One of Darth Vader's Sith apprentices, Kharys, demonstrated the horror of the dark side in Marvel’s classic Star Wars comics. Marvel adapted 1977’s Star Wars in the first six issues of its comic series before telling new stories which became among the first installments in the pre-Disney canon Expanded Universe continuity, now called Star Wars Legends. The comics were written and released as the Star Wars franchise took shape, yet they understood its characters and universe astoundingly well.
While many refer to a light side and dark side of the Force, many stories accept the premise that the former doesn’t truly exist. In this philosophy, the “light side” is simply the Force, a fundamental energy that exists in harmony with all life in the galaxy, while the Force’s dark side has no redeeming qualities and intrinsically creates imbalance, tempting Force-users with promises of anything they desire but leaving them with nothing in the end. Marvel’s Star Wars comics accepted this idea, depicting the unnatural horrors of the dark side through Sith Lords like Darth Vader and his acolytes like Kharys.
In Star Wars Annual #1: The Long Hunt (written by Chris Claremont and penciled by Mike Vosburg), Darth Vader’s unofficial Sith trainee, the S'kytri known as Kharys, conjures a Smoke Demon, which infiltrates the Millennium Falcon. The dark side-fueled creature kills Han Solo’s longtime friend, ally, and former romantic partner Katya M'Buele, absorbing her into its monstrous form. The Smoke Demon nearly absorbs Luke Skywalker next, but he manages to kill it with his father’s lightsaber, showing that the classic Marvel comics understood the significance of the Jedi weapon.
In Legends continuity, Smoke Demons were extremely physically strong and durable, overpowering Wookiees (whose exceptional strength was often demonstrated in Marvel’s comics) and shrugging off blaster bolts with ease. A desperate Luke Skywalker killed Kharys’ Smoke Demon with his lightsaber, impaling the creature with it. While most lightsaber lore hadn’t been established in the Star Wars franchise quite yet, later works would reveal that the weapons are powered by crystals, each with a connection to either the Force or its dark side, explaining how Luke’s weapon destroyed the seemingly invulnerable Smoke Demon.
While Smoke Demons haven’t appeared in any other canon or Legends property (aside from being described in the Legends-era Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side), they served as a chilling yet fascinating reminder that the potential applications of the Force and its dark side are limitless. Kharys wasn’t a true Sith, but her tutelage under Darth Vader proved how deadly a Dark Lord could be, and Luke’s conflict with her helped further prepare him for the enemies he’d face as a Jedi Knight. Darth Vader tutored Kharys in the unnatural powers of the dark side by the events of Marvel’s Star Wars comics, with the horrific Smoke Demon acting as an early (and incredibly successful) attempt to communicate both the horrific nature and overwhelming power of the dark side.