Marvel Star Wars: Issue 6: Is This the Final Chapter?

The cover is inaccurate. There are no Y-Wings in this issue.

Issue six closes out the adaptation of A New Hope with wall-to-wall space battle action. Its the entire Battle of Yavin, and Luke Skywalker & Blue Squadron fight their way to a hard-earned victory. Han saves Luke, Death Star blows up, everybody except Chewie gets a medal, you know the drill.

The scope of the battle here is much smaller than the movie. Gold Squadron's Y-Wings are completely absent. Blue Squadron consists of six starfighters, and that's it.

The final issue shakes up the creative team. While Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin remain as writer & penciller, the inks are now done by Rick Hoberg (who apprenticed under the great Russ Manning) & Bill Wray (who would go on to work on Ren & Stimpy and other animated shows) and the colors are by the future wife of Dave Cockrum, Paty (they married in 1978).

The different inks and colors give it a completely different feel to the action. The inks are thick and the neon colors are strikingly bold. Its some of the most consistently dynamic art of the adaptation, and just about every page looks like it would make for a great pop art poster.

No lie, I would hang this on a wall

And that wraps up the 70s Marvel adaptation of Star Wars (A New Hope was added later). Its okay. Its not great, and even for its time, the art isn't consistently great compared to other Marvel books from the time (Avengers was still an A level book and X-Men was on its way up. Savage Sword of Conan was knocking it out of the park consistently with top level art). As a read, its okay, but aside from the script differences, there's no real reason to choose to read these six issues over re-watching A New Hope.

Its an interesting time capsule of popular Sci-Fi commercial art from the late 1970s and an early look at interpreting the Star Wars universe, but there's not much to it beyond that. Optionial tier.

However, the issues sold very, very well, and Marvel found themselves with a successful book with a demand for an ongoing series, so ongoing series it became.

That's where it gets really interesting.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 5: Lo, The Moons of Yavin!

Having escaped from the Death Star, our heroes fend off a TIE fighter attack. An attack that was all too easily thwarted, because the Empire attached a tracking device to their ship.

We need to bring back exclamation points at the end of every issue title!

Aboard the Falcon, tensions rise between Luke, Leia and Han about money and Luke's attraction to the Princess. The ship reaches Yavin IV with the Death Star plans and an attack strategy is prepped. Luke signs on as an X-Wing pilot while Han & Chewie get paid and get ready to leave.

There's a happy reunion with Biggs and he meets Blue Leader. Yes, Blue Squadron, not the Red Squadron of the final film. Preparations complete, the starfighters leave the moon for their fateful mission.

This is going to get real awkward in 1983

This issue adds some more cut scenes back in, especially in the hangar before Blue Squadron leaves, which is a good decision to wrap around Luke & Biggs' relationship as it was established in the first issue.

This issue added Glynis Wein as the colorist, who was one of the most respected colorists in the industry and the then-wife of Len Wein, a comics legend in his own right (He co-created Swamp Thing and helped save the X-Men from total obscurity in the 70s by co-creating Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm & Colossus and putting them on the team). Just some fun side details.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 4: In Battle With Darth Vader

Luke, Han & Chewie have rescued Princess Leia, and jump into the garbage chute to escape the detention block. Garbage masher, escape, split up, Luke & Leia kiss and swing across a chasm, and everyone gets back to the Falcon in time to see Ben Kenobi's last duel with Darth Vader before they escape the Death Star's hangar. The creative team of Thomas, Chaykin, and Leialoha remains.

Hindsight is 20/20

Again, there's not a whole lot to say about this issue. It hews closely to the final product of the movie with a few art differences. Like Han shooting at the dianoga's tentacle reaching for them when they escape the garbage chute.

Ben Kenobi is also a lot sassier in his duel with Vader, which is a lot more visually dynamic than the film version. Then it ends on one of the weirdest depictions of Kenobi's death ever.

Its been 40 years. No spoiler warning for you

Its dynamic, its painful, its weird. It looks like Ben's electrocuted and incinerated at the same time, which I guess kind of works as a killing blow for a lightsaber, but even then lightsaber cuts were depicted inconsistently in the Original Trilogy. Sometimes they cauterize and sometimes they leave bloody messes. The only way the panel works at all is thanks to the 70s colors. Its a curious end to a well choreographed fight.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 3: Death Star!

Issue 3 picks up on the Death Star and Alderaan gets blown up on page two. That's where we are in the movie. In hyperspace, Ben Kenobi senses the destruction of the planet and then gives Luke his first lesson in Force training, which is slightly different from the movie.

They get to the Death Star and begin the rescue of Princess Leia. That's about it.

Not much different from the movie, and this is an action-oriented issue. The creative team of Roy Thomas, Howard Chaykin and Steve Leialoha remain, and the art is steadily improved from the last issue.

Wish I had more to say about this issue, but oh well. Gotta get through the movie adaptation issues before the real interesting stuff starts.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 2: Six Against the Galaxy!

Picking up with the Tusken Raider attack, there is a definite change in the quality of the art. Roy Thomas is still the writer and editor, Howard Chaykin remains the illustrator, but the addition of Steve Leialoha as the embellisher (inker) and colorist changes the entire texture of the issue. Leialoha would go on to have a long career, working at Marvel and DC on various titles.

Gone are Chaykin's sketchy in strokes, and the whole issue has a more photo accurate art style in general. I would assume that they received reference photos from Lucas as the movie came closer to release, but that's assumption. There are also more blues in the color palette, adding a cooling balance to the reds and oranges.

The plot follows along closely with the movie. Ben saves Luke and starts telling him about “The Force.” (Their quotes, not mine). Darth Vader interrogates Leia. Luke & Ben find the wrecked sandcrawler and then Luke's farm is burnt down. They go to Mos Eisley and hire Han Solo and Chewbacca. There is a firefight in the docking bay and they make the jump to lightspeed in the Millennium Falcon.

One point of difference is the deleted scene where Han meets Jabba that was restored in the Special Editions. This was well before Jabba's design was finalized as a giant slug, so here we have a random alien who would later be retconned as Mosep Binneed, Jabba's accountant and occasional face-man.

No, I'm not making that up.

There's not much to say about the issue. Its a faithful adaptation of that section of the movie and the slight shift in art style is for the better.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 1

I've spent more time than I really needed to thinking about how to approach the old Marvel Star Wars ongoing from the 70s and 80s. It was one of the original tie-in materials and would end up being a constant thread throughout the Original Trilogy's theatrical run and even outlived it, ending in 1986 with issue 107. That's almost a decade of comics and taken as a whole, its an impressive body of work. Individually, though, it goes in fits and starts, so that's how I figured I wanted to go through the series: Individually, and in fits and starts.

Launching in 1977 right before Star Wars was released (remember, A New Hope was added later), the first issue features scripting and editing by Silver & Bronze Age comics luminary Roy Thomas with art (pencils and inks) by Howard Chaykin early in his career.

The issue covers the beginning of the movie up to the point where Luke is attacked by Sand People in the Jundland Wastes while looking for Artoo.

Like the novelization, the comic script follows an earlier draft of the script than what the final movie would have. There's a lot more Luke on Tatooine stuff, where he witnesses the space battle from the ground and has a farewell meeting with Biggs. Its not something really missing from the movie, but in a medium like comics, the scene adds some good characterization beats for Luke's desire to get off Tatooine.

The art is very 1970s. Vehicles are oddly proportioned and frequently off-model, Chaykin's inks are frequently thick over somewhat sketchy pencils and the colors by Marie Severin are heavy on the reds, oranges and pinks in places. The hyper-stylized color scheme holds together thanks to Chaykin's dynamic poses, but I wouldn't call the art especially great, even for its time. 

Recently, Marvel re-released the six original issues in a “remastered” form with modern coloring techniques and a film-accurate palette, and it just looks like badly proportioned art (It kind of is, but the original coloring helped it stand as a stylistic choice).

The Biggs stuff is nice, the art can be polarizing, but it does feature the best version of Vader choking Admiral Motti, where he casually uses the Force to bring him a cup of coffee while he tortures him.

Legends Never Die: The Truce at Bakura

Released at the end of 1993, The Truce at Bakura followed hot on the heels of the Thrawn Trilogy. The first standalone Star Wars novel since Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Bakura is often overlooked in the early Expanded Universe since a lot of the things it introduced weren't really touched upon later and would get swallowed up in the blitz of EU material that was to come in 1994.

Its author, Kathy Tyers, was relatively new at the time. Her first book, Firebird, was published in 1987, with three more novels published before Truce at Bakura, all through Bantam Spectra (which had the Star Wars rights in the 90s).

The book begins immediately after the Battle of Endor. The victorious Rebel Alliance is licking its wounds and taking stock of the situation. Luke is exhausted and badly injured from his confrontation with the Emperor (and his Dark Side lightning), but he's forced into action when an obsolete message pod arrives in the system from an Imperial-held world that has been invaded by aliens. Sensing an opportunity to win over “Hearts and Minds,” Alliance High Command decides to send a small force to rescue the planet, Bakura, and diplomatically sway them away from the now-headless Empire.

An escort carrier and several fighter squadrons are all that can be spared, but Leia Organa is in charge of the diplomatic mission (Han, Chewie & the droids are along for the ride too, of course) and Luke is put in overall military command.

That's right, eagle-eyes. Rebels re-used the Quasar Fire-class in NuCanon

Arriving in the Bakura system, they find a well-developed world that was originally settled by corporate interests and developed a thriving repulsorlift industry. The locals hate droids thanks to an old uprising in the past, but they've only been recently incorporated into the Empire and many don't have a problem with its rule over them. A tentative truce is established to fend off the aliens, the reptilian Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium from the Unknown Regions.

Then all hell breaks loose when the truce is broken.

There's a lot going on inside this book. Luke is badly in need of rest and healing, but the burdens of his obligations (and because Ben's Force ghost told him to go) push him forward. He struggles with command, resisting the temptation of using the Dark Side to make life easier, detecting a Force user among the alien force, and an attraction to a pretty young Imperial senator from Bakura.

Leia's conflicts are more direct. She's got to deal with the Bakuran government that is only partly Anti-Imperial. The local governor proves to be a capable and wily negotiator himself. She does get some great personal moments, like where she wrestles with the knowledge of being Darth Vader's daughter, even going so far as telling Anakin's Force ghost off when he appears asking for forgiveness. She's written a bit inconsistently, too. Part of the agreement of the truce is that the Rebels won't stir up seditious behavior, which is exactly what she does. There's little things like that that stand out.

The new characters end up being some of the most interesting.

Commander Pter Thanas, the man in charge of military defense with his small Carrack-class cruiser, is actually a Good Guy Imperial. So good that he refused to punish an alien planet under his control and was transferred to a sleepy backwater for the rest of his career. He struggles between his duty and his conscience throughout the book.

Governor Wilek Nereus isn't a cartoonishly evil dictator when he's introduced. He rules Bakura with a fairly open hand, while never letting them forget who really rules their Senate. As the fighting worsens, his darker side comes to the surface, and he's revealed as an inveterate schemer with a fondness for poisons and taking the teeth of game he has hunted.

Gaeriel Captison is the pretty young Senator and an Imperial loyalist who fears the reputation of the Jedi and their abilities. She's also deeply religious, and devoted to the Cosmic Balance, which holds that a good deed on one end of the galaxy will be balanced out by a bad deed on the other end. Part of her fear of the Jedi stems from the belief that they heavily upset that delicate balance. Tyers herself is openly Christian (and later in her career would focus on writing Christian Sci-Fi), and the facet of Gaeriel's character isn't treated as a joke or something that overpowers the character, which is nice.

She's also got heterochromia of the eyes and her presence in the Force drives Luke's hormones wild, but she's actually not a mary sue, since she's not good at everything. She's only good at diplomacy. Unfortunately the romance between her and Luke doesn't really work, so its probably for the best that it doesn't work out between them by the end of the book.

The Ssi-Ruuk are an interesting race. Derisively called “fluties” because of their high-pitched language, they're xenophobic, imperialist dinosaur-men who believe that only they have souls. They capture and enslave people to power their technology, forcibly sucking out the life energy and consciousness of living beings (humans are great for this) to power their electronics and droids. This is called “entechment” and it lasts until the machine is destroyed or the poor bastard inside goes completely insane and dies a second death.

Its really quite horrifying.

Among them is a fifteen-year-old human boy named Dev Sibwarra. He's a powerful Force sensitive with strong empathic abilities and he's deeply affected by Stockholm Syndrome in a galaxy that doesn't even have a Stockholm. Poor Dev is a true believer in the Ssi-Ruuk cause and longs to be enteched, despite being abused for even minor failings. He's the presence that Luke sensed, and is part of why Luke drives himself to the physical brink trying to save this kid.

Also, Dev is brown-skinned of the Indian subcontinent variety, but that's secondary because this is how you do diversity without forcing it and publicly patting yourself on the back for inclusivity.

The overall plot is interesting and hustles along briskly, and the space combat scenes are well done. The middle bogs down a bit where it turns into diplomatic posturing. Han doesn't have a whole lot to do, aside from shoving Threepio into Stormtrooper armor at one point and doing space stuff in the Falcon. Some of the side characters, like the crew of the carrier Flurry, are untapped potential.

Its a Luke and Leia focused story that explores bittersweet themes of failure and loss, and sits on the better end of the Expanded Universe spectrum. The Ssi-Ruuk are an interesting, if one-dimensional villain race, and I like them because they're weird.

Not on the top level with Heir to the Empire or Han Solo at Stars' End, but still in the recommended tier. 

Legends Never Die: Lando Calrissian and the StarCave of ThonBoka

In the Fall of 1983, Del Rey published the last of the Lando Calrissian Adventures, Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka. Like the rest of L. Neil Smith's trilogy, it mixes gambling, comedy, Lando trying to find peaceful solutions to problems, Libertarian themes, and a hefty dose of weirdness.

This time, Lando and his astrogator/flight instructor Vuffi Raa meet and befriend a giant space manta that can naturally fly through hyperspace. His name is Lehesu and he's an Oswaft. Lehesu wanders innocently through the Centrality sector, but in doing so he draws the attention of the Centrality and Imperial Navies, who follow him to his home nebula of ThonBoka (literally “Starcave” in their language) and blockade it, slowly starving the Oswaft.

Deciding to help them, Lando runs food through the blockade by conning and gambling his way through the fleet, and plot threads draw to a conclusion. The strange renegades with a grudge against Vuffi Raa are fully explained, Rokur Gepta's origins and the fate of the Sorcerers of Tund are revealed, and we finally get to meet Vuffi Raa's parents. All this, and Lando teaches space mantas how to play Sabacc.

Its a weird, wild ride that takes place almost exclusively in space. There's a brief side trip to Tund, but that's a dead world thanks to Rokur Gepta. Lando is either onboard spaceships or is floating around in a space suit. The banter between Lando & Vuffi Raa remains a huge part of the series' charm and even their goodbye is handled with bittersweet wit.

Much like Han Solo and the Lost Legacy, there's a melancholy edge to this story. Lando's adventures in the Centrality are coming to an end, and he's going to go off with enough treasure to buy himself a city and an urge to settle down and become a legitimate businessman. The party's over and Lando needs to return to the Galaxy at large for the movies to take their course.

Its a satisfying conclusion to a fun ride. Not quite as quick-paced as The Han Solo Adventures, but Lando's a different kind of scoundrel. Han's general solution to problems is to shoot his way out, and Lando only kills two people in this entire trilogy. Instead, this trilogy hammers home the theme that Lando is a weirdness magnet, which would carry through into later stories.

I recommend it, but its not essential tier like Daley's Han Solo Adventures or Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy. In the 90s this trilogy was also reprinted as an omnibus, which is a good way to get it.

Legends Never Die: Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon

Published in late 1983, Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon, was the second in the Lando trilogy.

Following the Rafa adventure, Lando, now with moustache, finds himself with a hold full of valuable life crystals, but finds himself unsuited to the life of an honest merchant. Forms, fees, pirate attacks, repairs and unfavorable prices have depleted his wealth. Plus, someone is very clearly trying to kill him with sabotage, so he turns back to his primary moneymaking skill: gambling.

He arrives in the Oseon system, which is made of two things: mining asteroids and pleasure asteroids. After a successful night at the Sabacc tables, he's attacked by a strange old man and kills him in self-defense (Lando's first kill in the trilogy). The local governor is sympathetic to the self-defense claim, but Oseon has a strict no guns policy among civilians, and the penalty is death. He offers a deal: Lando will ferry a local police officer (no nonsense cop Bassi Vobah) and an Imperial narcotics agent (the flustered avian Waywa Fybot) to an asteroid of “the single richest being in the galaxy” Bohhuah Mutdah. Mutdah has apparently been buying the highly illegal drug lesai and having it shipped during the Flamewind, a regular seasonal flare of solar radiation that drew millions to the system to see the pretty lights but also made navigation almost impossible.

Fortunately, Lando and Vuffi Raa are able to get through (the little starfish-shaped droid turns out to be an excellent flight instructor), and the following string of betrayals and deceptions leads to the revelation that the architect of it all was the Sorcerer of Tund, Rokur Gepta, who is really, really mad at Lando for fouling up his plans in the last book.

This is probably the most Libertarian book in the series. Lando's distaste for government and law enforcement shines through, so much that Lando never once entertains the idea of charming Bassi, the local cop sent with him. Even the sympathetic governor is presented as well-meaning but largely impotent compared to his orders. Waywa Fybot, the Imperial Narc, is treated as a joke at first, seeing as he's a two and a half meter tall yellow birdman.

Sabacc remains important, but takes a back seat to the intrigue. Lando and Vuffi Raa's relationship has settled into an amiable partnership, with “And don't call me master” becoming Lando's de facto catchphrase of the trilogy.

The jokes keep flying fast, including the mention of a constellation called the Silly Rabbit, but its gets serious when it needs to, and the climax shows just how petty and dangerous Rokur Gepta can be.

Probably my personal favorite of the Lando Calrissian Adventures, I definitely recommend it for fans of smooth-talking gamblers who keep ending up in bizarre situations. 

Legends Never Die: Lando Calrissian and the MindHarp of Sharu

The Lando Calrissian Adventures are a fascinating slice of Star Wars history. It was 1983 and Return of the Jedi had just hit theaters. Star Wars novelizations had taken a break after The Han Solo Adventures and the only consistent inter-movie tie-ins were the Marvel Comics ongoing series.

All of a sudden, a new trilogy of pre-movie adventures hits, centering around dashing gambler, future Baron-Administrator of Cloud City, and Colt 45 spokesman, Lando Calrissian.

Tasked with writing them was L. Neil Smith (the L stands for Lester). Smith was an early adopter of Libertarianism, joining the party in 1972 and becoming very active in it and running, unsuccessfully, for office several times. This includes an awkward run for President in the 2000 election where he was only on the ballot in Arizona thanks to a dispute with the leading national Libertarian candidate, Harry Browne.

Failed presidential bids aside, his first published sci-fi novel was The Probability Broach in 1979-1980, an alternate history story in his North American Confederacy series. After four of those, Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu was his fourth novel.

The book features a young, fresh-faced Lando as the new owner of a beat up transport named the Millennium Falcon. He doesn't really know how to fly. He doesn't even have his signature moustache yet. What he does have is exceptional skill at the game of sabacc. Lando wins a droid from an academic during one such game, but he has to travel to the Rafa system to claim it.

Once there, the droid turns out to be the chipper, helpful, oddly starfish-shaped Vuffi Raa. Lando also runs afoul of the local governor, Duttes Mer, who strongarms him into searching for a lost artifact, the Mindharp, which once belonged to the long-lost Sharu race that populated the system. Supervising Mer is the sinister robed figure of Rokur Gepta, the last Sorcerer of Tund, a Dark Side Force tradition that I can best describe as “flamboyant insane space wizard” and I love it.

After a few misadventures, run-ins, and a psychedelic trip through space and time inside an ancient pyramid, Lando finally finds the Mindharp and, naturally, its more than it seems.

A couple observations. The Libertarianism really shows. Lando is a freewheeling adventurer with no patience for the government or taxation. Lando also doesn't kill anybody, which contrasts him nicely with the Han Solo Adventures where Han & Chewie solved most problems guns blazing. Lando's a talker, Han's a fighter. While the Han Solo Adventures had their share of comedy, here, Lando is frequently the one cracking jokes, usually in sardonic response to something Vuffi Raa says.

Lando without his moustache is just...wrong

Not that there aren't action sequences. Even the sabacc game at the beginning is written as exciting as a made-up card game with constantly changing cards can be.

It also sets a precedent that would carry through with Lando throughout the Expanded Universe. Since Lando's more of a face than a brawler, he always seems to end up in weird situations where shooting his way out is impossible, or at least, not ideal.

Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu is an oddball story that doesn't have the pulpy action movie heritage of the Han Solo Adventures, but works as a slower burn of weirdness. I liked it, because a) I really like Lando, and b) its really funny, but I can see why not everyone would be into it. That said, I do recommend it as Expanded Universe reading material. 

Legends Never Die: Han Solo and the Lost Legacy

Han Solo and the Lost Legacy caps off Brian Daley's Han Solo trilogy, and was published four months after The Empire Strikes Back was released.

Frozen in carbonite, book trilogy ended. 1980 was a rough year to be Han Solo.

After making haste out of the Corporate Sector, Han, Chewie, Bollux and Blue Max are bumming around a backwater sector called the Tion Hegemony doing odd jobs like working for a flying circus.

Adventure comes calling in the form of one of Han's old academy instructors turned treasure hunter: Trooper Badure. Badure's recruits Han to get to the planet Dellalt to find a long-lost treasure ship, The Queen of Ranroon. The ship belonged to a fabled pre-Old Republic conqueror, Xim the Despot, and is said to be guarded by a legion of his deadly war robots. The ship has been the stuff of spacer legends for generations.

After a high-speed chase across a university, Han agrees and meets the rest of Badure's team: Hasti, a miner who's sister discovered the clue to the treasure's location and was killed for it, and Skynx, an eager Ruurian historian who's just about the most adorable fuzzy caterpillar person in the galaxy.

Dellalt proves to be a dangerous world, with a criminal mining operation, a reclusive group of deadly cultists in the mountains, and centuries-old war robots that are just as deadly as their reputation.

And then Gallandro shows up with a grudge against Solo for being humiliated in Han Solo's Revenge.

Considering Raiders of the Lost Ark came out a year later in 1981, the comparisons are inescapable. A character played by Harrison Ford goes on a hunt for ancient treasure and has to deal with angry natives and hostile armies. Probably coincidental, but the pulp element convergence here is striking.

Gallandro himself works as a stand-in for the sinister Setenza from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. His moustache is a little more flamboyant, but there's a lot of Lee Van Cleef in the character. He is one of the few people in the galaxy that Han is legitimately frightened of.

Like the rest of the trilogy, Daley's action sequences are fast-paced and exciting. The aforementioned university chase (which itself has a lot of similarities to one of the few bright spots in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), then there's a mountain chase on a giant metal disc, and a large-scale battle at the climax where everyone's fighting everyone as the war robots advance.

This time, though, there's a tinge of melancholy throughout. Its been a fun ride, but the party's coming to a close. Han makes more mistakes. Hasti, the potential love interest, rejects his advances, saying she wants something real and not a love-em-and-leave-em type. The ancient labor droid Bollux has a touching conversation about obsolescence and free will with the war robot commander. Skynx the academic is rushing to get as much adventure and knowledge into his life before he matures to a full adult and turns into a near-mindless butterfly. Bollux and Blue max have to leave Han by the end because they're not in the movies.

The passage of time undercuts everything in this book, and by the end, Han & Chewie have managed to piss off everyone important in the Corporate Sector and Tion Hegemony, so they bounce around the idea of doing a simple spice run for Jabba the Hutt.

The Han Solo Adventures are a blast to read and can be found individually or in omnibus formats. If you're of a tabletop persuasion, its essential reading for a Scum & Villainy type of game. Highly recommended and essential Expanded Universe reading.

Brian Daley would continue on with a few Star Wars projects, but not more novels. He wrote the script adaptations for the Star Wars Radio dramas (1981, 1983 and 1996, respectively). The audio dramas are really quite good, by the way, and expanded on a few themes that weren't in the movies.

Daley himself died in 1996 of pancreatic cancer shortly after recording of the Return of the Jedi radio drama wrapped. According to his official website, which is still up as a memorial to him, some of his ashes were to be scattered at the Little Big Horn Spirit Gate memorial to help defend it from inter-dimensional threats. 

Legends Never Die: Han Solo's Revenge

Han Solo at Stars' End was published in early 1979. The sequel, Han Solo's Revenge followed in late 1979. Whereas Stars' End ended up a prison break story, this turns into almost a James Bond style adventure/mystery.

It begins with Han and Chewie (and the droids Bollux and Blue Max) operating a movie theater on a desert planet for easy credits. Unbeknownst to them, they've accidentally created a religious experience for the desert natives by showing a documentary of a water world. The scheme ends in a hurry when they try to show a different movie and they're back in space, desperate for cash.

The solution comes in a simple, lucrative smuggling operation. One catch: Han finds out it involves running slaves. Han & Chewie are rogues, but they absolutely refuse to get involved with any slavers. The immediate situation resolved, an angry Han Solo sets out to find the slavers and get the money they still owe him.

To that end, Han runs into one Fiolla of Llord, a beautiful, idealistic and resourceful woman who's also a Corporate Sector Assistant Auditor-General trying to track down the very same slaving ring. Meanwhile Chewie has his hands full dealing with a persistent skip tracer named Spray, who shoves his way onto the Falcon, intending to repossess it once all the shooting stops.

Shootouts on a luxury spaceliner, planet hopping, a bomb on the Millennium Falcon, a high speed swoop bike chase scene five years before the speeder bikes of Return of the Jedi, and an encounter with Gallandro, the deadliest gunslinger in the Corporate Sector, if not the entire Galaxy.

Much like Stars' End, Revenge runs at a rapid clip of action sequences, betrayals and more action sequences. Comic relief is also strong, as Bollux and Blue Max continue to provide their mix of competence and comedy, while Spray becomes an amusing foil for Chewie.

The real standout is Fiolla, one of the first genuinely memorable Expanded Universe female protagonists and love interests for Han. (Jessa from Stars' End counts too, but she's only there at the beginning and end of that story). Resourceful, witty, and occasionally naive in contrast to Han's practical cynicism, she's great. If one were feeling woke, it could be pointed out that she is a non-Caucasian female hero in a Star Wars story from 1979 and it was no big deal because the franchise was always diverse, but that would shatter the narrative.

She's also a genuinely good cop, which makes a strong contrast to the hard edge the Corporate Sector Authority had in the first book. Tyrants like Viceprex Hirken aren't the only employees in the Authority, which adds a nice layer of nuance.

I absolutely recommend Han Solo's Revenge for fast-paced scum and villainy action, adventure and romance. Essential tier.