Star Wars #15
Cover dated: September 1978
Issue title: Star Duel!
Script: Archie Goodwin
Artwork: Carmine Infantino (breakdowns)/Terry Austin (finished art & inks)
Colours: Janice Cohen
Letters: John Costanza
Cover art: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Terry Austin (inks)
Overall rating: 4 out of 10




Plot summary: The war between the space-wreckers and the Dragon Lords is over, Governor Quarg is dead and his sonic-jamming equipment has been destroyed, while Crimson Jack's Star Destroyer lays in wait for Han Solo above the planet Drexel. As Han, Luke, Leia and the droids leave the planet in the Millennium Falcon, Jack's first mate Jolli launches an attack on the freighter that results in her Y-Wing fighter and the Falcon becoming disabled. During the ensuing stand-off, Solo reveals that Chewbacca has erased all of Jack's navigational charts, while the Wookiee was a prisoner on board his star-cruiser. As a result, Han and Jack agree to swap the charts (which are still backed up on board the Falcon) for a gyro control module, which Han needs in order to make his ship operable again.

Meanwhile, Jolli is adrift in her damaged space-craft and requesting assistance, but Jack elects to ignore her pleas. Angered by Jack's response, Jolli fires on her former allies and crashes her Y-wing fighter into the munitions deck of the space-pirate's Star Destroyer, killing the crew and herself. Jack survives the blast only to be shot dead by Solo.


Comments: This issue features the conclusion of the Doomworld story arc and it also wraps up the saga of Han Solo and Crimson Jack, which began in Star Wars #7. Archie Goodwin writes a pretty satisfying conclusion to the Drexel adventure, but the contents of this issue feels a little tacked on and designed to tidy up loose ends. I can't help thinking that it would've been better if Goodwin had tied Crimson Jack's demise in with Quarg's, thus giving us a bigger and better finale to the story.

Still, the scripting here is reasonably good. In particular, I liked C-3PO's response of "getting down, sir" when Han Solo instructed him to take cover from an approaching enemy space-craft. I could really hear Anthony Daniels delivering that line. Also, having Han mention the Fire Rings of Fornax is a nice touch, since the Corellian smuggler also mentions them in the Star Wars novelization.

We find out in this issue that Luke Skywalker can't swim, which makes perfect sense, considering that he grew up on the desert world of Tatooine. Unfortunately, while it might make sense, it's actually a continuity glitch because in Alan Dean Foster's Splinter of the Mind's Eye novel – which was published some 7 months prior to this issue – it is established that Luke can, in fact, swim, but Leia cannot. A number of fans wrote in to Marvel about this continuity error and their missives can be seen on the letters page in future issues. Interestingly, Goodwin would later reveal in issue #36 of the series that at some point between the events of this issue and that later one Luke had, in fact, learned how to swim.

Goodwin finally reveals something of Jolli's origins in this issue and why it is that she hates men so much. It turns out that she and her mother were abandoned by her farther when Jolli was just a child, after being told that they weren't "good enough" to remain with him. So, basically, she's got Daddy issues. It's interesting to speculate that perhaps Jolli found a substitute father-figure in the form of Crimson Jack, but that's never made explicit by Goodwin in the story. It's also kinda cool to see Jolli flying a Y-wing fighter, while other member's of Jack's crew pilot Imperial craft, because it ties in nicely with what we saw of Jack's ramshackle collection of fighter craft back in Star Wars#7. As an aside, Jolli's mother looks an awful lot like Domina Tagge, a villainess that we will encounter later on in Marvel's Star Wars series.

It's disappointing that we never find out if Han got his Rebel reward back from Jack's ship. Jack stole the money from Han in Star Wars #7 and the Corellian even makes reference to it in this issue. Ultimately, I guess Solo probably didn't reclaim his reward, since by the time he and Leia got aboard Jack's ship, the air supply was rapidly dwindling and Han probably didn't have time to hunt for his money.

The Carmine Infantino pencilled and Terry Austin inked artwork in this issue seems less detailed and slightly sloppier than in recent months. Also, I notice that the perspective is really messed up on the opening splash page. Crimson Jack's spaceship seems to be simultaneously coming towards the reader and heading away from us, like some kind of optical illusion. Take a look...




That isn't the only time that we see this problem in this issue either: the perspective of Jack's Star Destroyer is messed up again in the last panel of the 11th page of the story.

Something of note in this issue is that Infantino draws what must be the first ever appearance of a TIE bomber (it's shown attacking the Millennium Falcon on pages 7 and 8 of the story). This Imperial ship wouldn't be seen in a Star Wars movie until the May 1980 release of The Empire Strikes Back, which means that Infantino was definitely getting concept art and other reference material from Lucasfilm, while he worked on this series. So there really is no excuse for how poor his sense of Star Wars ship design is.

Overall, I find this issue to be much the same as the last two instalments of the Doomworld saga, in terms of the quality of writing. The artwork seems to be of a slightly lower quality and, to be frank, this whole story arc has been fairly mediocre and isn't terrible memorable within the context of Marvel's Star Wars run as a whole.


Continuity issues:

• Luke tells Leia that he can't swim in this issue, but in the Splinter of the Mind's Eye novel he can, while it's Leia who can't.

Favourite panel:



Favourite quote: "Kid, I can't recall making anything but fast exits whenever you're aboard my ship!" – Han Solo jokingly reminds Luke that the Millennium Falcon has gotten him out of trouble a number of times in the past.

I like to assume that, for whatever reason, Han never got his money back. I think it works great as an explanation as to why he never paid off Jabba.  I liked some of Han's lines in this story, plus Threepio's line which you pointed out. I also caught that Fire Rings of Fornax reference and liked it.

I don't want to spoil later events, but this isn't the last we'll hear of Han's debt to Jabba in the series.

As noted in my review, I too interpret it as Han losing his reward, since we never actually see him retrieve it. But maybe he did grab it at the last minute: it's left open enough. I also don't think that Han leaving the Rebels on Hoth to pay off Jabba necessarily means that he still had his reward money. I mean, he could feasibly be leaving to do a couple of quick smuggling jobs in order to get the money he owes the Hutt, with the intention of settling his debt straight afterwards. Solo's dialogue in ESB is ambiguous enough that Han could've lost his money earlier during his encounter with Crimson Jack (if you want to consider the Marvel run as your chosen canon).

Star Wars #16
Cover dated: October 1978
Issue title: The Hunter!
Script: Archie Goodwin
Artwork: Walter Simonson (pencils)/Bob Wiacek (inks)
Colours: Bob Sharen
Letters: Denise Wohl
Cover art: Walter Simonson (pencils & inks)
Overall rating: 8½ out of 10




Plot summary: The droid-hating bounty hunter Captain Valance leads his gang of mercenaries in an attack on a medical station on the planet Telos-4. Valance succeeds in destroying the facility and its computer records, but not before he encounters an elderly patient named Don-Wan Kihotay who, in a state of delirium, recounts his adventures with the Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3. Valance mistakenly assumes that the Star-Hoppers are the same group of Rebels that destroyed the Empire's Death Star and that the young farm boy Jimm is actually Luke Skywalker. Tempted by the huge reward that the Empire is offering for Skywalker's capture and by his own personal hatred of anyone who treats droids as friends or equals, as Luke does, Valance sets off to find the boy.

On a backwater world, Jaxxon and Amaiza have a run in with Valance's men, during which the two former Star-Hoppers find out about the bounty hunter's plan and travel to Aduba-3 in order to warn Jimm. A battle ensues on Aduba-3, as Jimm, Jaxxon and Amaiza confront Valance and his mercenaries, with most of Valance's gang dying in a Bantha stampede initiated by Jimm. Valance survives and escapes from the planet after realising the he was perusing the wrong farm boy the entire time. As Valance makes good his escape, we learn that the droid-hating bounty hunter hides a terrible secret: he is half droid himself, due to injuries sustained while serving as an Imperial stormtrooper. Thus, the destruction of the Telos-4 medical station and its records was an attempt by the bounty hunter to erase any evidence of his secret, since this was where he convalesced from his injuries and received his cybernetic enhancements.


Comments: What a great comic Star Wars #16 is! It's always been one of my favourites, although I didn't read this story when it appeared in 1978. For some reason, I missed it the first time around. I had to wait until it was re-printed, along with "Crucible!" (which will appear in issue #17), in Marvel UK's Return of the Jedi: Winter Special in late 1983. I absolutely loved it back then, as an 11-year-old kid, and I still consider it to be one of the very best single issues of the whole Marvel run.

The interesting thing about issues #16 and #17 is that these were clearly fill-in issues, designed to allow Carmine Infantino some extra time to complete work on the next story arc. The fact that on the final page of this issue it says, "Next month: The Empire Strikes!", when that instalment didn't actually appear until a month later than advertised in issue #18, says to me that there were clearly some issues production-wise with the Star Wars comic at this time.

The other really interesting thing about Star Wars #16 is that none of the central cast of the Star Wars movies appear in this comic, other than in a brief recap sequence. I think that this might be the only time that this happens in the entire Marvel run. Certainly, I can't think of another instance of this happening off of the top of my head (although I'm sure someone will put me straight if I'm mistaken on that score). Regardless, this was a pretty bold move for Marvel, considering that this is only issue #16 and it had only been a little more than a year since Star Wars hit cinemas.

As for the story, it's a little corker! For the first time since coming on board as regular writer, Archie Goodwin really knocks it out of the park here. As the story's central character, the droid-hating, self-loathing villain Captain Valance is a really interesting and emotionally complex creation. We see the intensity of Valance's self-loathing in his ruthless destruction of the medical facility on Telos-4 at the start of the issue. Then, when he learns of Luke Skywalker, it appears on the surface that Valance is after the Rebel for the bounty that the Empire has evidently put on his head for destroying the Death Star. However, it's clear that Valance's real motivation is a much more personal one, fueled by his hatred of droids and of anyone who treats them as Luke treats R2-D2 and C-3PO.

Of course, we'd seen prejudice against droids before in the Star Wars comic and in the movie, but Valance's bile-inducing hatred of "mechanicals" and all those that would treat them as equals marks him out as someone with severe issues. The fact that he now finds himself a cyborg, with his own body partly made up of the object of his hatred, makes for a fascinating protagonist. Of course, it's tempting to try and see some kind of real word civil rights or racism analogy here – perhaps on the subject of inter-racial relationships, which in the late '70s were becoming more and more usual and acceptable, but were still capable of eliciting fear and hostility from certain sections of society. But regardless of whether Goodwin was attempting to make any real world commentary or not, Captain Valance is undoubtedly one of the best and most memorable original characters from Marvel's Star Wars run. The good news is that we'll see Captain Valance again in issue #27.

Another reason to love this comic (at least, for me) is because we see the return of Jaxxon, the 6 foot tall, green, space-rabbit.



This time out, we also get to see Jaxxon's N-Class freighter, The Rabbit's Foot, which bears a passing resemblance to the Millennium Falcon. The tongue-in-cheek riffing on Bugs Bunny that was begun by Roy Thomas in the Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3 storyline is continued here by Goodwin, with Jaxxon at one point saying, "I'd ask what's up, guys, but it feels like I am." Also, two of the mercenaries that capture Jaxxon in this issue are named Fud, as in Elmer Fudd, and Dafi, as in Daffy Duck. While this is all fun, it does beg the question of why Marvel decided to return to the Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3 and reintroduce Jaxxon. As I said in my review of issue #8 (read it here, young Padawans!), word had already come down from Lucasfilm in late 1977 that Marvel were to stop using the green space-rabbit, so it's a mystery as to why we have him pop up again in this issue. Unfortunately, this would prove to be the last time we would see Jaxxon in Marvel's Star Wars comic (*sniff!*).

Incidentally, there's a somewhat humourous anecdote about Jaxxon that inker Bob Wiacek recounted during a 2009 interview with Back Issue magazine. Apparently, artist Walter Simonson had originally drawn Jaxxon with a fluffy, white cotton tail in this issue, but Wiacek removed the appendage during the inking process, when he realised that the space-rabbit had not sported a tail in his earlier appearances. Later, after the issue had come out, Simonson cornered Wiacek and, in mock anger, shouted "How dare you take out that cotton tail!!", leaving a cowering Wiacek to apologetically splutter, "I'm sorry, Walt."

While we're on the subject of the Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3, it's interesting that when we catch up with Jaxxon and Amaiza in this issue they are clearly working together. A possible burgeoning romantic connection between the two was evident in issues #9 and #10, but perhaps the pair just discovered a good working friendship, since no romance is hinted at in this issue. However, the really significant thing about Marvel bringing Jaxxon, Amaiza and the other Star-Hoppers back is that it shows that they were keen to establish their own comic book continuity, with its own supporting cast members. This is something that we will see more and more of as the Star Wars comic continues through the years.

Simonson's artwork is really great here and far superior to the work he was turning out over in the pages of Pizzazz. It's a lot more Star Wars-y than Infantino's more stylised take on George Lucas's galaxy far, far away and in particular, the opening splash page is a real favourite of mine. There's also a really nice full-page flashback to the events of the Star Wars movie, which is very inventively rendered. The staging is superb in many panels and I think that I prefer the way that his work flows from panel to panel too, when compared to Infantino's sequential art. Simonson's background detail is also excellent and I love his atmospheric use of Zip-a-Tone, which really enhances the artwork. However, the cover is a bit of a mixed bag: Valance looks great and the raging fire and smoke looks very dramatic, but I could've done without the badly rendered, disembodied floating heads.

I think Wiacek's inks really work well with Simonson's pencils. His inking is light when it needs to be light, heavy when it needs to be heavy and it really enhances Simonson's lovely hatching. While I generally prefer Terry Austin's inks over Infantino's pencils to Wiacek's, his inking here works really well with Simonson's art.

In closing, this a hugely enjoyable issue of Marvel's Star Wars comic. It's fast-paced, with plenty of action; it has some great dialogue and some great characters to root for, to boo at and to ponder. It looses a couple of points for not having any of the main cast members from the film in it, but it gets an extra ½ point from me for featuring Jaxxon in his last appearance. Without doubt, this is the best Star Wars comic that Marvel had put out so far.

Continuity issues: None

Favourite panel:



Favourite quote: "Shut up...junk!" – Captain Valance abruptly ends a conversation with a droid before blowing it to pieces with his blaster.

This was a good issue. I think Valence is a very good character, and I like the "I'd ask what's up, but it feels like I am" line from Jax, which I assume is a reference to Bug Bunny's "What's up, doc" catchphrase.  I also liked that Archie threw in Fud and Dafi. Fun stuff. The art was pretty good, too.

I agree that this was a very good issue, especially for a fill-in.  I liked that they included the "two shooting stars" line.  I think that was in a deleted scene, if I remember correctly.

Also cool to see Deak, Windy, and Camy from the deleted scenes (and novelization, of course).

I also like that they gave two good reasons why Luke "used to bullseye womp rats" since they chew on vaporator cables and there's a bounty on them.

However, while I thought the art was overall pretty good, the womp rat was way too small. In Star Wars, Luke said "They're not much bigger than two meters" but the one shown here was probably no more than one meter. Well, maybe it was a baby.  Also, Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen looked nothing like in the movie. And, like Confessor said, there's the continuity glitch regarding Luke's father, though Archie Goodwin couldn't have known it at the time. I'm prety sure even George Lucas didn't know it at the time. 

Still, overall, this was an entertaining neough story that seemed to capture the feel of the cinematic Tatooine and its characters.

Yes, very cool. These characters also made an appearance in early episodes of the 1981 NPR radio dramatisation of Star Wars, but that was after this comic, of course.