Good afternoon,
It's time for me to summarize what's now one of the most expensive issues of Marvel's first Star Wars comic book series. The cover to issue number sixty-eight showed Boba Fett in the background, and Princess Leia and several Imperials behind her in the foreground. The tale was titled "The Search Begins." The issue had a cover date of February 1983.
The story started on Arbra, as Leia, Luke Skywalker, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO were about to embark on a search for several bounty hunters who may have been working with Boba Fett, the renegade who was supposed to be delivering Han Solo to Jabba the Hutt. As Leia was waiting for her Y-Wing to be prepared, she thought back to her rocky relationship with the smuggler, one that had blossomed into love, shortly before Solo was encased in carbonite at Cloud City and taken away.
Her reverie was interrupted by Threepio, just before they boarded the fighter. They were tasked with trying to find the cyborg called Dengar. The others were going after IG-88 and Bossk, respectively. The Millennium Falcon, Luke's X-Wing, and Leia's Y-Wing fighter took off together before heading off in their separate directions.
Leia and Threepio soon reached the planet Mandalore. Organa set the ship down a safe distance from the capital city, Kedalbe. As the two Rebels walked through the jungle toward the city, they noticed several slavers and their unwilling captives being led somewhere. Before Leia could interfere, a familiar-looking figure swooped in and attacked the slavers and their Imperial Stormtrooper colleagues.
At first, Leia could hardly believe what she was seeing. She stepped in to save Threepio from a slaver, before meeting who she thought was Boba Fett. The man wearing Mandalorian armor understood upon hearing Fett's name and laughed before removing his helmet. He said that his name was Fenn Shysa, and explained that he was once one of his planet's protectors. Mandalorians had been drafted into the Emperor's service during the Clone Wars, but the cause was one that he'd started to doubt with the rise of the Empire. He, Fett, and his friend Tobbi Dala were the only three who survived the war. Fett eventually went off on his own, while Shysa and Dala returned home. However, they were shocked to see that his people had been the victims of vicious slavers, who had been sanctioned by the Empire. Dala and Shysa formed an underground group to help free the people he'd sworn to protect when he first put on the armor.
Shysa then led his guests to his home deep in the woods. Leia mentioned who they were looking for, and was surprised to see Dengar sitting in a cage that had been hanging from a nearby tree. Shysa said that Dala had been captured by the slavers, who had agreed to turn him over in exchange for Dengar. Leia wanted the information that the bounty hunter might have, and the cyborg was desperate to make a deal.
Leia thought about both perspectives before making a decision. Later that evening, she lured Shysa to a quiet place to talk. Meanwhile, Threepio approached the cage and started cutting it loose from the tree after distracting the guards. The cage landed on the ground just as Leia was taking out Fenn. She then rushed to Threepio's side and used her blaster to open the cage door.
Holding Dengar at gunpoint, she allowed the bounty hunter to exit the cage, as long as he cooperated with her. He feigned agreement as he pressed a button on his glove, and later admitted that he'd activated a homing beacon. A few moments later, the trio was surrounded by Imperial reinforcements.
Along with issue #42, this is one of the most expensive issues of this series. I presume that's because of the rise in popularity of Mandalorian characters, even though Boba Fett only appears on the cover and one flashback page in the middle. It's our first glimpse of Mandalore and its native citizens. Fenn would be included in several more issues toward the end of this title's run after this two-party story concluded. I also liked seeing the Imperial scout walker deviant, which I'd seen in the newspaper strip, drawn by Al Williamson.
Well, that's it for this article. Next time, I'll recap the sixty-ninth issue of this series. We'll find out what happened to Leia and Threepio after Dengar signaled the Empire. We'll also find out what happened to Tobbi Dala and what Fenn did after noticing Dengar and Leia's disappearances. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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