Star Wars (1977) #29 and Star Wars Weekly #69

Marvel has published several modern Star Wars issues that have generated considerable enthusiasm in the Star Wars community.  The story concerning Han Solo's "wife", Sana Starros, was an early example and was even picked up by non-comic news organizations.  Marvel's latest endeavor is to have the original trilogy heroes travel to the desert moon of Jedha.  This moon was the location of the holy city of NiJedha which was destroyed in the first test of the Death Star's superlaser.  Upcoming events that are highly anticipated by fans include our heroes traveling to Crait, a planet in the upcoming The Last Jedi film, and Thrawn getting his own comic.

It is easy to imagine, with the continual release of new movies, Marvel will have considerable success garnering devotees' attention because of the high profile the Star Wars brand has today.  They can have the heroes from the three trilogies interact with events and environments from other eras.  For example, I can see fan interest for Jedi from the prequel era having an adventure on Jedha.  They also can introduce titles with fan favorite characters, such as the bounty hunters Boba Fett and Cad Bane.

I also believe it is a matter of time before Marvel revives a character from their original Star Wars title.  There was speculation concerning a return of Jaxxon, but it is clear Marvel sees Jaxxon as a character best relegated to humorous appearances on variant covers.  Regardless, Marvel has a myriad of interesting characters that can be brought back.  One character I think would be interesting to see return is Valance the bounty hunter.

Valance was introduced in Star Wars #16 and appeared in several more issues before being killed by Darth Vader in Star Wars #29.  Valance is a nuanced character; he first appears as an adversary to Luke Skywalker but eventually fights Vader to prevent him from learning the name of the pilot who destroyed the Death Star.  Obviously, the character would need to be retooled slightly and his original story arc would not make sense, since in new continuity Vader already knows the name of the pilot.  The bigotry against droids was rampant in the old Marvel title and Valance's origin as an Imperial soldier who was injured, made into a cyborg, and was therefore shunned by denizens of the galaxy would also need to be modified.  (The irony here is the number two ruler of the galaxy, Darth Vader, is himself a cyborg but Marvel had no way of knowing that back in 1978.)  A good writer could revamp these elements and modernize Valance for today's readers.

Star Wars #29a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (November 1979)

The cover for Star Wars #29, the final appearance of Valance, is not accurate to the interior pages.  Darth Vader dispatches of Valance with relative ease and the cover implies Valance was a bigger challenge.  The U.S. cover doesn't really place the combatants and it isn't clear from just the cover that there is an acidic lake beneath the structure they are fighting on.

Star Wars Weekly #69a - Marvel Comics, England (June 20, 1979)
last third of Star Wars #29

The cover for Star Wars Weekly #69 is also not how events transpire in the story.  Valance does end up in the acidic Rubyflame Lake on the onetime resort planet Centares, but only after his "cybernetic hand clamps like a vise" to Vader's leg, he rolls off the pier to drag Vader into the lake with him, and Vader severs his cybernetic arm.  Instead, the British cover shows Vader kicking Valance off the pier to his death in the lake.  The decaying structures that once was a resort are shown in the background and all the background colors contrast nicely with the two characters.  Vader is also more nimble on this cover which he demonstrates inside the issue.

Both covers show Valance's uniform as purple, even though his uniform is blue inside and has always been blue in earlier issues.  For the British cover, this can be forgiven because the interior pages are not colored.  While I like the U.S. cover, despite the inaccuracies, the British cover does a better job showing the futility of Valance battling Vader.  I feel the British cover is the better of the two covers.