Emperor Palpatine Easily Killed The Star Wars Universe’s Greatest Predator

Warning: spoilers ahead for Darth Vader #11!

Emperor Palpatine easily killed the Star Wars universe’s greatest predator. Darth Vader #11 pits the Sith lord against his own monster, with Darth Vader at the reigns. Unfortunately for Lord Vader, even the galaxy’s apex predator cannot withstand Darth Sidious’ attacks.

The summa-verminoth first appeared within this series in Darth Vader #10. That issue saw the Sith Lord go straight up against it and come out of its attack as its new master. This beast first appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story and thus far has been generally indestructible except against highly extreme forces. Vader ended the previous issue by riding the beast straight to Exegol to confront his master.

Created by Greg Pak, Raffaele Ienco, Neeraj Menon, and Vc Joe Caramagna, Darth Vader #11 brings Emperor Palpatine face to face with his pet. The summa-verminoth was used by the Sith Lord to protect his interests – and dark secrets – on the planet of Exegol. Despite Vader turning it into his own steed to ride into battle, Darth Sidious has proven that his power is definitely beyond belief. None of his defenses are enough to stop himself from getting what he wants and destroying what he must.

As mentioned before the summa-verminoth is an apex predator in the galaxy that has previously appeared in one of the Star Wars films. In that instance, it was defeated by quick thinking from Han Solo, causing it to be drawn into a gravity well. While this was very strategic and vanquished the beast, the actual destruction was caused by intense natural forces within the galaxy itself. This time, the summa-verminoth is obliterated by the Sith master’s sheer power. It doesn’t matter that it could attack psychologically or that it was determined to be a strong creature by the Emperor himself. The summa-verminoth has nothing on Darth Sidious which is very scary and intriguing.

Emperor Palpatine claimed that he had prepared for everything, which does not seem to match the occurrences of this issue at first glance. No one is supposed to survive the attacks of this creature, much less ride it into battle. Vader genuinely believed that the summa-verminoth would give him an upper hand – or even just a fighting chance – against his master. Despite being an accomplished apprentice and a powerful Sith, Darth Vader still has a lot to learn about his master’s actual potential and power.

It seems easy to gloss over Star Wars’ summa-verminoth and this moment, since it is vanquished just as quickly as it appeared. However, this just speaks to the abilities that Emperor Palpatine has. He truly has prepared for everything. His defense was breached and then turned into a tool against him. Does that actually stop him? No, because he is stronger than all of his own safeguards. The final line of defense isn’t the summa-verminoth, it’s Darth Sidious himself. He isn’t just an evil Sith who can shoot Force Lightning from his hands or a master manipulator ruling an empire – Darth Sidious IS the Star Wars galaxy’s apex predator and he has the abilities to back that up.

About The Author

Samantha King
(829 Articles Published)

Samantha King is a Comic News Writer for Screen Rant. She has a B.A. in English & American Literature with a concentration in Shakespeare and a minor in Creative Writing from UTEP. She also has a M.S. in Library Science from the University of North Texas.

Samantha used to get in trouble for reading comics in class back in high school, but she gets the last laugh. She took a graphic novel course in college and now gets paid to write about comics. She runs her own blog at: www.therealworldaccordingtosam.blogspot.com

More From Samantha King