Writer: David Michelinie Art: Gene Day & Tom Palmer With about a year to go before the release of Return of the Jedi, Marvel finally got around to the search for Han. Leia and 3PO travel to the planet Mandalore in search of the bounty hunter Dengar. It is here that Leia meets Fenn Shysa, a Mandalorian warrior like Boba Fett, who is fighting to free his people from enslavement at the hands of the Empire. Shysa has captured Dengar and plans to turn him over to the Empire in a prisoner exchange. Hesitant to trust someone who was once an ally of Boba Fett, Leia agrees to help with the hopes she may be able to take Dengar into custody herself and be gone before anyone is the wiser. However Leias plan gets botched, and she and 3PO end up prisoners of the Empire. Shysa is able to sneak into the Imperial base and free Leia and in return she helps him free the hundreds of Mandalorian slaves being held there. An all-out uprising ensues, the Imperials are defeated, and the Mandalorian people are finally free. Of course pretty much the entire story Shysa tells about Boba Fett and the two of them working together against the Empire gets wiped out by Attack of the Clones, but what a fun ride it was to gain this history into the galaxys most famous bounty hunter. The comics really gave Leias character a chance to shine and this story is one of the best examples. Her plan to free Dengar in exchange for information about Boba Fetts location and her manipulation of Shysa shows a cunning only hinted at in the film series. The lengths she is willing to go to to save Han have no limits, and somewhat surprisingly we see she will even compromise her own values and nobility to achieve that purpose. The choices she has to make between duty to the Rebellion and rescuing the man she loves would be a defining part of her character for the remainder of the comic series.
I've been a huge sci-fi fan ever since going to see "Star Wars" at the tender age of 3 (and yes I actually do remember it! I love pretty much any intelligent and entertaining film and television series (some of my all time favorites are 2001, Lawrence of Arabia, Battlestar Galactica [SyFy], and The West Wing). Must thank the stars above for such things as HBOGO and Netflix (Am thoroughly enjoying Ripper Street btw). I've also been an avid comic book collector since childhood. I earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing with a second emphasis in film studies from Florida State University (Go Noles!) and definitely enjoy sitting back and watching pretty much any sports. I wish I had a joke to end with, but I don't so I'll simply say "The End."
