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.

Yeah, that's true about the variant cover. I have it! But this issue was the end of Jaxxon as far as the original Marvel series went.

I think I saw something where one of the creative team on the new SW comic was asked about the chances of Jaxxon turning up and it was dismissed as something that would never happen, but that doesn't really mean anything, of course. The thing is though, I don't want them to bring him back if they're gonna write him as a self-aware parody or some kind of Star Wars nerd in-joke (which is how he was depicted on that variant cover). I want him to be written like Roy Thomas and Archie Goodwin wrote him: funny, but serious and violent when he needs to be. I fear that modern writers wouldn't be able to resist doing some post-modern, tongue-in-cheek, self-parodying take on him.

Glad to have you on board, earl, and I look forward to your comments on some of the issues as we reach them.

Myself, I read most of the original Marvel SW run in the Marvel UK reprints as they came out in the late '70s and early '80s. I finally bought all the issues of the original U.S. comic in the early '90s during a few visits to comic marts, when interest in Star Wars pretty low. As a result, I managed to pick them up very cheaply. While going through my collection for this review thread, I realize that my copies are all in NM of VF condition. I was lucky to buy these books when I did for the price I did really.

Yeah, I guess it is really. But, of course, these books were primarily being written for a younger and somewhat less sophisticated audience than us grizzled old men.

One of the problems I face with these reviews is that because I am so familiar with the material, having read and re-read all these comics countless times over the past 35 or so years, that I often find it hard to remember what my initial impression of a given story was. Was the big reveal about Valance shocking to me in 1983, when I first read this story? Or had I, like you, guessed it long before the story finished? I can't for the life of me remember. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter, but I'm sure that my reviews would be very different if I was just reading this series for the first time now, without benefit/disadvantage of hindsight and without viewing it through rose-coloured macro-binoculars.




Quite. Much like the futility of what extremists and ultra far right racist groups in our real world have tried to do over the years. It is very tempting to try and see real world analogies in this tale, I think.

Re #16: Definitely a big step up in the writing department in this series so far and also the artwork by Simonson is great as well (though some of Valance's colleagues do look a bit more like droids than organic aliens to me. Expressive armour?).

I do kinda wonder what Valance's gang is getting out of all this (the attack on the hospital I mean. Of course, he has little problem convincing them going after the bounty on Luke and his friends). Mercenaries and bounty hunters are usually in it for the money, but this is all a personal matter to Valance.

The last image I had to check if the Terminator movie had already come out, but that one was still years away. Its an effective

Re: your comment that this is the only Marvel story without the main Star Wars cast, I think0 you're wrong (but I'm not sure), but we'll find out sooner or later.

Re: the dutch version:
The dutch version doesn't list credits for the second story, which is a shame and Simonson should complain. I said last time that I'd give my opinion whether the choice to go with cover of #15 for the dutch combo-version (as I'll always do from now on) and I'd have to say that #15 was probably the better cover for the comic at this time: it had an action scene featuring Han Solo and had the Imperial Star Destroyer in the back, while the cover to #16 has floating head syndrome and would probably be not as enticing to the young Star Wars fan. So as much as I prefer the artwork in #16, I prefer the cover to #15 when it comes to selling a Star Wars comic.

No weird adds this time: an add for Miller's Daredevil, a Marvel Team-Up issue with Spider-Man, Daredevil and Man-Thing and Spider-Man vs. a Sandman/Hydro-man combo.

Many of Valance's men are wearing armour, yes. For instance, the vaguely elephant-esque face of the mercenary called Slzzk is clearly some kind of gas mask or breathing equipment, not his actual face. Perhaps his race are unable to breath anything but the atmosphere found of their home world?




They are undertaking the attack on the medical centre for money. It's stated on the opening splash page that Valance is paying for this mission himself, so he's obviously paying his men for their help.




I dunno, I might well be mistaken. But for the life of me, I can't think of another single issue that features only characters from the Marvel Star Wars Universe and not one character from the films. Like you say, I guess we'll find out down the road.




That is a bit shabby of the Dutch comic not to credit Simonson as the artist on The Hunter!, but then again, homegrown UK comics were notoriously shoddy at listing artists and writers in the '60s and '70s. Not that Marvel UK ever omitted that sort of info with their reprints of their own American comics in the UK. As for the covers, yes, I think I'd have chosen issue #15 over #16 too.