All Sith wield red lightsabers, even earning the nickname “red blades” from their enemies, and Darth Vader is no exception, as his red lightsaber caused more damage across the galaxy than any other. Yet many fans don't know the origin of Vader's deadly weapon, but thankfully, Star Wars comics provide a complete, and bleak, answer.

Marvel's Darth Vader #1 – written by Charles Soule with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli – picks up at the exact moment following the end of Revenge of the Sith, with Vader’s uncontrolled sorrow and rage manifesting physically through the Force, after his devastating injuries at the hands of his former Master and friend Obi-Wan Kenobi.

When Palpatine asks Vader where his lightsaber is, Vader responds that he lost it on Mustafar. Palpatine, manipulating Vader when he is arguably at his weakest, tells him that that lightsaber belonged to Anakin Skywalker, who is now dead.

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Darth Vader #1 – Written By Charles Soule; Art By Giuseppe Camuncoli; Released In 2017

Throughout the prequel trilogy and the series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker carries a blue lightsaber. While other characters oftentimes go through multiple iterations of their weapons –such as Ahsoka, who had green blades while she was a Jedi, and then white blades when she became a rebel – Anakin’s weapon remained. Though Anakin lost his lightsaber too often for his master’s liking, the replacement blade was consistently blue. After the duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin on Mustafar, Obi-Wan takes Anakin’s lightsaber, leaving him to die weaponless, making the origin of Vader’s red lightsaber all the more intriguing.

In Marvel's Darth Vader comic series, Palpatine sends Vader on a mission to find a surviving Jedi and defeat them in order to claim their lightsaber in battle and make it his own by bleeding the kyber crystal and bending it to his will. Vader sets out on his mission and learns of a Jedi named Kirak Infil’a, who was unaffected by Order 66, due to taking a vow to remain separate from the affairs of the Jedi Order. Kirak is a masterful fighter, both physically and with the Force, and senses Vader’s approach.

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The fight between the two is brutal, with Kirak leaving Vader for dead after throwing him off of a mountainside, and Vader putting himself back together out of sheer spite. Upon resuming the battle, Vader eventually gets the better of Kirak and slays the Jedi, claiming the lightsaber as his reward. However, simply winning the lightsaber in a fight is not enough for a Sith, as the weapon itself must be turned to the dark side just like its master. Through a mentally taxing process, Vader manages to bend the kyber crystal, a living entity, to his will, making it bleed red.

Engaging a powerful Jedi in battle was a difficult task for the newly “born” Darth Vader.

When one re that Obi-Wan took Anakin’s lightsaber and later gave it to Luke, it does raise the question as to where Vader secured a new one. If Vader were simply allowed to take one of the thousands of lightsabers the Empire collected from dead Jedi, the weapon would not truly be his. Engaging a powerful Jedi in battle was a difficult task for the newly “born” Darth Vader, but ultimately, Kirak’s lightsaber became corrupted into a weapon that killed the innocents the Jedi were meant to protect.

Marvel's Darth Vader is available now in its entirety from Marvel Comics.