Star Wars has introduced another villainous figure who, much like Kylo Ren, is obsessed with becoming as powerful and influential as Darth Vader.
When the son of Han Solo made his debut in The Force Awakens, what he had going for himself was basically an obsession with his grandfather, which Snoke exploited to manipulate him into becoming a dark-side practitioner. Now, we have another figure within the Imperial hierarchy who wants to rise to the rank of Darth Vader and take his place at Palpatine’s side. In Star Wars: Darth Vader #6, the Empire deploys a Mon Calamari commander whose cybernetic enhancements make him resemble General Grievous.
General Karbin is the creation of a scientist known as Cylo, who is an enhanced individual himself. Modifying himself with so much technology, Cylo is essentially an immortal system that the Emperor uses to create dark-side warriors who can perform Force-induced tasks without having Force-sensitivity themselves.
As you can see above, the Mon Calamari General is a powerful being and can even mirror Grievous’ four-bladed lightsaber spin, not to mention his cybernetic enhancements are basically what the former Separatist general used to escape his death. Except, unlike Grievous who always calculated and strategized his moves, rarely making a mistake, Karbin’s shortcoming is his ambition to measure up to Darth Vader and even thwart him.
In fact, the character appears several times throughout this issue and doesn’t turn down the opportunity to challenge the Chosen One or at the very least, hide his obsession. And that is what ultimately fuels his downfall.
Though unlike Ben Solo, who found redemption like Vader in the last Star Wars film, those inspired by the fallen Anakin Skywalker aren’t always lucky, and Karbin will go down as a prime example of a person “choking on his aspirations.”
