Star Wars #8 just revealed Darth Vader’s newest agent is way deadlier and far more effective than the galaxy’s original Mandalorian bounty hunter.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars #8 by Charles Soule, Jan Bazaldua, Rachel Rosenberg, and VC’s Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
In the Star Wars Universe, Darth Vader’s deployed many agents in the field. Few are more clinical than Boba Fett, who always thrived on the comics page more than he did on film, so much so that Boba actually gathered the info about Luke Skywalker being alive.
However, in Star Wars #8, we now discover that Vader had an even deadlier operative following the end of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and it’s none other than Ellian Zahra, Tarkin’s former protege.
Zahra’s fallen from grace, relegated to desk duty on Kessel after botching a mission for Tarkin. But that doesn’t haunt her as much as seeing the Death Star blow up in A New Hope. Tarkin’s death there has her harboring immense hatred for Leia Organa, and it’s why Vader contacts Zahra, as he knows that her ambition and need for redemption could prove to be a trump card.
Palpatine wants Vader to stop pursuing Luke and hunt the remaining Rebels down after Cloud City, but Vader insists that Zahra’s the right person as Tarkin shaped her to be Leia’s equal. When Vader speaks to her, Zahra’s obsessed with fixing her mistakes and gaining revenge, which Vader loves hearing. Mind you, he does let her know failure will result in death, but all Zahra cares about is making sure Leia pays for her ‘terrorism.’
And when she boards Leia’s cruiser during a blockade, we see Zahra to be a one-woman army. Using a sword in one hand and a blaster in the other, she way more badass and intimidating than Boba. She looks cool with her helmet and the way she faces down rebels, slaughtering, and walking through the opposition is something Vader would love after how he did it in Rogue One’s finale. It’s why Vader trusts her because despite not being a Sith, she gets the job done.
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Luke finds this out the hard way because right after Zahra cuts Leia and is about to kill her during aggressive negotiations in the engine room, the tyrant easily beats him with his yellow lightsaber as he tries to intervene. Mentally, she trapped Leia, and physically, she topped the Jedi-in-training, all in the space of a minute and as she busts out the ship, using her jetpack to head to her ship, you can’t help but admire how cool yet terrifying she is. Zahra even gloated how she could kill Luke but Vader doesn’t want it, which is mercy not even Boba could enact.