When the preview pages for Legacy of Vader were released back in January, there was a panel in particular that created a lot of stir in the Star Wars fandom: images of Darth Vader killing Watto.
It created a lot of discussion because, well, everything does with Star Wars fans online. But it turns out that it was much ado about nothing, because with the release of the full issue, it was revealed that this was a misdirect. Legacy of Vader #2 tells of Vaneé giving Kylo Ren a tour of Tatooine. Among many other things, Vaneé teaches Kylo that Darth Vader (aka Anakin Skywalker) was once a slave on Tatooine. Kylo was angered by this revelation, and he imagined that surely Vader returned to Tatooine to kill Watto. But Vaneé informed him that, no, Darth Vader did not kill Watto, as he was focused on other things.
So after all that, we’re really in the same spot as we were before: we don’t know what happened to Watto. But we do know it wasn’t Vader who killed him. This was some very deceitful marketing, but that’s pretty par for the course with comics, trying to generate interest in the full issue by painting a picture of something that isn’t exactly as it seems.
Its inclusion in this issue is mainly meant to show that Kylo, who is intent on killing the past, imagined that Vader did the same. Not long after learning about Watto, Kylo also learns that Gardulla the Hutt first owned Anakin, and Kylo sets out to confront the Hutt – and kill him. In other words, Kylo wants to do to Gardulla what he imagined Vader did to Watto. He’s just not right about what he imagined.
Star Wars Thoughts 