WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: Darth Vader #14, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
It does not take much for Darth Vader to instill fear in others. While there have been some that are not immediately afraid of Vader, their opinion quickly changes when they see the full force of his abilities. Vader has spread terror throughout the galaxy using the Force and his lightsaber, but he showed that he does not necessarily need his tools to make an impact in Star Wars: Darth Vader #14 by Greg Pak, Raffaele Ienco, Jason Keith and VC's Joe Caramagna.
Vader has only recently returned to the good graces of Emperor Palpatine, but not everyone is happy about it. Before he returned to Palpatine's side, one of the Emperor's greatest advisors - Sly Moore - was tasked with killing the Sith Lord. When she failed and was demoted, Moore gathered her own council that shared a common goal of destroying Darth Vader.
While Moore plotted Vader's demise, the Sith Lord was in the Outer Rim in search of Han Solo. He approached Bokku the Hutt since he knew the Hutts would have further information as Jabba put out the initial bounty on the Rebel. Bokku was hesitant to help, but Vader convinced him through force. The two partnered together and began to follow a lead. The Sith Lord was then ambushed by IG-88 and an army of droids. IG-88 possessed a device that gave it control over Vader's suit, and Bokku saw this as the perfect opportunity to blast the Sith Lord with an aerial bombardment. Vader was able to break free from the device's control and destroyed the droid before deflecting Bokku's blast.
After demonstrating his power to Bokku, Vader had the Hutt's full obedience. He then followed another assassin droid back to Coruscant where he learned that Sly Moore was responsible for sending the droids to kill him. He apprehended Moore who informed Vader of Crimson Dawn's auction. She then devised a plan to bid on and obtain Solo. The Dark Lord agreed and she departed for the auction.
Vader was already aware of the auction as he had learned about it from Bokku before traveling to Coruscant. The Sith intimidated the Hutt into helping him gain possession of Solo. Both Sly Moore and Bokku arrived at the auction in hope of appeasing the Dark Lord, but Vader knew that their bids would not be enough.
Sly Moore tried to use Force mind tricks in order to prevent other parties from bidding. However, such tricks do not work on Hutts and Jabba and Bokku were unaffected. The two got into a bidding war with Jabba eventually emerging victorious over both Moore and the other Hutt.
Moore asked Ochi for a word, and Ochi explained that Vader had planned this result all along. He knew that Moore could not outbid Jabba and her failure to acquire Solo would bring her shame and embarrassment while also making her look bad to the Emperor. On the other hand, Bokku had gone directly against a higher ranking member of the Hutt Council, greatly threatening his position and possibly his life. Vader then made his grand entrance to the auction dead set on reclaiming Solo for himself.
Vader's actions against Bokku and Moore demonstrate a deeper level of guile not usually associated with him. The Dark Lord of the Sith is arguably one of the strongest Force users and is also an extremely skilled lightsaber duelist. These are reliable methods and he rarely has a need to employ any other. After Vader and Palpatine's recent dispute, however, the Sith Lord has to prove that he deserves his place in the Empire again. He has faced his fair share of betrayals lately and he used his talents to annihilate his opponents without ending their lives.
One would think Sly Moore would have known better than to rival Darth Vader. She has been by Palpatine's side since before Anakin's turn to the dark side. Moore has witnessed countless atrocities committed by the Dark Lord and should have learned after her initial failure that he could not be defeated so easily. While she might have held the upper hand at one point, she and Bokku both learned the most valuable lesson in the galaxy - nobody betrays Darth Vader and gets away with it.