'War Of The Bounty Hunters' Series Makes Han Solo's Body Worth Going To War Over

Marvel’s massive, multi-issue (in fact 34 issues) comic series War of the Bounty Hunters continues in full force. The most recent addition to this crossover story, that involves all current Marvel comics series except The High Republic, is issue 4 of the titular mini-series War of the Bounty Hunters, written by Charles Soule and illustrated by Luke Ross, Neeraj Menon, and Guru-eFX.

This series deals with the troubles that Boba Fett has to go through after he leaves Bespin with the carbonite frozen Han Solo. While having to make an unplanned stop on Nar Shaddaa to have the deteriorating carbonite block fixed, his bounty is stolen by the reemerged Crimson Dawn crime syndicate, who want to sell the incapacitated smuggler to the highest bidder. But Fett is not the only one after Solo; nearly all major criminal organizations and syndicates seem to have an open account with Solo.

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And so all of them follow Crimson Dawn’s invitation to Jekara, where the auction takes place on Qi’ra’s fortress flagship Vermillion. The previous issue of War of The Bounty Hunters had Jabba the Hutt winning the auction with a bid of one million credits, but before the crime lord can leave with his prize, Vader and the Empire arrive. After a brief fight between Vader and Qi’ra, where the latter shows some impressive skills at Teräs Käsi, but still is no match for the Dark Lord, Jabba agrees to give Han to the Empire, in order not to jeopardize his deal with the regime.

Vader’s motivation for getting his grip on Solo is less his lust for revenge for what has happened at the Battle of Yavin, but his intention to lure in and to kill Luke Skywalker, whom he sees as a growing threat of replacing himself and becoming the Emperor’s new apprentice.

But only are the underworld and the Empire are after Solo, but also Leia, Chewbacca, Lando, C-3PO, and Lobot have traveled to Jekara on the Falcon, while Luke arrives there in his X-Wing.

Issue 4 now amps up the stakes quite a bit, as more and more factions and characters are willing to go up in arms to get ahold of Solo. For someone who usually tries to (literally) fly under the radar (while he's able to move), he has now turned into the source of a major conflict, not only between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, but also with the whole underworld.

Surprisingly enough, only Qi’ra doesn’t seem to be too disappointed for both not getting paid the 1 million credits from Jabba and having been beaten by Vader, as she still manages to establish Crimson Dawn as a new force to be reckoned with. And she seemingly has another ace up her sleeve.

While Vader orders Solo to be brought aboard the Executor in a Lamda class shuttle, Boba Fett is still not willing to give up his precious bounty and to abandon his assignment. But before he can get back to Slave I and follow the Imperials, he is confronted by fellow-bounty hunters Dengar and Valance. While Dengar is only in for the money, the cyborg bounty hunter actually wants to save Solo, his friend since the days at the Imperial academy. While Fett easily defeats Dengar, he has to make a deal with Valance to go after Solo together.

But Leia and the Rebels also want to stop the Imperial shuttle before it can reach Vader’s flagship. With the help of Lobot's Implants, which are designed to access any Imperial system, they manage to disable the small craft, but their victory is short lived as Fett has followed the Falcon and uses a low powered seismic charge to shut the Falcon down. Meanwhile, Luke in his X-Wing, who doesn’t fall for Vader’s threat to destroy Solo’s carbonite block is being chased by Vader in his TIE Advanced, hoping to buy his friends enough time to get Solo back.

The issue ends with Fett and Valance seemingly having gotten the upper hand and getting ready to board the Imperial shuttle, when he suddenly finds himself surrounded by a fleet of Hutt ships. While Jabba has accepted his defeat, Bokku, a fellow member of the Grand Hutt Council, sees Vader’s actions as an insult to the Hutt Clan and convinces other Hutt families to strike back at the Empire.

Although we have known since 1983 that Han Solo ultimately ends up back in the possession of Jabba, right now it seems quite a long way before Boba Fett can finally fulfill his mission and deliver the carbonite frozen smuggler to Tatooine.

The War of the Bounty Hunters miniseries will conclude with issue 5, to be released on October 6, but the whole crossover will include ten more issues comprised of the other monthly titles Star Wars, Darth Vader, Doctor Aphra, and Bounty Hunters, in addition to some one-shots, all to be released in September and October.

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Written By Gerald Petschk

Source: CBR

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