Star Wars: Han Solo – Hunt for the Falcon #3
“PART THREE”
He was a smuggler. A scoundrel. Then a rebel hero and a family man. Years after the fall of the Empire, he’s a man who finds himself wanting to relive the excitement of those early adventures, with the ship that took him all across the galaxy….
HAN SOLO has reached a point in his life where it seems that all his best adventures are behind him. By losing his prized ship, the ”MILLENNIUM FALCON”, he lost his way. Deciding he would need his ship back to feel like himself, he has searched across the galaxy trying to find it, bringing his old friend CHEWBACCA along for the quest. After a run-in with GANIS DUCAIN, who subsequently stole their current vessel, Han and Chewie learned that the notorious IRVING BOYS may have information on the whereabouts of the ”FALCON”. And now it’s time for those boys to answer some questions….
Writer: Rodney Barnes
Artist: Ramon Rosanas
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Guru-eFX
Cover artist: Ramon Rosanas
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Release date: 12th November 2025
The third issue of Star Wars: Han Solo – Hunt for the Falcon kicks off in the past on Chandrila as we watch young Ben Solo display distinctly Han-ish tendencies as he dodges his school lesson by messing with the teacher droid and instead preparing to learn how to drive a speeder with his dad, much to the clear annoyance of his mother Leia. She wants her son to have a solid, rounded education as she had, while Han – raised on the streets of Corellia without a formal education – wants his son to be streetwise and able to look after himself, which presents two viewpoints that could be defended….until the speeder Ben is about to use rockets off out of control and smashes into a tree, which sees Leia scold her husband and Han look away in shame.
We cut to the present and a grey-haired Han and Chewie in the cockpit of the Irving Boys starship, grilling them for information in the still-missing Millennium Falcon. Unbeoievably, they didn’t realise it was Solo who steered the Falcon to its Kessel Run record (much to his annoyance), but that is tempered by the discovery that Unkar Plutt now has his beloved freighter on Jakku. Taking the ship for themselves they head off, and soon we’re in hyperspace as Han and Chewie have a rarely seen heart-to-heart as Han questions whether he should even be looking for his missing ship when he has people who care for him to look after, and Chewie reveals that he had spoken to Leia and we step back in time again to the wookiee and the princess on Kashyyyk as talk about Han and Leia’s thoughts on whether there’s any gas left in their relationship tank. Ben needs his father, and maybe that could be a bridge to a future, and we step back to the present as a pensive Han thanks Chewie for his words and makes a decision: get the Falcon back, then sort everything else out.
We cut to Ducain as he contacts Unkar Plutt, warning Plutt that Han Solo was heading to Jakku to kill him, and as Plutt agrees to work with Ducain in the future we cut back to Han and Chewie, and now Solo has had a moment to absorb what Chewie told him he is annoyed that his friend hadn’t filled him in, and in moments the argument escalates to near physicality when the alarm blares and the look out of the window to see vessels approaching from the surface of Jakku and wisely putting their anger aside Han takes to the guns and Chewie to the cockpit as they dive into the oncoming vessels and with Han annoyed and focused to prove himself they take them all out in short order.
The battle over and their tempers cooled, they drop down to the surface and disembark with a plan to get their ship back, only to find Plutt waiting for them promising only pain. Not the best way to be welcomed to Jakku, but a great place to leave the 3rd issue as the story of the missing freighter is filled in as well as the disintegrating relationships between Han, Leia and Ben. It’s an adventure story, with characters we’ve heard about, words we’re familiar with and an iconic ship at the heart of it, and as well as looking at the fracturing marriage of Han and Leia is also very much shows just how much Han emotionally invested in the Falcon. That ship is so much a part of his identity (which we see from the first moment he sees the ship in Solo: A Star Wars Story) that losing it at this stage of his life, with his personal relationships also falling apart, must be almost too much to bare. Luckily, Chewie understands…but only to a point. Here, the chase continues and the desparation builds as that emotional investment in the safety of his beloved ship becomes more and more important, ultimately winding its way to what we see in The Force Awakens. An interesting snapshot of a time period before the sequel trilogy where Han Solo is far from the fearless smuggler and rogue we remember from the original trilogy but ready for a final heroic gambit in Episode VII.
