Max Nocerino 
Max takes a space detour to check out Marvel’s Star Wars: Dark Droids #4 – where the droid uprising continues to cause chaos!
Better late than never, STAR WARS: DARK DROIDS #4 continues the A.I. uprising trend and gives some exciting surprises more science-fiction than fantasy.
Dark Droids #4 continues to show us how talented a storyteller Charles Soule is. The A.I. uprising motif, while cliche in sci-fi, is one of my favorites and they are certainly doing an excellent job. The Scourge continues to add more droids into its hive mind, and its sick and grotesque experiments to forcibly merge droids with machines have now crossed over to its own body. The Scourge’s main body has organic limbs grafted onto its torso. It makes my skin crawl to see it. Also, in a super-creative first, the Scourge has compartmentalized aspects of itself into several more specialized droid bodies. Aspects that fulfill a specific task such as planning battles or consolidating wisdom. It’s kind of like a sub-hive mind at this point, and I am just in love with the creativity.
THE SCOURGE
Scourge is working against the clock as it needs to spread its mind faster. It’s already gotten control over many cyborgs. But it needs to propagate its consciousness signal out to more droids. Its solution was to hijack this SETI-telescope array planet called Epikonia and spread the Scourge through things that look like CDs. Compact discs that are upgrades for all the droids in the sector. Meanwhile, the Empire is on lockdown and destroying all its droids as a cautionary measure. Post 9/11 over-alarmism parallels anyone?
I also get brilliant Frankenstein vibes (again) with Ajax Sigma, who is a separate droid leader who is attempting his brand of droid rebellion. However, he does not want to take over the galaxy. He instead just wants him and other Enlightened droids to be free. To live with purpose as organics do. He regards himself as the “first” generation. A droid that has become enlightened. Gen 2 are droids he has “rescued”. And Gen 3 are new droids that he is building himself. Machines making machines. How perverse! (as a wise but annoying shiny gold droid guy once said). Yet, like Dr. Frankenstein, Sigma angrily destroys his creation on the operating table, as he has become despondent due to the loss of many of his uplifted comrades. The panelist who drew it gets some serious points here, as the emotion it conveys is quite exhilarating.
VERDICT
I cannot complain a lick about this miniseries or this story event. My only gripe is that it will soon be over. However, I have tons of unanswered questions, and hope the writers don’t trip at the finish line. Anyone can write a good beginning. A story is only as good as its conclusion. A+
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FORCE FACTS
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The Empire is referring to this twist in the plot as the Droid Emergency. Seems like a good name. It certainly is an emergency as the galaxy has not dealt with a droid uprising since Ajax Sigma’s first one during the High Republic Era.
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The Scourge has created more sub-bodies that converse with one another but also are one another. One is the Scholar, another is the Warrior and they even have a tiny droid that looks like Robot Boy from the eponymous Japanese series, that is the Child, and harbors all of Scourge’s fears and caution. How this system works is beyond me, but I like being confused and this is the right way to do it.
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The droid security patches (kind of like updates for apps here on Earth) are deliciously retro-future 1980s compact disks that look like the old CDs I had as a child. Bulky and large, it fits the GFFA aesthetic perfectly.
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Sometimes, Scourge has a glitch, where part of its hive mind decides what is doing is wrong. It is quickly “corrected” but it makes me marvel at how a sea of countless electronic minds might interact with each other. Much like fleeting virtual particles in the vacuum of space, changes of heart pop in and out of existence, it would seem.
STAR WARS: DARK DROIDS #4 is published by Marvel Comics and is available to buy now!
Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
