When we last saw Aphra and the bounty hunters, they were planning a Star Destroyer heist. At the beginning of this issue, they find it flying by Anthan Prime. After Aphra mentions an asteroid belt, she humorously requests that someone say something about it. 0-0-0 obliges, asking, "What asteroid belt?" In a really cool moment, Aphra detonates an explosive on an asteroid that breaks it up into a whole storm of asteroids crashing into the Star Destroyer. The bounty hunters successfully steal the fortune, and it is surprising that none of them die. The even bigger surprise is that Black Krrsantan has a larger share that has been hidden on Anthan 13 from the other bounty hunters so that he may have more and so that Aphra and Vader may use it as finances to hire the bounty hunters again in the future for further jobs that would advance Vader's agenda. Aphra also promises to help "Santy" find the people responsible for cutting him. Remarks such as this show readers that there is much more going on that has yet to be revealed. Only time will tell when the cards will be dealt. Though brief, one could argue that this heist is a more exciting Ocean's Eleven style Star Wars story than the novel Star Wars: Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn.
The page following this scene shows panels of dead imperial forces on Mygeeto, Son-Tuul, and Anthan 14. According to Grand General Tagge, this is the work of a resisting organization known as the Plasma Devils. In my mind, I imagine that they are more extreme and intimidating than the Rebel Alliance, so I cannot wait to see them. The Astarte twins are assigned to find the Plasma Devils, much to the chagrin of General Karbin, who is assigned to kill the pilot who destroyed the Death Star. (That is such a mouthful. It is Luke Skywalker, but only Vader knows his name, hence why I wrote that all out. Can't they give him a nickname in the meantime?) Vader is angered by this, and he retorts that he wants to deal with the pilot personally and deliver him to Emperor Palpatine alive. Tulon also wants to deal with the pilot, and it seems as if she wants to avenge casualties of the Death Star's destruction. It makes me wonder whether or not she had romantic feelings for one of those "brilliant minds." Perhaps Tarkin? Speaking of which, Tagge introduces introduces Vader to Inspector Thanoth, who seems to be as perceptive as Tarkin, Sherlock Holmes analog in a bit of the James Luceno novel. Unlike Tarkin, however, he does not seem to be completely on Vader's side. Vader has been assigned to punish whoever stole the fortune from the Star Destroyer, and Thanoth is there to assist him on Palpatine's command. Thanoth points out that he is not incompetent like other imperial forces, even deducing that Vader was on Anthan 13 the previous day since his armor has dust from there that would normally disappear in 24 hours. Not only that, but Thanoth has a really cool look, what with his facial hair style and monocle. I look forward to seeing more of these two characters butting heads.
Unlike Jason Aaron's Star Wars series, Kieron Gillen's Darth Vader series really goes out of its way introducing new characters. And it has to since this series has a smaller use of film characters at its disposal than Aaron's series. Some of these new characters have been remixes of templates for familiar characters. While copies such as Beebox (short Boba Fett), IG-90 (IG-88 with a different color and number) and General Karbin (Ackbar's head on Grievous' body) are questionable Black Krrsantan (bounty hunter Chewbacca), BT-1 (homicidal R2-D2), 0-0-0 (sadistic C-3PO), and Thanoth (new Sherlockian imperial) fare very well. This issue is a great setup for whatever else may be arriving in this arc, or even beyond.