10 Facts Every Star Wars Fan Needs to Know About Darth Vader’s Armor

Darth Vader is one of the most fascinating characters in the Star Wars mythos, if not the most intriguing character, and that extends to every aspect of him, including his iconic armor. Darth Vader is arguably the greatest villain of all time because he is so recognizable. Even the most casual Star Wars fan knows who Darth Vader is on sight, and it’s all thanks to his mechanical suit.

However, while practically everyone on Earth will recognize Darth Vader because of his suit, few people know all the details about it. Sure, most fans know that Darth Vader’s suit is the only thing keeping him alive following his devastating loss to Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar, but that only scratches the surface of what fans should know. Here are the 10 most interesting facts about Darth Vader’s armor!

10

Darth Vader’s Suit Has a ‘Stealth Mode’

One of the most iconic aspects of Darth Vader’s suit is his breathing apparatus, as it produces the labored, heavy breathing Star Wars fans know and love. It was always assumed that Darth Vader needed his respirator to be operational at all times to survive, but it turns out that isn’t the case.

In Darth Vader #18 (2018), Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin were being tested by the Emperor and were forced to hunt each other on a hostile planet. During the hunt, Vader uses his suit’s ‘stealth mode’ by turning off his respirator and sneaking up on Tarkin’s camp, giving him the edge in their game. Tarkin admits that he didn’t know Vader’s suit could do that, and neither did fans until that moment.

9

The Tech in Darth Vader’s Armor is Obsolete

Darth Vader’s armor might be iconic, but when it comes to comparable tech in the Star Wars universe, it’s actually really bad; obsolete bad. Fans learn this in Star Wars: Darth Vader #9 (2020), when the assassin Ochi (who was hired by Palpatine to kill Vader to test Vader’s strength) partnered with a couple of assassin droids to take Vader down, promising them Vader’s tech when the job was done. Needless to say, the droids weren’t happy.

After looking at just a piece of Vader’s armor that came off during an attack, the assassin droids were furious with Ochi, since they were risking their lives for tech that had been obsolete for decades. Interestingly, this was a deliberate choice by Palpatine to put Vader in old armor, as it made it easier to control (and torment) Vader.

8

Darth Vader Can Augment His Armor

While Emperor Palpatine gave Darth Vader obsolete tech in his armor, Vader has been able to augment his suit on numerous occasions, making it more powerful. The most extreme augmentation came at the tail end of Darth Vader’s Marvel Comics series in Star Wars: Darth Vader #50, when Darth Vader souped up his armor with the energy stolen from an entire planet to kill Emperor Palpatine.

Vader equipped his armor with energy capsules, allowing him to emit massive blasts capable of vaporizing entire legions of Stormtroopers with a single shot.

7

Darth Vader Has Jedi Armor

As previously mentioned, practically everyone on Earth knows what Darth Vader’s armor looks like. Still, many of them have no idea that he also has another suit of armor that he’s only worn once: Jedi armor. In the alt-reality continuity of Star Wars: Infinities, fans are shown a universe where Darth Vader didn’t die at the end of Return of the Jedi, and was able to live out the rest of his life as a Jedi.

Since Darth Vader still needed his suit to live, even after reclaiming his identity as the Jedi Anakin Skywalker, he ditched his iconic black armor for a nearly identical suit that is all white. This new suit indicated his turn to the light side of the Force, thereby giving his widely recognizable appearance a Jedi twist.

6

The Creator of Darth Vader’s Armor Revealed

In the Marvel Comics series Darth Vader (2015), it is revealed that Emperor Palpatine wasn’t actually the creator of Vader’s armor, as its actual creator was shown to be a scientist named Doctor Cylo. While this may seem like a trivial piece of information, it becomes more significant upon learning that Darth Vader isn’t the only person in Star Wars outfitted with Cylo’s tech.

Fans learn in this comic that Emperor Palpatine didn’t just order Cylo to build a suit and cybernetic enhancements for Darth Vader, but also for his potential replacements. Palpatine wanted backup apprentices ready to replace Vader at a moment’s notice. It’s fascinating to consider that the tech in Vader’s iconic armor is also being used by other people in the galaxy (before Vader murdered them, anyway).

5

Darth Vader’s Armor Can Be Hacked

In Star Wars: Darth Vader #13, it’s revealed that Darth Vader’s armor can be hacked by his enemies. Fans learn this when the bounty hunter droid, IG-88, uses a remote control device to hack into Vader’s cybernetics and force his robotic limbs to ignite his lightsaber and threaten to decapitate him.

While Darth Vader was able to get himself out of this particular jam thanks to his immeasurable strength in the Force, it’s still alarming to know that there are situations where Vader’s suit can be used against him.

4

Darth Vader Can Control Others with His Suit

Even though Darth Vader’s suit can be hacked, allowing others to control him, it also gives Vader the ability to control others. This was seen in Star Wars: Darth Vader #43, when Vader created inhibitor chips and implanted them in the minds of a team of Rebel cyborgs called the MAR Corps. The MAR Corps was tasked with killing Vader, but instead, they became his slaves.

Darth Vader was able to control them through his armor, as the technology in his suit was linked to the MAR Corps’ inhibitor chips. With a mere thought, Vader ordered the former Rebel cyborgs to carry out his villainous tasks, something that wouldn’t be possible without his iconic armor.

3

Removing Darth Vader’s Armor is More Painful Than Fans Know

It’s no secret that removing Darth Vader’s armor is a painful experience for him, given the nature of why he had to wear it in the first place. But many fans might not appreciate just how painful that experience truly is, at least not until Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Lost Command.

In that comic, fans watch as Vader’s armor gets removed from his body, and while that’s happening, Vader has to imagine a fictional future with his lost love, Padmé Amidala. Only the thought of Padmé was enough to numb the pain of removing his suit from his mutilated body, which is a level of understanding fans might wish they had never learned.

2

Darth Vader Can Weaponize His Cape

Darth Vader’s armor may be iconic, but his widely recognizable appearance wouldn’t be complete without his cape. While mostly for show, Vader’s cape offers him some tactical advantages, as seen in Star Wars: Thrawn – Alliances #2. In that comic, Vader and Thrawn are on the verge of being trapped in fast-drying, ultra-strong concrete until Vader uses his cape to free them both.

Vader uses the Force to wrap a piece of his cape around his arm before the permacrete dries. When the permacrete finally does engulf them, Vader pushes his cape outward from his arm with the Force, breaking the concrete and allowing Vader and Thrawn to escape. Fans already knew Vader’s cape completed his iconic appearance, but they didn’t know how useful it could be until that moment.

1

Anakin Skywalker Wore His Iconic Suit BEFORE Becoming Darth Vader

Fans might think Anakin Skywalker had to fall to the dark side before he got his iconic armor, but that’s actually not true. In Star Wars Adventures #13 (set during the Clone Wars), Anakin is thwarting a plot by the Separatists involving villainous actors and a poisonous gas. The actors had gas masks, armored costumes, and capes, and Anakin stole one of them to go undercover and thwart the evil scheme.

The gas mask, armor, and cape combination was the spitting image of Darth Vader. It was meant to be a moment of ominous foreshadowing in a story geared towards a younger readership, and it certainly hit its mark, as this Star Wars comic showed Anakin Skywalker wearing his iconic suit (or, at least a version of it) before he even became Darth Vader.

Died

Star Wars: Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi

Alliance

Jedi, Sith

Race

Human