Pulp Faction
by Don Charles, from Star Wars Galaxy Magazine #6 (p. 50-53)

     Along with the usual suspects, Star Wars comics have created a whole group of their own bounty hunters.

     If the dark side has been one of the most intriguing aspects of the Star Wars movies, the "gray side" has become just as prominent in the comics.

     That nebulous gray area is the domain of the bounty hunters, those loners with the single-mindedness of taking their quarry, dead or alive, for a price from the highest bidder. It's a murky world, where the final payoff may or may not happen.

     Bounty hunters and their underworld have been a major focus among the Star Wars faithful. And while they have a presence in the film trilogy, as well as various spin- offs, the medium in which bounty hunters live largest is comics.

     Marvel introduced bounty hunters and the criminal underworld in the adaptation of A New Hope. In fact, a movie scene that was cut, in which Han Solo meets Jabba the Hutt, was added to the comic by writer Roy Thomas and artist Howard Chaykin. (That scene will be included, however, in the upcoming Star Wars Special Edition.)

     Immediately after the movie adaptation, Thomas and Chaykin used the comics series to explore the entire backdrop for Jabba's bounty on Han--the problem exacerbated by a pirate named Crimson Jack (see sidebar). The Crimson Jack storyline was wrapped up by former Marvel writer/editor Archie Goodwin, who also invented several other original bounty hunters.

     "It seems they were a nifty bunch of characters to focus on, to see more of them and examine what their roles were," Goodwin says. "The bounty hunters gave us a chance to profile characters not quite as black-and-white as the Rebels and the Empire. The bounty hunters fall into a gray area--they can be villainous and they can have a good streak."

     Goodwin scripted a memorable encounter between the "old" Jabba the Han Solo, where Solo gets Jabba to rescind the bounty--and in the process, gets a little bonus cash. (The bounty is reinstated in issues published just prior to The Empire Strikes Back.)

     One of the highlights of Goodwin's fascination with bounty hunters was a character named Valance.

     "In the cantina scene in the first movie, the droids aren't allowed it," says Goodwin. "I extrapolated that there was a prejudice against droids in the Star Wars universe. So I created a bounty hunter who destroys droids and anyone sympathetic towards them. Then the interest focused on how Luke's relationship with C-3PO has an impact on Valance. It came a full circle."

     As in the comics, the Star Wars newspaper strips were restricted to certain aspects of the main characters (no confrontations between Darth and Luke, no extended backgrounds), so they, too, delved into the gray side of the bounty hunters. Indeed, the very first strip, written and drawn in 1979 by Russ Manning, introduced a Wookiee bounty hunter gunning for Luke at Mos Eisley.

     Sadly, Manning worked on the series for only a year before cancer forced him off the comic (and finally claimed him at age 53.) Lucasfilm then approached Goodwin and artist Al Williamson (both adapted two of the three movies for Marvel) to work on the daily comic strip, which they splendidly did from 1981-84.

     The events in the Goodwin/Williamson strip took place between A New Hope and Empire. "We had no idea how they'd be used in the third movie," Goodwin recalls. "George was playing it pretty close to the vest. It became necessary to create original characters, because we didn't know what sort of role Boba Fett and the others would play in Return of the Jedi."

     Goodwin took an almost-throwaway line in Empire to develop the strip character Skorr. "There was a line about a bounty hunter on Ord Mantell giving Han Solo trouble, so that's where Skorr came from," he says. "In a strip where the Emperor and Darth Vader were main villains, we couldn't have them do too much--we had to preserve their mystery. I thought a bounty hunter like Skorr would be a good character to turn into a villain."

     Later in the series, another rogue, Raskar, is introduced. "Al (Williamson) liked to do a lot of his best work based on real people," Goodwin says. "He had a friend who thought it would be fun to do as a space pirate. I came up with Raskar, who's kind of a 'good' bad guy. He turns out to be a good foil for Solo--he's two shades more into the black than Solo, but they're but from the same cloth.

     "The strip went where I had hoped it would--to fill in some gaps between the first and second movies and bring it to a close," Goodwin says. "Had the strip gone another year, I could have squeezed out more stories. They told me the strip would be canceled, and I wrote a climatic story with Boba Fett, Skorr, Raskar and the rest of the bad guys. I intended it as the last story arc. But then they told me the strip would continue for another four or six weeks, so I came up with another story about the droids and a killer probe."

     Meanwhile, back at the monthly Marvel comic, appearances of both Han Solo (by then encased in carbonite) and the increasingly important Jabba were avoided while details on Return of the Jedi were being ironed out. Bounty hunters that appeared in Jedi, such as Bossk and IG-88 popped up from time to time but the only bounty hunter who saw the comic spotlight was Boba Fett.

     In issue #81, which took place just after the events of Jedi, writer Jo Duffy showed us that Fett didn't die when he was dumped into the Sarlacc pit; the creature found him indigestible and spat him out. Fett eventually landed in a runaway sandcrawler with Han Solo and a case of amnesia. Fett helped Solo get out of the crawler, but when Han tried to rescue the bounty hunter, Boba came to his senses and attacked the Corellian. Han bailed out just as the sandcrawler dumped itself into the Sarlacc pit.

     That was the last appearance of the bounty hunters until Dark Horse brought Fett back in its popular 1992 series, Dark Empire. And since then, the trilogy's by-far the most popular bounty hunter has warranted his own title. The December '95 Boba Fett one-shot, written by John Wagner, with art by Cam Kennedy (Dark Empire), takes place in the aftermath of Dark Empire II. In it, Boba's hired by a Hutt to capture Bar-Kooda, a rather nasty pirate.

     "This is the first opportunity in a visual medium to see Boba Fett operate, and to get a sense of his place as a bounty hunter and how feared he is," says Dark Horse editor Jamie Rich. "When I first read the script, I likened it to one of those old Clint Eastwood movies: Clint walks into town, stoic and to the point. The job is the important thing."

     What makes Fett so attractive to fans, Rich contends, is his air of mystery. "You don't see under his helmet; you know nothing of his personal life," he says. "He stands out and is mysterious. There's this aura of danger around him."

     Fett and other characters and events that make up Star Wars' largely unexplored criminal underworld will comprise a large part of Dark Horse's upcoming Shadows of the Empire six-part series, says editor Peet Janes. "We'll look at some of the bounty hunters that appeared in Empire and a couple of other unnamed ones," he says. "It's a big galaxy and there are a lot of these guys out there."

     As hot as Fett is right now, Dark Horse won't turn the spotlight on him too brightly. "We wouldn't want to do any ongoing series on Fett," Janes says. "We want him and the other bounty hunters back in the shadows. In their world, they don't want people to know about them. It's an interesting dance we're doing with these characters."

Don Charles is a freelance writer in Aurora, IL.

Unity on the Bounty

     Here's a rundown of some of the most memorable bounty hunters featured in Star Wars comics and strips

     BOBA FETT: Debuting in Marvel's Star Wars #68, Fett is a former Mandalorian chief officer who'd become disenchanted with fighting for other people and set off on his own. He is "the canniest hunter in the known worlds," says a former fellow officer. He also is on the hunt for Han at the end of the Goodwin/Williamson newspaper strip (Classic SW #19 and #20). In SW #81, it turns out he didn't die in the Sarlacc pit -- he was regurgitated and developed amnesia. Fett encounters Solo a second time in a runaway sandcrawler that plunges into the Sarlacc put once again. Once more, he's found indigestible. When the brothers of Jabba put a bounty on Han and Leia (Dark Empire #4), Boba's the guy to track it down with his old pal Dengar. Fett is also hired by another Hutt to nail the vicious pirate Bar-Kooda (Dark Horse's Boba Fett #1).

     However, in Dark Empire II, Fett's accused of murdering his superior officer when he was a stormtrooper before he holds off a couple of Dark Siders and escapes on his ship, Slave I. He's still out to capture Han and Leia and return them to the Hutts.

     BOSSK: This reptillian shows up in Marvel's "Search for Han Solo" (SW #68-72). Bossk and his partner, the droid IG-88, have set up operations on Sternos, a planet of dragon-men. Luke, Lando and Chewie don't find Han, but rout the bad guys and send Bossk and IG-88 running. Bossk also had a cameo in the Goodwin/Williamson strip (Classic SW #19 and #20).

     CRIMSON JACK: Right after A New Hope, Han takes his reward from Leia and heads to Tattooine to pay off Jabba. His ship and credits are intercepted by the pirate Crimson Jack (SW #7). They meet again eight issues later as Han tried to recover the loot, but it -- and Jack -- are destroyed.

     DENGAR: This Mandalorian cyborg (SW #68) may or may not know where his pal Fett took Han. Dengar again teams up with Fett for another try at Han and Leia when Jabba’s brothers place a bounty on their heads (Dark Empire #4). After threatening never to ream up with Fett again, Dengar's missing in Dark Empire II.

     DREBBLE: In Marvel's SW #71, this humanoid Stenos resident puts a bounty on Lando's head (whenever Calrissian got into trouble, he used Drebble's name as a pseudonym). Drebble eventually is named the hero of the Rebellion by Mon Mothma.

     IG-88: This droid also stars in the "Hunt for Han" arc in SW #68-72. On Stenos, he and Bossk try unsuccessfully to tray Luke, Lando and Chewie. IG-88 briefly appears in the send-off of the Star Wars strip (Classic SW #19-20). The psycho-droid also meets R2-D2 and C-3PO in Dark Horse's three-part Droids story. Hired by some Hutts, he shows sneakiness and doggedness in tracking down a spice smuggler.

     KORL MARCUS: This swashbuckler is actually Luke in disguise (SW #49).

     RASKAR: An ex-pirate, he runs an arena where people complete for the last remaining power gem. Han winds up with the gem after Raskar, undone by its loss, turns up near the end of the series to capture Han and turn his over to Jabba for the reward. Raskar later hooks up with other bounty hunters, including Fett, Bossk, Zuckuss and Skorr, in the Goodwin/Williamson finale.

     SALMAKK: This Mon Calamari joins Jabba’s entourage in Blackthorne's Star Wars 3-D #2.

     SKORR: This crafty cross between a cyborg and an evil Yoda pops up quite in the newspaper strip (Classic SW #1-2). He's out to collect the hefty bounty Jabba has placed on Han's head. Skorr kidnaps Luke and Leia as bait for Han -- but, like all the others, he's finally thwarted. Undeterred, though, Skorr returns as part of Boba Fett's group (Classic SW #19-20), but with pretty much the same result.

     VALANCE: By far the most interesting bounty hunter created by Marvel, the droid-hating Valance is on the hunt for Luke. Valance, who served with the Empire as a stormtrooper officer, was drilled by a Rebel torpedo and was left to die at a medical station. When he recovered -- now half-man, half cyborg, much to his horror -- he turned to a life of bounty hunting (licensed in 29 systems). He's ready to capture Luke and C-3PO, but at the last minute decides to let them live because Luke's friendship with the droid makes his realize how wrong he'd been to blindly hate droids. He turns up two issues later -- he and Darth Vader are both looking for a Rebel deserter who has key information. Thanks to an Imperial attack, Valance realizes his course is clear: Prevent Vader from getting this information. There's a showdown between Valance and Vader outside the deserter's tower on Rubyflame Lake.

     ZUCKUSS: Allied with Boba Fett, Dengar and a few others, he teams up with Skorr and Fett to go after Han Solo in the Goodwin/Williamson comic strip (Classic SW #19-20). Zuckuss also has cameos in the Marvel series (Star Wars #50).