Star Wars: 10 Most Powerful Things Darth Vader Ever Did
2. Stopped An AT-AT From Crushing Him - Star Wars #2
Darth Vader and the crew of the Millennium Falcon had several more confrontations between the events of A New Hope (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980), most of which are depicted in Marvel's Star Wars series of recent years.
In one of the earlier arcs of the series, Luke Skywalker finds himself face to face with Darth Vader, with the two of them preparing to engage in a lightsaber duel for the first time; a duel that doesn't last long, and ends with Vader wielding both blades and threatening to kill Luke if he does not reveal Rebel secrets (including the identity of the pilot who destroyed the Death Star)
Vader is prevented from killing Luke by two things: the realisation that the lightsaber he is holding is the same one that he wielded as Anakin Skywalker, and that fact that a seventy-foot AT-AT walker crashes through the ceiling of the room that he is currently standing in.
The walker is piloted by Han Solo and Princess Leia, having stolen it off of some Imperial troops earlier. Solo realises that he has an opportune moment to kill Vader by stepping on him with the AT-AT. This doesn't exactly pan out, as right before the foot comes down on the Sith Lord, Vader uses the Force to stop the AT-AT from crushing him. Vader would happily reduced the walker to scrap metal were it not for the intervention of blaster cannons under the control of R2-D2.
Most people would find that being stepped on by an AT-AT proves to be fatal (see: Derek Klivian, Luke's co-pilot during the Battle of Hoth), but not Darth Vader. The Sith Lord is strong enough to lift vehicles dozens of times larger than he is, proving his power as a member of the Galactic Empire.