Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire Kenner 2-Pack (All Markets)

While the Micromachine and AMT/ERTL Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire mini-comic inserts include a new story, Kenner's two Shadow of the Empire 2-pack toy comic inserts contain reprint pages from the first two issues of the Shadow of the Empire mini-series from Dark Horse.  Both comics are 16-pages long and have the dimensions of standard sized comics.  The paper is low quality newsprint and it is not uncommon for them to be miscut.

The comic from the Boba Fett versus IG-88 2-pack has a cover featuring the Slave I and IG-2000.  The pages show Boba Fett onboard Slave I with Han Solo in carbonite being attacked by IG-88 flying IG-2000.  IG-88 damages Slave I but Fett destroys IG-88's ship.  Fett is forced to land on Gall where he runs into Bossk and Zuckuss who want Fett to give them Solo.

Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996)
included in the Boba Fett versus IG-88 2-Pack (U.S. market)

The comic that came with the Prince Xizor versus Darth Vader 2-pack has a cover featuring both characters with a story that also includes the Emperor.

Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire b - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996)
included in the Prince Xizor versus Darth Vader 2-Pack (U.S. market)

The toys also came in packaging for the French, Italian, and Spanish markets as well as multi-market packaging which contains English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and German.  (Tri-logo is a term coined by toy collectors to indicate the packaging differences for the original Power of the Force line sold in Europe incorporating the Star Wars logos in English, French, and Spanish.  These 2-packs are not tri-logo, but I have seen that term used for them by toy collectors. I'll use the term multi-market instead.)  The language specific packaging contains comics that are also language specific, while the multi-market packaging contains comics that are in English.  The multi-market version of the comics have the Shadow of the Empire portion of the title much smaller than the U.S. market version.

Here are the French market covers.

Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996)
included in the Boba Fett versus IG-88 2-Pack (French market)

Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire b - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996)
included in the Prince Xizor versus Darth Vader 2-Pack (French market)

Here are the Italian market covers.

Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996)
included in the Boba Fett versus IG-88 2-Pack (Italian market)

Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire b - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996)
included in the Prince Xizor versus Darth Vader 2-Pack (Italian market)

Here are the Spanish market covers.

Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996)
included in the Boba Fett versus IG-88 2-Pack (Spanish market)

Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire b - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996)
included in the Prince Xizor versus Darth Vader 2-Pack (Spanish market)

Here are the multi-market covers.

Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996)
included in the Boba Fett versus IG-88 2-Pack (U.K./French/Spanish/Dutch/German markets)

Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire b - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996)
included in the Prince Xizor versus Darth Vader 2-Pack (U.K./French/Spanish/Dutch/German markets)

This was a surprisingly difficult set to put together.  The U.S. and multi-market covers were easy (and cheap) to acquire.  The 2-packs in the U.S. sell for $10 - 20 on eBay and the multi-market 2-packs sells for slightly more at $15 - 25.  Occasionally, the U.S. market versions of the comics are found without the action figures and sell for $5 - 10.  The non-English language specific 2-packs came from France, Italy, and Spain however and took me a few years to acquire.  The prices were generally more than the multi-market 2-packs.