aware activist priest droid who’s been attempting to wage a war against the Scourge. QT doesn’t know Ajax’s location, but she knows where they might be able to find it. Unfortunately for our team, a battalion of Scourge-possessed KX-series Imperial security droids– along with a handful of Dark Troopers for good measure– have tracked them down first. This encounter leads to what is certainly the most exciting action sequence D-Squad has featured so far, and it’s great fun to see all of these droids (both good and evil) going toe-to-toe against a shared enemy.
This issue ends with the cliffhanger of QT-KT getting blasted into unconsciousness by one of the Dark Troopers during the battle, with Artoo resultantly terrified for the droid life of his friend. I have a feeling poor QT will come out of the situation okay, but something has to keep up in suspense going into the climactic final issue next month. Overall I would say that writer Marc Guggenheim and artist Salva Espin are still doing a great job of keeping things light-hearted (and often hilarious, in the interplay between some of these vastly different droid personalities), while simultaneously acknowledging the dire situation the galaxy finds itself in. I know that R2-D2 and his unlikely companions are going to play a big role in ultimately bringing down the Scourge, I just can’t wait to see how.
Star Wars: Dark Droids – D-Squad #3 is available now wherever comic books are sold.