Marvel Star Wars: Issue 8: Eight For Aduba-3

Han's conversation with the villagers introduced at the end of the last issue is interrupted by a reptilian who's mad Han was making moves on his girl. A cantina brawl ensues.

Victorious, Han & Chewie hear the villagers' plea. Their poor farming village is beset annually by a gang of vicious rogues and bandits called the Cloud-Riders led by Serji-X Arrogantus, “The Arrogant One.”

Realizing that he's outnumbered, Han puts out a call for hired guns and ends up with a motley assortment of spacers and locals:

Hedji, a member of the nearly extinct Spiner race, who can throw razor-sharp quills with deadly accuracy.

Don-Wan Kihotay, a clearly delusional old man who claims to be a member of the Jedi Knights and obviously based on Don Quixote. Han doesn't much believe that, but the man does have a lightsaber.

Amaiza, a beautiful female gunslinger and smuggler with a history with Han.

Jaxxon, a six-foot tall, carnivorous green rabbitt with a sassy attitude. You heard right. More on him another time.

Jimm, a local farmboy with dreams of adventure who calls himself “The Starkiller Kid” (a reference to the early draft of Star Wars). He reminds Han of Luke.

FE-9Q, “Effie” a tractor droid and Jimm's cranky guardian.

Thus assembled, Han has a tense introduction to Serji-X, and prepares to ride out to the village. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker bids farewell to Princess Leia as he heads off on a mission to scout for a new planet for the Rebel Alliance to make its home.

The plot is clearly lifted from The Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven, which makes sense, since Kurosawa was a heavy influence on George Lucas.

The Cloud-Riders and their bikes are the first appearances of swoop bikes (they would first be identified as such in Han Solo's Revenge) and swoop gangs, who are, simply enough, biker gangs. Their leader, Serji-X, whose name and face are a direct nod to MAD Magazine luminary and creator of Groo the Wanderer, Sergio Aragonés in his younger days.

Right down the moustache

The Cloud-Riders themselves (with the Arrogant One being replaced as their leader with some newbie named Enfys Nest) are in Solo: A Star Wars Story, so if you pegged an obscure gang of goons from a couple issues in the 1970s making it to the big screen before Mara Jade, Grand Admiral Thrawn, or Kyle Katarn, congratulations, you have successfully predicted the downward trajectory of the franchise.

I hope Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin at least get credit for creating the gang.

There's more to say, but there's more issues in this arc, so I'll save that for then. This issue sets up the situation and characters for the arc quite efficiently, and even the tavern brawl at the start has narrative value, since the alien who started it, Warto, joins up with the Cloud-Riders.