Warning: this article contains spoilers for Star Wars: Revelations #1 and Hidden Empire #1.
On November 23rd, Marvel Comics released Star Wars: Revelations, a one-shot comic teasing what’s to come in Marvel’s various ongoing Star Wars series, including: Star Wars, Doctor Aphra, Bounty Hunters, Darth Vader, and Hidden Empire. Writer Mark Guggenheim, who also penned the Han Solo & Chewbacca series, was given a truly daunting task: establish the standings of our major players across five series, connect them in a singular thread, and give audiences a glimpse into what might lie ahead as the gap between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi grows increasingly smaller. As stated by Marvel:
"“The giant-sized one-shot will reveal what lies ahead in ongoing titles…STAR WARS: REVELATIONS #1 will lay the groundwork for the major turning points to come for these adventures as they continue to head towards an unpredictable future.”"
Guggenheim employs the esoteric Force creature, the Eye of the Webbish Bog, to give Darth Vader a look into events past, present, and future… but not necessarily the future. He reveals to the Sith Lord things that are indeed certain (as we see them fulfilled later in the one-shot), but they’re presented alongside several futures that are uncertain. Each of the ongoing comic series gets a few pages of the Bog’s premonition, but a wild two-page spread displays some far left-field potential futures for our main cast including Chelli Aphra hooking up with Domina Tagge, and Qi’ra successfully killing the Emperor.
I really enjoyed this read, but there are a lot of moving parts in this comic. If you haven’t been keeping up with all of the current runs, you might have been left scratching your head a bit–so here’s a quick explainer of where things are heading.
The most important plot threads that intersect in Revelations are the Crimson Dawn plot from Hidden Empire, the Spark Eternal plot from Doctor Aphra, and a plot that will be coming soon to Star Wars and Bounty Hunters that revolves around a brand new threat to the galaxy: Ajax Sigma.
Hidden Empire: The Fermata Cage
The criminal organization Crimson Dawn, lead by Lady Qi’ra, is operating at full force with the ultimate goal of ousting the Sith from their position of power in the galaxy. The events of Crimson Reign saw Qi’ra obtain everything she needed to activate the Fermata Cage, a dark side artifact with the ability to freeze people and places in time. Thanks to Hidden Empire, we know that the Fermata Cage currently contains an ancient Sith Lord… and Qi’ra has released them in the hopes to cause a Sith-on-Sith conflict that eliminates them in total.
The Revelations comic seemingly reveals that the ancient Sith in question is Darth Momin. Momin was an ancient Sith architect and scholar who preserved his consciousness in his helmet after his defeat at the hands of the Jedi. Palpatine would later gift the helmet to Vader, who then allowed the helmet to posses various individuals so that he could employ the Sith architect to designing his fortress on Mustafar. Palpatine knows that having another power-hungry Sith in play would be disastrous, so he sends Vader to destroy the Fermata Cage.
Now, all of the above is simply a vision from the Eye–so this could be a misdirect. However, during his life, Momin was obsessed with finding a way to freeze people in their moments of utmost terror. That sounds a lot like the abilities of the Fermata Cage, so it does make sense for Momin to be involved.
Doctor Aphra: the Spark Eternal
Vader’s vision also features the Spark Eternal. The Spark Eternal is an artificial intelligence created by the Ascendant, who were a cult obsessed with replicating the abilities of the Sith through technology. It is currently possessing the body of Chelli Lona Aphra, and recently commanded Kho Phon Ferrus to assist Crimson Dawn’s Archivist with activating the Fermata Cage.
It’s difficult to know exactly what the Spark is after, but it seemingly desires for Crimson Dawn to succeed in bringing more Sith into the fray. The Eye of the Webbish Bog warns Vader that the fates of the Fermata Cage and the Spark Eternal are intertwined… which doesn’t provide much more information, but certainly teases that Aphra’s tie-in to Hidden Empire will be significant.
Ajax Sigma: The ‘Ultron’ of Star Wars?
Now for the newest piece of the puzzle, an immense threat to the galaxy revealed only to Vader:
According to the Eye of the Webbish Bog, Ajax Sigma was a droid that lived during the High Republic era that broke free from his programming and sparked a droid revolution against organics. Ajax and his droid supporters were struck down by the Jedi (specifically Loden Greatstorm) sometime before 232 BBY. His neural core was recovered from the battle and handed down by droids, archeologists, businessmen, and smugglers until it ended up in the hands of Han Solo and Chewbacca, who buried it. Sometime between 3 and 4 ABY, the core was dug up by droid loyalists. They implanted it into a new body made for Ajax, who then went on a murderous rampage on his home world of Kligson’s Moon.
Vader sees Luke Skywalker sense the massive casualty in the Force. Luke travels to the moon to confront whatever caused the disturbance, coming face to face with the resurrected Ajax. We’ll likely see this fully play out in the mainline Star Wars run soon. The Eye then warns Vader that Ajax’s consciousness will spread to every droid that it touches–including Beilert Valance’s cybernetic components. In the vision that follows, Valance faces down the entire Edgehawk crew, killing 4-LOM, Zuckuss, Bossk… then squares up against T’onga.
With Tasu Leech’s loyalties muddled, and Valance on a collision course with the Edgehawk crew on Bestine, and now the possibility of Valance being possessed by Ajax, the future of the Bounty Hunters crew has never been more uncertain.
The Future
So, here’s what we can speculate from Revelations:
The Spark Eternal/Fermata Cage plot will likely be the central force in the crossover between Hidden Empire, Doctor Aphra, and Darth Vader. The Ajax Sigma plot will likely come to full speed in Star Wars and Bounty Hunters just as Hidden Empire is wrapping up.
The culmination of these threats is enough to have even Emperor Palpatine genuinely frightened, so it seems reasonable to expect some casualties as an ancient Sith, a malicious Ascendant AI, and a droid revolutionary collide. We can only hold our breath and hope that our favorites make it out alive as we await the future of Marvel’s Star Wars.