Midtown Comics is amongst the largest retailers in the United States. Started in 1997, it operates 3 retail stores in New York City and has a thriving online store. It had two exclusives each for the first issues of three inaugural Star Wars titles in 2015. The covers are by artist Mark Brooks and each is a montage for an original trilogy movie. The color exclusives were limited to 3000 copies while the black and white versions had only 1500 copies.
Star Wars: Darth Vader #1 has a cover montage for a New Hope. The named characters on the cover include: Boba Fett, Emperor Palpatine, Grand Moff Tarkin, Admiral Piett, and Darth Vader. Imperial soldiers are interspersed between them and the Death Star is in the background.
Star Wars: Darth Vader #1n - Marvel Comics, U.S. (February 2015) Midtown Comics exclusiveStar Wars: Darth Vader #1o - Marvel Comics, U.S. (February 2015) Midtown Comics black and white exclusive
Star Wars #1 has The Empire Strikes Back cover featuring Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Yoda. Obi-Wan Kenobi's ghostly image is also shown as well as the Millenium Falcon being pursued by a Star Destroyer.
Star Wars #1al - Marvel Comics, U.S. (January 2015) Midtown Comics exclusiveStar Wars #1am - Marvel Comics, U.S. (January 2015) Midtown Comics black and white exclusive
Return of the Jedi is the focus of the Star Wars: Princess Leia #1 cover. It features Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian, C-3PO, R2-D2, Jabba the Hutt, Bib Fortuna, and Salacious Crumb. A Gamorrean Guard is present with Jabba and his palace can be seen in the background.
Star Wars: Princess Leia #1l - Marvel Comics, U.S. (March 2015) Midtown Comics exclusiveStar Wars: Princess Leia #1m - Marvel Comics, U.S. (March 2015) Midtown Comics black and white exclusive
The covers connect to form one large image.
Star Wars #11 is the fifth and penultimate chapter in the "Outlander: The Exile of Sharad Hett". Aurra Sing is watching the Tusken Raider camp while Ki-Adi-Mundi is learning first hand about the fierceness of Tuskens. They attack Ki-Adi-Mundi for not wearing his mask and he is saved by Sharad and A'Sharad Hett. At breakfast, Sharad Hett explains why he is on Tatooine and leading this Tusken Raider clan. As Eeth Koth's apprentice, Sharad's contact with his family become less and less frequent as he grew older. After achieving knighthood and time has passed, his confided in Eeth Koth his desire to see his family. Eeth Koth helped arrange a leave of absence with the Jedi Council, but when Sharad visit his homeworld, he learned all his family was killed in an offworld rival's attack on his homeworld. Vowing to leave Coruscant forever, Sharad headed into the outer rim and crashed on Tatooine. There, he learned to live in the desert. The Tuskens watched him from afar and decided to adopt him into their tribe. He was able to adapt to their way of life including falling in love with a Tusken warrior named K'Sheek who bore A'Sharad.
Ki-Adi-Mundi asks about the Tusken attacks on settlers and Sharad explains outsiders have been attacking Tusken camps, poisoning their wells and food. Sharad took control of the clan to prevent the Tusken Raiders' worst instinct from guiding their revenge. Sharad explains Jabba the Hutt is responsible for the war so he can sell outdated weapons to the settlers. As Sharad is talking, Aurra Sing has him in her sights, but instead contacts her employer, Gardulla the Hutt. She is ordered to hold her position while Gardulla's army makes their way to her. After the contact, she kills a Tusken that has been closing in on her location.
Meanwhile, Ki-Adi-Mundi asks Sharad Hett to return with him to Coruscant. He tells Sharad Qui-Gon Jinn was killed by a Sith and the Jedi need him. Sharad says his adopted homeworld of Tatooine needs him as well and that he is both a Jedi and a Tusken Raider. Just then, Gardulla's army arrives.
The cover is another cool cover featuring Tusken Raiders and a Bantha by Ken Kelly.
Star Wars #11a (October 1999)Star Wars #11b (October 1999) newsstand
Big Bang is a large format periodical published in Italy by Fabbri Editori in 1979. This weekly comic collects American newspaper strips including Star Wars strips written and drawn by Russ Manning. The series ran for only 13 issues and 3 of the covers feature Star Wars artwork. The first of these covers is on Big Bang #3.
Big Bang #3a - Fabbri Editori, Italy (April 1979)
A common practice with newspapers was to publish a separate Sunday comic strip section. These separate sections are in color and afford more room for comic strips than the newspaper's daily section devoted to strips. A typical Sunday strip is a half to a third of a page in size and contains roughly two to three times the content of a daily strip which is usually only three or four panels long. The daily strip is published in the newspaper from Monday through Saturday and the Sunday strip is published on Sunday. At the time Big Bang was released, some newspapers did not carry the daily Star Wars strip but did publish a Sunday section so there were actually two different Star Wars stories by Russ Manning being published in American newspapers concurrently. The daily newspaper strip story is Gambler's World and it was published from March 12, 1979 to September 8, 1979. The Constancia Affair is the Sunday strip story which was published from March 11, 1979 to July 8, 1979. The cover for Big Bang #3 is taken from a panel in the Sunday strip combined with the planet from another panel.
Star Wars Sunday Strip: The Constancia Affair - Los Angeles Times Syndicate, U.S. (March 25, 1979)
Black Krssantan is a Wookiee bounty hunter active during the Galactic Empire and the New Republic eras. Distinguishing traits include his black fur and a scar over his left eye which was received during an encounter with Obi-Wan Kenobi. Introduced in the first issue of the Star Wars: Darth Vader title in February 2015, this character has gained considerable exposure due to an appearance on the live action series The Book of Boba Fett. Krrsantan debut in the second episode titled The Tribes of Tatooine released on January 5, 2022. He is one of a few characters to be introduced in comic books and appear in other Star Wars media.
In Star Wars: Darth Vader #1, Darth Vader asks Jabba the Hutt for the use of his best bounty hunters and is sent Boba Fett and Black Krrsantan. Vader tasks Boba Fett with finding Luke Skywalker. At this point, Vader does not know Luke's name, but does provide Fett with information to help in the search. Black Krrsantan's mission is to bring an agent the Emperor is secretly meeting with to Vader. Krrsantan successfully delivers the secret agent Doctor Cylo IV to Vader in issue #4.
Star Wars: Darth Vader #1a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (February 2015) 1st appearance of Black Krrsantan
Darth Vader #1 has twenty variant covers in addition to the standard cover. The issue also went back to print four times.
Krssantan's first cover appearance would not occur until Star Wars: Vader Down #1. Two variant covers feature Krssantan, the Mile High Comics and ZBOX exclusives. The Mile High Comics exclusive cover drawn in a cartoony style by Katie Cook shows Krssantan with Vader, Doctor Aphra, 0-0-0, BT-1, and Stormtroopers facing off against our heroes. The ZBOX exclusive cover is a montage of characters surrounding Vader, including a visage of Krssantan.
Star Wars: Vader Down #1h - Marvel Comics, U.S. (November 2015) Mile High Comics exclusive 1st cover appearance of Black KrrsantanStar Wars: Vader Down #1ab - Marvel Comics, U.S. (December 2015) ZBOX exclusive 1st cover appearance of Black Krrsantan
It is interesting to note that Black Krssantan does not appear inside Vader Down #1.
When longtime Star Wars comic editor Dave Land stepped down as editor on Star Wars Tales #20, the title underwent a significant change with subsequent issues. Starting with issue #21, the story count in the anthology drops allowing for more substantial tales to be told. All the stories are considered canonical and take place in Legends continuity. There are three yarns in Star Wars Tales #21: Nomad (chapter 1), Walking the Path That's Given, and Equals and Opposites.
In the first chapter of Nomad, Darca Nyl lands on a planet in the outer rim and intervenes when local henchmen roughy capture and begin interrogating a boy. Darca is wielding a green lightsaber and the henchmen immediately assumes he is a Jedi. He is brought before Samuel, the local leader of the mining colony. Samuel tells Darca the boy was with his daughter, Leddar, when she was kidnapped by Samuel's associate Royce. Darca agrees to deliver the ransom for Samuel in exchange for information about a being named Lycan. The story then jumps to Lycan. A beggar asks the alien for money and then brags about knowing Jedi moves. The alien kills the beggar with a red lightsaber and walks away. Meanwhile, Darca and Samuel don exosuits for the journey to Royce. In the desert, the alien Royce attacks Samuel. Darca uses his exosuit as bait and is able to subdue Royce, but not before he tosses a grenade towards Leddar. Royce surprisingly disarms the grenade and reveals he and Samuel are business partners whose relationship went bad when Samuel double crossed him. The story ends with an apologetic Samuel holding Leddar leading Darca back to the colony. Throughout the story, we are shown flashbacks to Darca's past. It is clear from the flashbacks that Darca has a son who was killed by Lycan. This explains his desire to help the boy Samuel's men captured as well as Samuel's daughter Leddar.
Walking the Path That's Given tells the story of Nas Ghent, a smuggler shot down by Imperials. As Ghent crawls away from his wrecked spacecraft, he is confronted by Darth Vader, the pilot who shot him down, and is offered a position as an Imperial pilot in the Empire. A few days later, an older model headhunter ship flies through Imperial patrols and lands on the Imperial Star Destroyer, the Crucible. Commander Dorin Millavec is upset and heads down to the docking bay to handle the incident. There, he meets the headhunter's pilot Ghent who he plans to interrogate, but Vader intervenes and explains Ghent is there under his protection. He then instructs Millavec to assemble a squadron of seven of the best Imperial pilots to serve under Ghent. Later, as Ghent is being cleaned up for service, Commander Millavic schemes with his subordinate Officer Resjic to kill Ghent. Ghent is given a decommissioned TIE Fighter and sent out with pilots loyal to Millovic who are ordered to shoot him down. Shortly afterwards, Ghent returns to the Crucible in the badly damaged TIE Fighter without the accompanying pilots. Ghent is understandably mad and confronts Millavec, but Millavec lies and tells him Vader arranged the situation to test Ghent. Millavec arranges for seven prisoners, not the best pilots, to serve under Ghent. The story ends with Ghent vowing to mold the Black Eight Squadron in to the Empire's best flying unit.
Equals and Opposites is the first appearance of Kyle Katarn in a comic book. Katarn is introduced in the LucasArts' Star Wars: Dark Forces first-person shooter video game and makes frequent appearances in Del Rey novels including the New Jedi Order, Legacy of the Force, and the Fate of the Jedi series. In the story, Kyle Katarn is facing off against Yuuzhan Vong with his love interest Jan Ors.
The art cover for Star Wars Tales #21 shows Darth Vader flanked by Commander Dorin Millavec and Officer Resjic. In the foreground are Vader's Advanced TIE Fighter and a trio of standard TIE Fighters.
Star Wars Tales #21a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (October 2004)
The photo cover features a montage of Imperial might surrounding Admiral Piett. Admiral Piett does not appear in any of the stories inside the issue.
Star Wars Tales #21b - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (October 2004) photo variant
Star Wars #99 was the second filler issue during Cynthia Martin's disasterous run on the original Marvel Star Wars title. Ron Frenz's previous artwork was in issue #82 and he illustrates a complex but decent tale featuring Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian. The story is full of characters introduced in the title from the prior few years in addition to well known characters from the movies. The opening page shows Luke mourning the death of Kiro and in rapid succession we see cameos by: Ewoks, since the Rebellion is still operating on Endor; the trio of Dani, Rick Duel, and Chihdo; Leia's Zeltron entourage; the Mandolorean Fenn Shysa with Princess Leia Organa; Han's half-Nagai friend Bey; and Admiral Ackbar. All of these characters appear in just the first five pages! As the story progresses, we have a brief cameos by C-3PO and R2-D2 as well as Lemo and Sanda. Finally, our heroes visit Stenos where they have a more substantial encounter with Drebble. All of these appearances occur while our heroes are searching for the Minstrel statue introduced back in Star Wars #79. To finish off the cameos, we also get single panel appearances by Wedge Antilles and Nien Numb. Phew!
The story is reminiscent of clip shows from television. Occassionally, long running television series will feature an episode which contains excerpts from previous episodes.&nbps; These clip episodes are usually framed by a story which necessitates the inclusion of the clips. Star Wars #99 is not a clip show obviously, but the sheer number of previous characters appearing is clearly intentional. A reader new to the title would no doubt be intrigued and want to seek out previous issues to understand just who all these characters are.
The cover shows an unconscious Lando being held by Han. Han is threatening to destroy the capital of Godo with the Rebel fleet if the Godoans do not save Lando. Luke is standing menacingly behind the Godoan's liaison Fumiyo. This is the most sensational situation from the interior story and a good choice for the cover.
Star Wars #99a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (September 1985)Star Wars #99b - Marvel Comics, U.S. (September 1985)
The fifth issue concludes the Star Wars: Lando mini-series. Chanath Cha is planning on destroying the Imperialis rather than capture Lando Calrissian and his crew. Lando tries appealing to Chanath but she hesitates to active the self-destruct when Lando tells her Lobot is aboard and hurt. As they discuss this, the aliens Aleksin and Pavol enter the room and threaten to kill everyone. Aleksin offers to share the secrets of the Sith artifacts with the Ugnaught Korin Pers. Korin is handed Sith Lord Momin's helmet and claims to understand as Aleksin kills her. Chanath and Lobot escape and split up, agreeing to meet back at the airlocks. Chanath heads off to dock the starship Scimitar while Lando goes to fetch Lobot from the medical bay.
As Lando helps Lobot through the corridors of the ship, Aleksin blocks their path. Meanwhile, Chanath is at the airlock communicating with the droid O-66 on the Scimitar but it refuses to dock the Scimitar with the Imperialis since Chanath has activate the self-destruct mechanism. As she watches the Scimitar fly away, Chanath is suddenly attacked by Pavol. Back in the corridors, Lando attempts to negotiate with Aleksin, explaining Aleksin needs him to help deactive the self-destruct sequence. When Aleksin lowers his guard, Lando shoots him dead with his blaster. Lando and Lobot catch up with Chanath at the airlock and she informs them of her difficulties retrieving the other ship. Lobot is plugged into the ship. He is unable to override the self-destruct, but he is able to reactive the escape pods but his cybernetics implants are successful in taking over his brain.
At the escape pods, Chanath decides to leave on her own while Lando and Lobot depart in another pod. The Imperialis explodes as Lando promises to cure Lobot. The story ends with a pre-recorded Lobot speaking to Lando. He tells Lando he does not regret his choices and Lando should use his powers of persuasion to do something good.
The story wraps up satisfactorily and neatly. Lobot ends the story in the condition we find him in The Empire Strikes Back and Lando is presumably inspired to assume his role as administrator of Cloud City by the recording. Chanath Cha and O-66 are the only non-movie characters to survive the ordeal and Chanath does appear in future comics. The Scimitar was the starship used by Darth Maul in the Phantom Menace.
Star Wars: Lando #5a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (October 2015)Star Wars: Lando #5b - Marvel Comics, U.S. (October 2015)
Lord Momin's helmet would reappear in other Star Wars comics, most notably the 2017 Darth Vader title where the Mask of Lord Momin designs Vader's Fortress on Mustafar.
