On this most holy of Jedi holidays, May the Fourth Be With You!
Ever since the camera panned up from Bossk’s clawed foot as Admiral Piett assured the audience that the Empire doesn’t need their scum, bounty hunters have been a recurring & robust part of the Star Wars mythos, making regular appearances in films, novels, comic books and streaming TV shows. They turn up so often, in fact, that “bounty hunter” sometimes feels like the third-most populous profession in the Star Wars galaxy (after “Rebel” and “Imperial functionary”). With War of the Bounty Hunters, the line-wide crossover between all of Marvel’s Original Trilogy-set ongoing series, upon us, the CXF staff was asked to share their favorite bounty hunters, rogues, or rapscallions from across the wide spectrum of Star Wars stories.
Chris’s Pick: IG-88
Sometimes you become oddly fixated with a dude who looks like a heavily armed traffic light, and that’s ultimately why I’m pretty into IG-88. When I was a sweet young child, I was kind of fixated on this droid bounty hunter, as he stood lanky tall and faceless, a stoic grey on the bridge of the Executor. Why did a droid need money? Why did he even want to hunt bounties?
Who cares?
IG-88 (or IG-88B, since there are apparently quite a few of them) is kind of the platonic ideal of a background bounty hunter character. Since moving from “Legends” to “Canon” stories, he’s kind of lost some personality, as he was originally kind of a droid revolutionary, but has now kind of comfortably settled into the role of cool space robot with guns, which is frankly all that I expect from the guy. Should it maybe have been him who was in The Mandalorian? Nah. Did he absolutely get wrecked by Boba Fett off-screen in The Empire Strikes Back, leaving a fun easter egg where you see his blasted up parts in the Ugnaught chamber? Yeah, and that’s just a good time.
Am I only a little sad that the story where he infiltrated and took control of the second Death Star, combining his AI with the massive superweapon, has been stricken from the record, replaced by merely a story where he ATTEMPTS to do this but with thwarting by a little faschist astromech?
Only a little. Long live, you traffic light looking dude. Second fiddle still means you’re in the band.
Kenneth’s Pick: Teen Boba Fett
Boba Fett, a character who’s whole appeal was his mystique and having said less than a handful lines in all of the original movies has not only survived but thrived as “Teen Boba Fett”. In the Clone Wars we get Boba Fett age 14 bopping around the galaxy with his soon to be best friends (and uncles?) for 20 years, Dengar and Bossk, and not only did we tolerate it, we ate it up.
I love Teen Boba Fett in so many ways. His first major Clone Wars story is him wanting revenge on Mace Windu and it’s genuinely compelling stuff, adds to the world building of the Clone Army and has a good revenge plot. It’s made all the more fun by leaving my head and remembering this is a 14 year old trying to kill a grown man. I think Teen Boba appeals to me in the same way as Damian Wayne. Two different characters but scratch the same “oh my god you are a comically serious toddler” archetype.
Boba Fett, the grown man, is having a resurgence through The Mandelorian and the upcoming Book of Boba Fett, which is all well and good for fans of that character. But me? I’m not interested in the cool armor or the jetpack. I’m just hoping and praying I can catch a glimpse of that floppy 90s hair and hear that New Zealand accented voice in the throes of puberty in the Bad Batch. Until then I’ll count the days until I get my Two and a Half Bounty Hunters spin off with Bossk, Dengar and Baby Boba.
Justin’s Pick: 4-LOM
There are a lot of murder-bots in the Star Wars universe, but none of them have the ambition or charm of 4-LOM.
Usually paired with his equally hateful and credit hungry partner, Zukuss, this former Protocol Droid turned bounty hunter just screams perfect Star Wars story to me. Unlike his virtually identical IG-unit robotic brethren, 4-LOM’s power lies in his personality! And weirdly, his “professional” ambitions.
Unhappy with his existence as a servant on a casino barge, 4-LOM threw off his restraining bolted chains and struck out on his own, seeking his own joy and purpose in the galaxy. And that purpose just happened to be running down nerf-herders and scumbags across the whole Saga, armed with little other than a blaster rifle, his cutthroat partner and his drolly hilarious need to find the “perfect” job. A robotic rags to riches tale that has brushed him against all manner of Star Wars icons like Han Solo, Darth Vader and various other cast members in the “scum & villainy” section of Star Wars.
Now, does the average non-Star Wars person know all of this? Probably not. But EVEN IF they don’t (or don’t care to know, which I also understand and think perfectly valid), he still provides The Empire Strikes Back with one of it’s most striking “one-and-done” appearances AND even cornered the market on “wryly funny murder-bot” years even before your Triple-Zeroes and HK-47s. I know people might prefer the sleekness of an IG-88 or the tactical (and tactile) merits of a Bossk, but for my Calamari Flan? Give me an insect-headed weirdo that just LOVES the job anyday.
Tony’s Pick: Greedo
Look, this isn’t a conversation about the best bounty hunter. I think we could all agree the list begins and ends at Din Djarin. However, we’re talking favorites, and for me that’s the infamous Rodian bounty hunter, perhaps the most famous supporting character in the entire franchise, the one and only Greedo.
Greedo only has a couple minutes of screentime but that single scene cemented him as the Star Wars saga’s biggest loser. However, one of my favorite things that we’ve learned about Greedo is that bumbling incompetently through jobs was just how he operated. His confrontation with Han Solo is just the one time his luck ran out. In the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge tie-in miniseries published in 2019, Ethan Sacks and Will Sliney revealed that Greedo really was as dumb as we thought. He was completely incompetent, and bad at his job. However, he was also extremely lucky, and often coasted through a job entirely based on that.
That makes him my favorite of the bounty hunters… even if the only time we saw him on-screen for a couple minutes was the instance where his luck finally ran out. I guess Han Solo is just a bit luckier than our favorite Rodian. (EDITORS NOTE: Maybe Greedo would have been luckier is Han hadn’t shot first, danggit!)
Austin’s Pick: The Rik Duel Gang
While the cyborg Valance the Hunter has rightly become, in recent years, a breakout character from the original series of Marvel Star Wars comic (to the point that he was re-canonized and now headlines one of the series contributing to the “War of the Bounty Hunters” crossover), I come today instead to praise other original characters from that 70s/80s era run, the Rik Duel gang. Introduced in issue #70 as part of the book’s ongoing “Search for Han Solo” arc (the first comic book story to do what “War of the Bounty Hunters” is doing and tell the tale of the hunt for the carbonite-encased Han Solo), the Rik Duel gang serves as a gray-ish mirror to the “Big Three” of Luke, Han and Leia.
Rik is the roguish leader, a figure that represents where Han might have ended up if hadn’t thrown in with the Rebellion. Dani, a purple-hued Zeltron, represents Leia, a tough, capable female often one-step ahead of Rik. And the Rodian Chihido is…well, this is where the “twisted mirror image of the Big Three” analogy breaks down, as he’s a bit of a non-entity, serving more often as a plot device than a character. But Rik & Dani more than make up for it, with Dani in particular becoming a significant recurring character during writer Jo Duffy’s run, as she is able to develop these original characters far more than she can the film-based ones. Dani’s arc doesn’t end well, the victim of some unfortunate choices on Duffy’s part and the fact that the book gets abruptly cancelled out from under her, but before then, the Rik Duel gang is a reliable, recurring source of entertainment in the series.
Like the best bounty hunters, the Rik Duel Gang are equal parts antagonists & allies, depending on the situation (and who’s paying). Which means whenever they show up, readers are never quite sure what they’re going to get.
Matt’s Pick: Cade Skywalker
Not quite as long a time ago in a galaxy far far away, Dark Horse Comics released a series set in the future of Star Wars. Set 130+ years after the Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Legacy featured a galaxy once again under the control of the Sith, and the last hope for the galaxy is not anywhere near as innocent as Luke Skywalker. Nope, Cade Skywalker, Luke’s great-grandson, is a world weary bounty hunter who is doing everything he can to fade into the background and stay off the Sith’s radar.
Created by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema, my personal favorite Star Wars comics creative team, Cade takes deathsticks to avoid the Force Ghosts of his famous Jedi ancestors that are haunting him, trying to get him to face his destiny. But Cade would rather hang out with his partner-in-crime Jariah Syn and his partner-in-crime-and-love, the Zeltron Deliah Blue. He’d rather go out and steal and hunt down whatever bounties he can than fight the Sith.
Cade was a full-on anti-hero in a galaxy that’s protagonists often lives in absolute shades of black and white. He is haunted and dealing with years of trauma. He eventually rises to the occasion, even if he’s petulant pretty much the entire way. If you’re familiar with Ostrander’s work, not just in Star Wars but in Grimjack and Suicide Squad, this is a typical Ostrander hero. Star Wars: Legacy is a series filled with interesting characters and a world that is both still distinctly Star Wars while having a feeling all its own, and Cade sits at the center of it in a cool and interesting way.
Liz’s Pick: Black Krrsantan
You know what’s cool? Wookiees. You know what else is cool? Bounty hunters. Now I’m no mathematician, but I’m pretty sure that makes Black Krrsantan top tier.
BK hasn’t been around as long as some of the other bounty hunters on this list, but he’s been making a Wookie-sized impression in my heart since 2015. Black Krrsantan has worked for and with a lineup of the galaxy’s greats—Vader, Jabba, Boba—and has held his own (or at least survived) when fighting against heroes. He’s not a good person, but he’s so fun to watch. He’s got off the charts unarmed combat skills from his time as a gladiator, but also comes prepared with a bowcaster and brass knuckles, just in case.
In a shared universe, there’s always a risk when adding a new character, especially one who comes across as powerful. Will a skilled player who happens to know a lot of existing characters come across as trying too hard? But BK never gets to that point. When you watch him fight Chewbacca or Obi Wan, you can’t expect him to win—after all, we know their futures. But watching him put up a hell of a fight is a delight.
Are we going to all agree to ignore the time Threepio knocked him out? Yes.
Chris Eddleman is a biologist and co-host of Chrises On Infinite Earths.
Kenneth Laster is a critic, cartoonist, and cryptid with a movie degree.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
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
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of five. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the creator interview podcast WMQ&A with Dan Grote.
Liz Large is a copywriter with a lot of opinions on mutants.
