When Marvel relaunched the Star Wars comics line, the world was an easier place. Lucasfilm had simply rebooted its official continuity, there was room for brand spanking new tales, new perception into acquainted faces, new alternatives to flesh out the area between the Star Wars motion pictures. And now, we come to this: zombie droids.
Okay so, sure and no. Sure: zombie droids are the principle impetus of Star Wars: Darkish Droids, a brand new line-wide Marvel Star Wars occasion written by Charles Soule, kicking off with a solo miniseries with artists Luke Ross and Alex Sinclair (and lettering by Travis Lanham) earlier than disseminating throughout the remainder of the writer’s present Star Wars titles all through the remainder of 2023. No: they’re probably not zombie zombie droids, within the sense of the undead, however zombie-ish, given Star Wars’ typically bizarre strategy to droid sentience that for probably the most half is barely made weirder in Star Wars: Darkish Droids, a brand new line-wide Marvel Star Wars occasion.
How we acquired from there to right here—the right here being zombie droids, want I remind you—is a story of present Star Wars canon, an ode to the sensible concepts and ridiculous extra that Disney and Lucasfilm as soon as sought to excise with the transition of Star Wars’ previous Expanded Universe into this contemporary new continuity. It’s additionally a narrative about how Star Wars is nice, and extraordinarily foolish, and the way these issues aren’t diametrically opposed. However to chop a really lengthy story quick, zombie droids exist now—on this case, the interval the Star Wars comics presently happen in between the occasions of The Empire Strikes Again and Return of the Jedi, which I have to stress is about a 12 months—due to a Factor referred to as the Spark Everlasting, which now is a Factor referred to as the Scourge?
What’s the Spark Everlasting/the Scourge, you ask? I’m so glad you probably did as a result of this can be a ridiculous quantity of set as much as ship earlier than we get to the correctly wild stuff. The Spark Everlasting first appeared within the Physician Aphra comedian collection, an historic synthetic intelligence developed by a splinter Darkish Aspect cult at battle with the Sith referred to as the Ascendant. Within the current day Aphra discovered herself quickly host to the Spark after by chance re-activating it, however lengthy story throughout the lengthy story quick, it acquired wrenched out of her and he or she’s okay now. On the identical time, Qi’ra—sure, Emilia Clarke from Solo, she’s again now, she has been for some time—had been utilizing the Crimson Daybreak to stage an enormous battle towards Palpatine and Darth Vader, hoping to make use of a mysterious jail referred to as the Fermata Cage to lock the 2 in time and throw them right into a solar. Briefly allying with the Spark in her makes an attempt, as a result of it too hated the Sith, Qi’ra finally failed due to a betrayal by the Knights of Ren (sure, these ones from The Rise of Skywalker; no, don’t fear about it), went into hiding, and the Spark not had a physique. It’s an excellent job then that the Fermata Cage dropped a peculiar small disc of historic so-evil-even-the-Sith-forbade-it expertise that the Spark merged with, changing into the Scourge, and casually simply hanging out biding its time.
Phew! All caught up. We are actually on the identical web page, that web page being web page one of Star Wars: Darkish Droids #1, out this week.
Which implies, eventually, zombie droids! Regardless of the Spark did in changing into the Scourge, it has now developed the power to infuse itself into not only a single host physique, however a number of—however in doing so, can seemingly not inhabit natural hosts. So when Palpatine sends a cleanup crew to the station the place Qi’ra had simply tried to show him right into a time-popsicle, there are inevitably droids among the many operatives, principally KX-Safety Droids (, K2 from Rogue One), and the Scourge instantly begins implanting itself among the many droid contingent.
What follows from there in Darkish Droids #1 is a really typical faux-horror zombie story with a sci-fi twist. The Scourge discovers its method again to an Imperial Star Destroyer, and makes quick work of infecting the hundreds of droids aboard, after which murdering the tens of hundreds of organics aboard, gassing them, stabbing them, choking them to dying, venting them out into area, and so forth. And oh no, it sends an agent to begin infecting the Insurgent Alliance whereas they’re planning learn how to destroy the brand new Demise Star, beginning with, gasp, C-3PO! Like I mentioned (what seems like a really lengthy, very long time in the past due to all of the background context), that is, in truth, the least fascinating factor about Darkish Droids. It’s all arrange, and there’s no actual engagement with the massive questions on droids in Star Wars, outdoors of a gap rumination by the Scourge about how the galaxy perceives and treats droids as a sentient species earlier than the Scourge promptly begins overriding their personhood anyway.
To this point at the very least—as a result of the precise fascinating factor about Darkish Droids #1 comes at you utterly sideways and out of nowhere for a number of pages, disrupting the humdrum of zombie droids to tease an eventual method out of this calamitous new risk… and perhaps even solutions to a few of these huge questions on droids. Whereas the Scourge is busy doing a bunch of organic-murder aboard the Star Destroyer, the motion cuts to a mysterious place referred to as the Colony of the Second Revelation, the place a small group of droids is constructing a brand new member, and housing inside it a pc core made up of contributions from the group’s “personal expertise and understanding, shadings of our data and hopes and self willpower,” in line with their chief, Ajax, a droid in priestly garb.
Ajax himself is a personality acquainted to individuals who’ve in some way been capable of sustain with Marvel’s Star Wars comics—a droid from the time of the Excessive Republic who as soon as staged an rebellion in demand for droid rights, reduce down by the Jedi after his rebels slaughtered the colony of organics they served—however that’s not the purpose right here, not like the remainder of Darkish Droids, leaning on months and years of earlier comics setup. Neither is the purpose that, as Ajax goes on to elucidate, that they alone should now cease the Scourge from overriding the personhood of Droidkind throughout the galaxy. The purpose is these are Droids with religion. They’ve a faith, a perception system via which they create fully new life: not replicas of themselves, however new beings born from a collective amalgam of their very own historical past, expertise, and values. From their very own souls. It’s a creation fantasy for droids as a individuals past their literal building, however not an precise fantasy as a result of it’s actual.
Ajax notes that there aren’t many of those sorts of droids in existence throughout the galaxy, however even then, they do exist. That is the spark of one thing Star Wars has at all times skirted in its murky conversations of droid identification and sentience—who will get to rely as individuals on the subject of droids, and what does it say about how the organics of the galaxy deal with them no matter that? There are a zillion mines on this narrative discipline for Darkish Droids to bounce round in discussing this, even when it deigns to take action a lot past what’s established on this subject in favor of its bigger zombie droid story. And even when it does set up no matter Ajax and his individuals have discovered for themselves as a seemingly secure droid tradition, what we all know of the remainder of the Star Wars galaxy past this second in time appears to point it is going to by no means unfold far sufficient to impression the overwhelming majority of droids within the 30-odd-year window we’ve for the post-Return of the Jedi period proper now anyway.
However even with these caveats, that is an space the place a variety of different current Star Wars materials has tried, and failed (or failed by not making an attempt in any respect, in The Mandalorian’s case), to dig deep into one of many perpetually ethically difficult pillars of its worldbuilding. If Darkish Droids tries to go deeper—even when it finally fails like different Star Wars tales earlier than it—that’s frankly going to be a way more fascinating experiment to observe unfold than zombie droids.
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