DARTH VADER

Real Name: Anakin Skywalker

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial cyborg force user

Occupation: Former Sith Lord (see comments)

Group Membership: Possibly (see comments) the Conquest (Cadres, Carson, C-Cubed/Cosmic Cutie Commandos (Tyrax, others), G'nort, the Griffin/Matt Williams, Hades Horde, Lord Autarch, Nexus/Horatio Hellpop, Strike Force Commander, Strike Leader, Yoda, Zrek, unidentified archivist, unidentified Acacians, Barps, Hutts, Hykraians, Jawas, Kryptonians (K-Rok, others), Mandalorians (possibly Boba Fett), Melmacians (possibly Alf), Thanagarians, Twi'leks, Wookies, Xenomorphs, others);
   formerly Jedi Order

Affiliations: Darth Sidious (Palpatine), Qui-Gon Jinn;
   formerly Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padme Amidala

Enemies: Obi-Wan Kenobi;
   formerly Yoda

Known Relatives: Shmi Skywalker (mother, deceased), Padme Amidala (wife, deceased) (see comments)

Aliases: Dark Lord of the Sith

Base of Operations: Unrevealed

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men I#245 (June 1989)

Powers/Abilities: Darth Lord can manipulate the force, allowing him to telekinetically move objects; one of his favored moves outside of combat is to crush people's throats at a distance as a method of intimidating those who witness this action. He can also dominate weaker minds, making them obey simple commands. He is master starship pilot and skilled with the use of lightsabers, a form of energy sword that can cut through most materials with ease. He can also use either the force or his saber to deflect projectiles, including energy blasts. A cyborg, he requires his armor to maintain his badly injured body, most notably to breathe. His armor protects him from physical assaults to a degree, and also enhances his strength, but hampers his reflexes to a degree; formerly superhumanly agile and acrobatic, the armor has impinged on this, though he remains more agile than most normal people. 

Height: 6'9"
Weight: 264 lbs.
Eyes: Yellow
Hair: None

History:
(Star Wars stories) - Anakin Skywalker was a young Jedi who turned to the Dark Side of the Force and became a Sith Lord (see comments).

(Uncanny X-Men I#245 (fb) - BTS) - Despite having been born in a galaxy far, far away a long time ago, Darth survived into the modern day. He reconciled with his old foe Yoda, and ended up with the disparate alien species that made up the world-conquering Conquest (see comments).

(Uncanny X-Men I#245) - Darth accompanied the Conquest to Earth-616, where the Conquest's plans to conquer the planet were thwarted by the X-Men; Darth apparently remained an observer on the Conquest flagship and did not take part in the invasion. 

(Marvel Knights Spider-Man#6) - Visiting Earth-616, possibly on behalf of the Conquest (see comments), Darth Vader attended the auction of the Venom symbiote held by Eddie Brock at the Ditko Theatre in NYC.

Comments: Created by George Lucas, brought into Marvel by Chris Claremont and Rob Liefeld (though Liefeld may be solely responsible, depending on whether the script asked for the cameo in the crowd).

   Okay, I hear you say, "Darth Vader's part of the Star Wars universe, not Marvel!" Sure, that's true enough, but we've got plenty of examples of characters from other realities either visiting Reality-616 (the mainstream Marvel universe) or having counterparts there. "But," you say, "we know Star Wars is a series of movies in the Marvel Universe." And yes, that's also true - we even see Kitty Pryde dress up as Darth in Uncanny X-Men I#155, and Darth turns up fighting Luke Skywalker in a dreamscape in Sleepwalker I#10, alongside other movie characters such as Indiana Jones. However, we've got solid evidence from other stories that sometimes dreams access visions of other realities, and sometimes dreamers are inspired by those visions to tell stories recounting events they witnessed in the dreams. So Darth having a fictional counterpart in Reality-616 doesn't prevent him also being real there.

   So, the real question is, how is he there? Is he visiting from his own universe (plausible) or does he have a 616 counterpart who survived into the modern day? I'm going with the latter here in large part because the former would mean this entry would have to cover EVERY expanded universe Darth Vader appearance, but also because he's seen hanging out in the same crowd as Yoda without the pair of them fighting. So if this is 616 Darth some parts of history clearly differ from the main Star Wars universe. The most obvious is, he didn't die, so perhaps he never had kids who fought him and helped bring about his demise. Assuming his history matches where required to get him to the point where he dons his armor, but then diverges so he doesn't die, he'd still have been born on Tatooine to Shmi Skywalker, still have been recruited to the Jedi by Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, still have married Padme and lost her to turn him to the Dark Side, but then something thereafter diverged - maybe when Padme died, so too did the unborn children?

   What is he doing with the Conquest? Since he doesn't seem to take part in the invasion, and the scene he is in comes across like the Conquest leader is making a presentation, he and others present may not be actual members but instead neutral observers from other worlds. Since he didn't go down to Earth, I'm not counting the X-Men in his enemies.

   I'm not 100% sure that it is meant to be Darth at the Venom auction, as the image lacks detail, but given the same auction row seems to hold (from right to left) Hellboy, E.T. (another Conquest alien), a Xenomorph (Alien, and another Conquest alien), what I think is DC's Swamp Thing, Darth and then what I think is a Tie-Fighter Pilot, we've definitely got cameos from other universes, so it's not much of an ask to assume that is meant to be Darth.

   This profile was completed 09/13/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary's celebratory event.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Darth Vader has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Uncanny X-Men I#245, p3, pan1 (main image, with the Conquest)
Marvel Knights Spider-Man#6, p22, pan4 (attending auction)

Appearances:
Uncanny X-Men I#245 (June 1989) - Chris Claremont (writer), Rob Liefeld (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Bob Harras (editor)
Marvel Knights Spider-Man#6 (December 2004) - Mark Millar (writer), Terry Dodson (pencils), Rachel Dodson (inks), Axel Alonso (editor)

First Posted: 09/14/2021
Last updated: 09/13/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
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