Han Solo & Chewbacca #6
DEAD OR ALIVE, PART I
It is a dark time for CHEWBACCA THE WOOKIEE. His ship, the ”MILLENNIUM FALCON”, is missing along with the urn containing the remains of Krestel D’Naran, which he and his partner, HAN SOLO, had been contracted to obtain for JABBA THE HUTT.
As KHEL TANNA and her crew search for the wayward ”Falcon” and the urn, Han Solo is believed dead, after being fatally wounded by the scoundrel GREEDO.
Meanwhile, Chewbacca must fight to survive on the prison planet of GULDAHAR….
Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Artist: David Messina, Paul Fry
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Cover artist: Phil Noto
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: September 28, 2022
When you’re having a bad day in the Star Wars galaxy, it invariably ends up with death, destruction or at best the wet slap of a reality check, and in the opening moments of Han Solo & Chewbacca #6 we see two of those three as a Chagrian prisoner attacks Chewie merely for looking at him in the wrong way, using his horns to impale Chewie through the hip. First things first, ouch, and second, we know wookiees well enough to know that won’t be stood for and soon enough the blue-skinned Chagrian muscle monster is unconscious after pulling a shiv and being distracted by a young prisoner called Phaedra, allowing Chewie the opening to dish out the knockout blow. Surrounded by a pleasing array of classic aliens (an Ishi Tib and a bearded Ithorian amongst them) Maz thanks the blue-skinned internee, who’s list of criminal activities is admittedly impressive.
We swing to Iakar in the Derilyn system where T’onga and Corbus (Han Solo’s ‘father’) are undercover in Imperial uniforms, looking to find the Millennium Falcon and the urn inside. Greedo and Akko are in position, ready to cause a distraction to allow Corbus to shut down the facility and take back the ship and the urn. Only issue – the Falcon has been well and truly locked down with a docking clamp.
Back to prison where Chewie is waist deep in fellow brawling prisoners, but holding his own as he hurls a Dug across the room and pulls the arm off a Bith. Maz and Phaedra discuss an escape plan that appears to require the services of an Aqualish and a human, while Chewie is brought before the tribunal for brawling. It turns out the prison service have no extradition treaty with Kashyyyk, and looking at the substantial number of warrants against his name both local and Imperial, they sentence him to 25% of his wookiee lifetime behind bars; roughly 100 years of jail time.
Back to Iakar, as the extraction team release the clamp from the Falcon and take to the skies, a wing of TIE Fighters tearing after them as the Falcon and another Corellian vessel piloted by Corbus try to escape, which they do, meeting at a rendezvous point in a shallow crater on an asteroid. There, Corbus assures them they indeed have the urn, opening a secret hatch only to find the urn gone as we return to the prison where Maz and Chewie discuss their own predicament and a plan that requires Chewie to ‘die’. We see Ponda Baba – the Aqualish from earlier – and Doctor Evazaan about to receive their death sentences, only to stall and add another sentence to their crimes, before switching for the final pages on Escalon and the one character we’ve yet to see yet as we find a bearded Han Solo asleep in bed, rescued after washing up ashore a few days before.
This series really does move around the galaxy in the grand tradition of the comic it shares significant DNA with – Bounty Hunters – and given it centres around Han and Chewie and their smuggling exploits that’s entirely appropriate. There continues to be a fun, albeit it ‘guest character focused’ energy to the proceedings, and as we pass the halfway mark we have to wonder; will they ever get that urn back to Jabba the Hutt?
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Guggenheim, Marc (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 23 Pages - 09/28/2022 (Publication Date) - Marvel (Publisher)
