WARNING: The following contains spoilers from Star Wars: Darth Vader #16, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
After Darth Vader’s failure in The Empire Strikes Back, Emperor Palpatine put his apprentice through all kinds of trials. Vader thought that he could stand up to his master, but he was wrong. Darth Sidious broke him yet again, impressing on his apprentice the need to fear the power that a Sith master yields. Now, Vader is submissive yet again and seeks to atone for his failure by finding Luke.
Throughout the War of the Bounty Hunters crossover, Vader has been looking to acquire the carbonite-frozen body of Han Solo as a means of luring Luke out into the open. His motivations, though, are in question, as is what he plans to do once he finds his son. These questions have been answered at least partially in Darth Vader #16, by Greg Pak, Raffaele Ienco, Jason Keith and Rachelle Rosenberg.
Luke knows that the dark lord won’t actually kill Solo, so he calls Vader’s bluff and tells his father to come and get him. Vader does just that, and he uses his TIE fighter to pursue Luke. Luke’s X-Wing gets caught by some pirates’ space-harpoons, but Vader saves him from that and blows up the pirates. Obviously, Vader wants Luke all to himself and proceeds to shoot his son down.
Luke crash lands on a planet, and Vader is coming in for the kill when the unexpected happens. Vader’s TIE fighter is intercepted by a group of droids who distract him while other droids repair Luke’s downed ship. It turns out that the Empire, specifically Sly Moore, sent the droids to save Luke from Vader. They keep Vader busy long enough for Luke’s ship to be repaired. Then, it’s off to the races again, with Vader bearing down on Luke.
The Empire saving Luke is strange, considering that he blew up the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin. This also brings into question Vader’s true motivation. At first glance, he wants to kill Luke for revenge; his son got away from him on Bespin, and Vader paid dearly for that failure. However, Sly Moore knows better. She can see that Vader actually fears Luke’s potential and wants him out of the way.
She says as much to Ochi of Bestoon when the assassin confronts her for her actions. Moore insists that she isn’t betraying the Empire by keeping Luke alive, but rather protecting Emperor Palpatine’s interests. Luke’s potential in the Force is obvious, and if Sidious were to take Luke on as his apprentice, then he would have no use for Vader. This makes it apparent that Vader wants Luke dead so that he can maintain his position of power.
Although Luke is destined to become the most powerful Jedi of all time, right now he is simply a pawn in a power struggle. Vader knows that he cannot defeat his master, but there’s no way that he’s going to let his son take his place as the number two power in the galaxy. Right now, that seems to be the only reason that Vader wants to catch his son – self-preservation.
Maybe Sly Moore is especially adept at reading a situation and simply figured out Vader’s true motivation for attacking his son, or maybe the Emperor tasked her with preserving Luke’s life. Either way, the Umbaran has become particularly adept at getting under Vader’s skin. It will be interesting to see how long Vader puts up with her, even if he evokes the wrath of the Emperor for eliminating her.