The hunt for Han Solo begins in War of the Bounty Hunters Alpha written by Charles Soule, art by Steve McNiven, colors by Laura Martin and letters by Travis Lanham.
At the conclusion of The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo has been frozen in carbonite and handed over to the Mandalorian armored bounty hunter Boba Fett for delivery to the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt, while Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian discuss their plans to rendezvous on Tatooine in order to rescue their friend. Yet, when Return of the Jedi opens, time has clearly passed: the Empire has built a Death Star, Lando has infiltrated Jabba’s palace as a trusted guard and Luke’s Jedi abilities have grown significantly. This begged the question: What happened to Han and Boba Fett in that intervening time, and why did it take the Rebels so long to initiate their rescue? Was Han delivered one swift jump into hyperspace after the credits rolled on Empire, or is there a story there?
Those are questions that have been answered a few times in the history of the Star Wars mythos, including by the original Marvel comic book series of the 70s/80, the Bantam-Doubleday novels and Dark Horse Comics “Expanded Universe” of the 90s. War of the Bounty Hunters Alpha kicks off the latest – and the first officially canonical – telling of the adventures of the carbonite-encased Han and his bounty hunter captor in the time after Empire.
Being a serialized comic book story means, that this issue is just the barest beginning of that tale, but it suffers in that regard even beyond the factors intrinsic to the medium. Billed as a “prelude”, it’s actually more of a prelude to the beginning of the story that is the line-wide “War of the Bounty Hunters” crossover (which, in turn, leads into the War of the Bounty Hunters series, which is where the actual “what happened to Han Solo & Boba Fett?” story will unfold). Existing that far removed from the intended narrative does this issue no favors in terms of presenting a finite and satisfying tale. In much the same way the larger “War of the Bounty Hunters” story is being wedged into the time between “Boba Fett leaves Cloud City with Han Solo” and “Boba Fett delivers Han to Jabba the Hutt,” the main plot of this issue is wedged into the space between the end of Empire and before the actual inciting incident of “War of the Bounty Hunters”.
To his credit, Charles Soule does his best to make this page-filling & time-killing story entertaining, and his greatest achievement to that end is the presentation of famed bounty hunter Boba Fett as an almost working class schlubb, someone simply trying to make a buck but consistently running afoul of circumstances outside his control. There’s definitely some dissonance between the portrayal of Fett here and his status in some circles of fandom as a “badass” character at the top of his game at all times. He remains efficient & effective, with at least a few of those “badass” moments to his name in the issue, but he’s also not presented as perfect and incapable of not having complete control of the circumstances around him. He’s still supremely competent, but not omnipotent.
Soule’s efforts are aided by Steve McNiven, no stranger to big Marvel crossover series. Inking himself here, his work is dense and thick, with lines evoking some of the stronger artwork from the earlier Dark Horse Star Wars comics via some richly-detailed figures. He also manages to effectively convey Fett’s emotional reactions to the happenings around him, no small feat given the character’s armored, helmeted form, depicting via the art his impatience & weariness as the issue grinds on.
All in all, it’s certainly an entertaining enough issue on its own merits. Anyone looking for some cool Boba Fett action depicted by Steve McNiven won’t be disappointed. But it’s also not a terribly satisfying issue. Boba Fett definitely carries it, and to Soule and McNiven’s credit, in their depiction of him as just a simple man trying to make his way through the galaxy (and get paid), they manage to make him a sympathetic protagonist (despite the fact that “getting paid” means handing over the frozen form of a beloved character to an evil slug monster). But it’s also not hard to feel like the story doesn’t really begin until the closing few pages of the issue – because, again, this is just the prelude to the story that is the start of the actual “War of the Bounty Hunters” story. Is it unfair to take this issue and its creators to task for something they had little to no control over? Perhaps. But at least given what Boba Fett experiences in the issue, he would probably appreciate that unfairness.
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton
