Few of those who stood against Darth Vader survived to tell about it. Immediately after his fall to the dark side, he murdered the Jedi during Order 66, wielding his lightsaber and Force powers. In fact, the original Star Wars trilogy showed just how bloodthirsty he was, as–just in the course of the first film–he tortured Leia, watched Alderaan get blown up, killed Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Force choked his own officer.
Despite how menacing Vader is in the films, many of his most incredible feats take place in the comics. The stories created before Disney acquired the rights to Star Wars are now part of the Legends continuity. In many ways, this is an appropriate label, as the Dark Lord of the Sith’s fighting abilities are truly legendary in these stories.
10 He Walked Into An Ambush Against Multiple Jedi Masters And Cut His Way Out
During the Jedi Purge that Palpatine initiated through Order 66, a number of Jedi escaped and regrouped. Unfortunately, one of them decided that this would be a great way to set a trap for Vader. Without telling the others, this Jedi leaked the Jedi’s location, and falsely stated that Obi-Wan Kenobi would be there, knowing this would draw the Vader out after Obi-Wan injured him on Mustafar.
The newly-appointed Sith Lord did show up and was almost killed in the fight, as he was battling against multiple Jedi Masters. Had the Jedi been better prepared, Vader would probably have perished.
9 Besieging the Howling Ruins And Executing Cho’na Bene
One of the worlds which resisted the rise of the Empire was Vaklin. They had a close relationship with the Jedi stationed there and did not plan to surrender to some new government power they had never heard of.
Vader and his forces traveled to the planet and besieged an old fortress called the Howling Ruins, where the Jedi Cho’na Bene set a trap for them. In fact, Cho’na continued to plague the Imperial forces repeatedly. Vader bested the Cho’na in an old gas-filled mine but left the Jedi there without killing him. Instead, the Sith Lord had a trained specialist in a Stormtrooper’s armor kill the gas-weakened Cho’na in public when he emerged from the mine. This discredited the Jedi Order by making it look like any old Stormtrooper grunt could beat a Jedi Master. The planet gave into the Empire soon after.
8 The Ninth Assassin Was Assassinated By Vader
When the Empire rose to power, Darth Vader quickly established himself as the iron fist enforcing Emperor Palpatine’s will over the Galaxy. Many people recognized this and tried to stop him. Eight different assassination attempts were foiled.
The Ninth Assassin was different. He planned ahead and devised a way to ambush the Dark Lord of the Sith, using explosives, terrain, and specialized weapons to his advantage. It also proved to be in vain. During their fight, Vader repeatedly praised the Ninth Assassin and tried to recruit him, but ultimately, he ended up killing his would-be executioner.
7 He Battled Plo Koon’s Niece And A Pack Of Cthons In Corscuant’s Lower Levels
Plo Koon was a Dor Jedi Master who was as polite and humble as he was stubborn. He was also one of the most skilled warriors and powerful telepaths on the Jedi High Council. While he died in the Jedi Purge, his niece, a Dor girl named Sha Koon, survived him.
Sha sought vengeance for the heartbreaking deaths of her uncle and the other Jedi so set a trap for Darth Vader, ambushing him in the undercity of Coruscant. She forced him to fight hordes of monsters called Cthons and used an electric net to entrap him before attacking. Sha Koon’s lightsaber struck like Force lightning, whirling and flashing with a master’s precision. She was almost as skilled a warrior as her uncle. But almost wasn’t good enough to stop Darth Vader.
6 He Quashed A Coup That Almost Killed The Emperor
When Palpatine seized control of the Republic at the end of the Clone Wars, he was the most powerful Force user in the Galaxy—at least in terms of combat abilities. The few Jedi Masters who might have opposed him were either wiped out during Order 66 or else sent into hiding (as Yoda and Obi-Wan were).
Despite this, Palpatine was almost slain when his own Imperial officers and their loyal cadets launched a coup, unleashing Aorth-6, a deadly bio-weapon that spread as a gas and melted the lungs of anyone who breathed it in. Vader’s mask protected him, and he cut down the cadets responsible for the initial coup even as he rallied to deal with the rest.
5 He Stormed The Jedi’s Secret Ghost Prison
Millennia before the rise of Clone Wars, the Jedi built a secret prison during the Second Great Schism to contain Dark Jedi. The facility was known as the Prism, or the Ghost Prison, and was designed to hold any enemy. When Vader learned of its existence, he went there to find new soldiers to press into the service of the Empire.
Roughly half of the more than two hundred prisoners had been arrested by Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars. He released them all, killing more than a hundred of them before winning over the rest as his new personal army.
4 Vader’s Great Victory And Terrible Defeat Against The Jedi Master Hylon On Otavon XII
The Battle of Otavon XII was one of the examples of the Empire demonstrating its power to quash any and all who opposed them. Darth Vader oversaw the local Imperial outpost, Tremor Base, as they began constructing AT-ATs.
When the local inhabitants attacked, he leaped from the walls of the city and fell upon the insurgents. There were two Jedi said to be organizing these rebellious locals. He killed a Padawan with ease, then tracked down the boy’s Master. During the fight, the Jedi Master surprised Vader with a hidden second blade, but Vader was not so easily overcome. As the Jedi died, he revealed his name was Hylon, which meant trickster. The “trick” was that while Vader was out hunting Jedi, the local insurgents overran Tremor Base, killing all the Imperials and destroying the AT-ATs.
3 He Unleashed The Rakghouls Against The Rebellion
The Rakghoul Plague was a deadly disease that caused widespread terror on the world of Taris during the time of the Old Republic. Anyone who got within close proximity of a Rakghoul could be infected, transforming the person into a zombie-like trollish Rakhoul.
When a Jedi from the Old Republic was discovered frozen in statis, she was released, bringing the Rakghoul Plague back with her. Vader set a trap for the Rebels, allowing them to fall victim to the disease. This was the rare example of him fighting smart, setting a trap rather than relying on his usual brute-force approach.
2 He Dueled With His Apprentice Starkiller
Starkiller is best known as the protagonist of the video game The Force Unleashed and its sequel, but he also appeared in the comics (notably in The Force Unleashed comic written by Haden Blackman with art by Brian Ching, Bong Dazo, and Wayne Nichols).
It was no small thing for these two to fight each other. Starkiller was a remarkably powerful Force user, trained to be Vader’s apprentice. He knew all of his master’s tricks and had the raw power to do serious damage. Despite this, Vader plunged his lightsaber through his apprentice’s torso.
1 He Destroyed The Order Of The Headless Snake
There was an ancient dark side cult known as the Order of the Headless Snake (also called the Heinsnake Cult). After they sent several suicide bombers to attack the Empire, Vader tracked them down, finding them at an ancient temple.
The cult greeted the Sith Lord, saying they had awaited his coming. The walls of their temple were decorated with ancient paintings predicting the prophesied coming of Vader, who they believed would destroy the Jedi and the Empire, spreading chaos through the Galaxy. This seemed to be the origin of the Chosen One Prophecy. Vader had already destroyed the Jedi. While he would not betray the Empire until many years later, he lit up his lightsaber and demonstrated to the cult just what sort of chaos he was capable of spreading.
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