Warning! Spoilers ahead for Darth Vader #17
At the end of Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters, it's officially confirmed that Darth Vader can survive a fall from orbit. Being tasked to make an example of the Hutt Clans, the Dark Lord of the Sith is genuinely caught off guard by Bokku the Hutt, one of the Clans' leaders whom he had forced into his service prior to Crimson Dawn's auction of the still-carbonized Han Solo (the event that kickstarted the war). Now, the latest Darth Vader tie-in issue reveals Bokku's true allegiances, and Bokku commits one final act of revenge against Vader, it forces the Dark Lord to perform one of his most impressive feats ever.
In Darth Vader #17 from writer Greg Pak and artist Raffaele Ienco, the Dark Lord intended to use Solo as bait to draw out his son Luke Skywalker, determined to kill the young Jedi before his master Emperor Palpatine could corrupt Luke into becoming his new apprentice (which would lead to Vader being replaced). While the end of the War of the Bounty Hunters sees Vader in a starfighter dogfight with Luke (and gaining the upper hand), he gets orders from Palpatine to go after the Hutts instead. Obeying his master, Darth Vader boards the Hutt Clans' capital ship, slaying several of the Council leaders before approaching Bokku the Hutt himself.
Darth Vader is rarely taken by surprise, the reveal from Bokku that he's always been an agent of Crimson Dawn certainly catches him off-guard. While it didn't stop Bokku from meeting his demise thanks to Vader's lightsaber, it's evident that the Dark Lord underestimated the Hutt, leading to him falling prey to Bokku's final act of revenge: catching Darth Vader in a rigged explosion. While the explosion and quick exposure to the brutality of space would have been the end for lesser beings, Darth Vader survives using his control over the dark side of the Force to manipulate the debris, forming an improvised escape pod that allows him to fall down to the surface of the planet Jekara unharmed, officially confirming his ability to walk away from an orbital drop.
While Darth Vader has performed various incredible feats in the past (such as taming a summa-verminoth on Exegol or surviving the brutality of Mustafar without his limbs), this latest act of surviving a fall from outer space is definitely one of his more impressive. It's yet another example of how hard it is to kill the Dark Lord, confirming that he's quite literally one of the most powerful beings in the entire galaxy. He's the epitome of the very reason why Crimson Dawn has formed: to end the Sith's monopoly of power they've been holding over the galaxy for years.
In any case, Vader's survival has motivated the dark apprentice of Emperor Palpatine to root out any Crimson Dawn agents and spies within the Empire itself, going to war against their corruption and influence before they can do any further damage. Despite his ability to walk away from the major attempt on his life, Darth Vader is not one to forgive and forget. As Star Wars comics prepare for December's Crimson Reign event, Crimson Dawn better prepare for the full wrath of a vengeful Darth Vader in the issues to come.