No, Leia isn't getting married - she's joining the dark side with a "startling" father-daughter team-up in Star Wars: Darth Vader #50

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Derek Chew's variant cover for Star Wars: Darth Vader #50 shows what happens when Leia becomes Vader's dark side apprentice

Star Wars: Darth Vader #50 variant cover
(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

In the original Star Wars trilogy, Darth Vader tries to entice his son Luke Skywalker to join the dark side and rule the galaxy by his side. But it's hinted that there's another possible Force user in the family - Luke's secret twin sister Leia Organa. And in Darth Vader #50, readers will get a peek at an alternate timeline where Leia becomes Vader's apprentice - complete with her own white version of his iconic body armor.

Leia joins the dark side in a back-up story by series writer Greg Pak and artist Luke Ross which "explores the possibility" of a father-daughter team-up in an apparent alt-reality. Artist Derek Chew's "startling" (Marvel's terminology) variant cover for Star Wars: Darth Vader #50 shows off Leia's armored look as Vader's apprentice, seen here:

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

What's so startling about it? Well, perhaps unintentionally, it does look a bit like a wedding dress thanks to the veil, which actually appears to be a reference to the cloak Leia wears in the beginning of Star Wars: A New Hope. But the real shocker is the idea that Leia would give herself over to the Sith. A similar story of Leia becoming Vader's apprentice was previously told in the 2001 Dark Horse Comics title Star Wars Infinities, which told What If? style stories set in the Star Wars galaxy.

"GIANT-SIZED DARTH VADER EPIC! The longest-running DARTH VADER comics series ever reaches its stunning conclusion as THE DARK HEART OF THE SITH comes full circle!" reads Marvel's official description of Star Wars: Darth Vader #50, the final issue of this volume of the title.

"Darth Vader finally unleashes the unfathomable power he's accumulated through the SCHISM IMPERIAL against the only person in the galaxy he hates more than he hates himself – EMPEROR PALPATINE!" it continues. "Also featuring the final twists in the saga for key characters like LUKE, LEIA, SABÉ, OCHI, ZED, SLY MOORE, the members of the Schism Imperial and more!"

Star Wars: Darth Vader #50 goes on sale September 18.

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George Marston
George Marston
Entertainment Writer

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011, and now I'm the Entertainment Writer at GamesRadar+. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)