Long before Darth Vader became a nightmare to one Tusken clan, Tatooine had already played a major role in Anakin Skywalker’s fall. Official Star Wars canon says Shmi Skywalker died in a Tusken camp, and that Anakin’s massacre of the Tuskens after finding her body was one of the moments that began his descent to the dark side.
Years later, in Darth Vader (2015) #1, Vader returned to Tatooine after the Battle of Yavin, met with Boba Fett and Krrsantan in the desert, and before leaving the planet, slaughtered an entire Tusken settlement.
Vader Returned To Tatooine And Created A New Tusken Legend
When Darth Vader came back to Tatooine in Darth Vader #1, it was already a dark return to the planet that had shaped Anakin Skywalker’s life and fall. This was after the Battle of Yavin, and Vader was on Tatooine while Boba Fett and Black Krrsantan carried out separate jobs for him.
But before he left the planet, he also did something much more personal. He wiped out an entire Tusken settlement in the desert, turning his old hatred into another massacre years after Shmi Skywalker’s death had pushed Anakin down that path in the first place.
What makes the story much darker is that the slaughter did not end there. The backup story “Coda” in Darth Vader #25 reveals that one Tusken survived Vader’s attack by hiding above the village and watching the destruction from a distance. After Vader left, that survivor wandered into the desert until another nomadic Tusken clan found him.
He told them about the black-armored warrior who had torn through his people, and the story left him “shockingly in awe” of the stranger in black. From that moment, Vader was no longer just a killer passing through Tatooine. To the Tuskens, he was already becoming something harder to explain.
The shaman of this new clan goes to the ruined village himself and sees the carnage Vader left behind. Stirred by what he finds, the clan builds an effigy of Darth Vader, with the remains of the dead engulfed in flames. The lone survivor is then tied to that monument and burned as part of the ritual.
