Published: June 23, 1992
Writer: Tom Veitch
Artist: Cam Kennedy
Colourist: Cam Kennedy
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Barbara Kesel
Cover Artist: Dave Dorman
The synopsis;
Betrayed by their friends and pursued by everyone’s favorite bounty hunter, Han and Leia try to escape from Nar Shaddaa. Meanwhile, the Rebels in combat over the planet Calamari receive aid from an unexpected source, and Luke falls deeper into the grip of the Dark Side!
The review;
Boba Fett is back! As he said, “The Sarlaac found me somewhat indigestible” and as scared as I was for our friends Captain Solo and the Princess, I was thrilled to have my favorite bad guy back among the living. “How did he make it out of that pit?”, I wondered. “Are you going to buy that buddy?” asked Jim, the owner of the comic bookstore. I handed Jim his bounty hunter’s fee (well, really the last of my money I made mowing lawns) and took home my prize locked in carbonite (well, really a comic in a mylar bag).
I had read Marvel’s Star Wars #81, Jawas of Doom, years earlier when I was a kid (as, you know, now I was a gainfully employed thirteen year old, so pretty much a full grown man). In that comic, Fett does rise out of the Great Pit of Carkoon, only to be mistaken for a droid by the said Jawas of Doom- who slapped a restraining bolt on the armored former Sarlaac snack. Eventually, Fett accidentally drives the Jawa sandcrawler back into the Sarlaac pit. Jawas of Doom, indeed.
The “true” story of Fett’s escape would be told a year later in the Dark Empire Sourcebook by West End Games. The sourcebook, written by Michael Allen Horne in collaboration with Tom Veitch, gives readers a short vignette “The Ordeal of Boba Fett.” In it, the bounty hunter Dengar helps save Fett while the bandage wrapped bounty hunter was looting the remains of Jabba’s sail barge. The story would eventually be retold and expanded in the short stories of the anthology Tales of the Bounty Hunters in 1996, and explained even further into a trilogy of novels by K. W. Jeter; The Bounty Hunter Wars: Mandalorian Armor (1998), The Bounty Hunter Wars: Slave Ship (1998), The Bounty Hunter Wars: Hard Merchandise (1999).
Boba Fett, his best buddy Dengar, and a motley crew of underworld scum chase Han and Leia across the streets of the Smuggler’s Moon, Nar Shaddaa. I really like Cam Kennedy’s art of the Smuggler’s Moon. His crowd work is really detailed, each background weirdo, bully and hutt looks unique and different; yet these desperate objects of desperate goons form a cohesive scene really well. One of those weirdos was an impossibly old woman holding a storied lightsaber, ready to give it to our female protagonist: proto Maz Kanata, Vima-Da-Boda. Kennedy’s color pallet is great here too, the warm earth tones and greens contrast with the bright pinks and yellows of the neon billboards. This is the first visual depiction of a city planet in Star Wars. Coruscant will appear in comics first, and in the prequel films later. In revisiting this comic, I can see Cam Kennedy’s art influencing the design of Level 1313 from later seasons of The Clone Wars.
Han’s younger days as a bachelor living it up in Nar Shaddaa, with Mako Spince, Salla Zend, Shug Nix, Chewie, and Lando are covered in A.C Crispin’s The Han Solo Trilogy.
It is time to leave Hutt Space and haul jets to the galactic core. Dark Empire gives us a lesson in galactic supply chain logistics; just like The Last Jedi gave us a lesson in starship fuel economy, and Rogue One a lesson in organizational leadership. Even an empire reborn needs raw materials, and it is up to the independent freighter campaigns to fill the need. Salla and Shug are such Deep Core Haulers, and now they are hauling the Millennium Falcon and her crew into the Galactic Core, all the way to the dark side planet of Byss. Boba and his head wrapped buddy Dengar are right behind them too! But not unlike driving a jawa sandcrawler into the very Sarlaac pit you just climbed out of, Fett and his Slave II follow the Falcon too closely and smack against the planetary shields of the Emperor’s fortress world.
The Falcon lands on Byss, and our gang hop out, ready to bring Luke back to the light. However, turning to that last page, I see an unconscious Leia (a very pregnant Leia mind you) on the floor of the Emperor’s clone room—zapped with Force Lightning. “Brother and sister Jedi. The Last of your kind. And I have you both!” cackled the Cloned Emperor. The comic ends with a panel of Luke’s black gloved hand holding Han Solo by the throat. As I am forced to wait another two months for the next issue, I feel a lump in my throat as well. Then I realized what else happens in two months, and I felt more like a Mandalorian bounty hunter falling into a Sarlaac pit for the second time: summer vacation ends and I have to go back to school.
Availability;
Originally released by Dark Horse Comics, the Star Wars: Dark Empire series ran from 1991 to 1992, for 6 issues. Star Wars: Dark Empire #4 is currently available in digital format via the Marvel App, comiXology or by subscribing to Marvel Unlimited. A physical copy can be found in one of the many trade paperback releases from Marvel. Please check with Amazon UK and US or your local comic bookstore for availability.
