'Star Wars' Just Brought This Deleted Scene From 'The Rise Of Skywalker' To Life

Darth Vader has been a staple of Marvel's Star Wars comics. He is now on his third ongoing series, this one written by Greg Pak and set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. As has been the trend, there have been prequel connections and psychological study moments of the character that is Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader. Given that this story has been coming out after the release of The Rise of Skywalker, there is also the opportunity for this series to tie into aspects of the sequel trilogy.

The beginning of The Rise of Skywalker has a rather rushed montage of events. Mustafar was recognizable from space, but the trees visible on the surface cast doubt among viewers who were unfamiliar with the events of the VR game Vader Immortal. Darth Vader's castle, which was seen in Rogue One and the building of which was elaborated upon in Charles Soule's Darth Vader comic series, was going to be featured a bit more in previous iterations of Episode IX, including the Colin Trevorrow script titled Duel of the Fates. Unfortunately, we do not get enough of Mustafar in the finished film.

Mustafar is featured once again in Greg Pak's current comic series, in which Darth Sidious punishes his apprentice by leaving him with less mechanical limbs on the Mustafar shore where he had been at the end of his duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi 22 years earlier. Sidious challenged Vader to survive without the use of the Force. Making his way to the room where he had slaughtered the separatist leaders all those years prior, Vader tries to repair himself and is then faced with Ochi of Bestoon. Devoted to the Sith, this assassin was first mentioned in The Rise of Skywalker and featured in a flashback revealing that he killed Rey's parents. I have always felt like he was the Sifo-Dyas of the sequel trilogy, an unnecessary extra character whose mere existence adds an investigation that is rather convoluted. His inclusion in the comics, where he is sent by Sidious to kill Vader, makes him feel more like an actual character.

But this is not the only connection to The Rise of Skywalker, as the most recent issue, Darth Vader #7, ends with Vader coming face to face with The Eye of Webbish Bog, a spider-like creature attached to a giant head.

The novelization for The Rise of Skywalker, which was released earlier this year, features an interaction on Mustafar between Kylo Ren and The Eye of Webbish Bog, which claims to be a servant of Vader and helps Kylo Ren find the Wayfinder. Now it seems that we will find out how it becomes a servant of Vader. Or perhaps it may have somehow already become devoted to Vader within the couple of decades since the construction of his fortress. The inclusion of The Eye of Webbish Bog in The Rise of Skywalker would probably have been weird, but it might have been a good kind of weird. I mean, how many things are more creative than a spider attached to a giant's head? The inclusion of it in the comics is nice. Star Wars has been known for recycling and repurposing ideas that do not make it to the screen, so this is very much in that same tradition.

So what is next in this confrontation, you may ask? At the moment, the next issue of Darth Vader is slated to come out December 16, so we still have quite a wait before we get such answers.

Written By Steven Shinder

Syndicated From Culture Slate