Good Saturday afternoon, everyone,
Today's topic is the seventieth issue of Marvel's first Star Wars title. The cover showed Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, Han Solo, C-3PO, R2-D2, and Princess Leia backed up against a wall, with a strange shadow in front of them. The story was called "The Stenax Shuffle." The issue had a cover date of April 1983.
The tale began on the Millennium Falcon, as Lando Calrissian was talking with Skywalker about their separate missions to find bounty hunters who may have been working with Boba Fett, the bounty hunter who took Solo from Cloud City after Darth Vader ordered the captain be encased in carbonite. They were searching for IG-88 and Bossk, and their paths both led to the same place.
Chewie, of course, had good reason to want his longtime friend back. Lando still felt a bit guilty for doublecrossing Han, even though Luke knew that the Empire had given him no other choice. The Falcon had just entered orbit around the planet Stenos, a world that Luke, Chewie, and Artoo had visited once before.
Luke shared the story of the initial encounter, which happened not long after he and Han first joined the Rebellion. Solo and Chewbacca set the Falcon down and disembarked along with Luke, Leia, and the droids. They noticed the native winged Stenaxes rambling around town, as well as a squadron of Imperial Stormtroopers, and Governor Quorl Matrin, who served with Leia in the Galactic Senate. Han and company made sure that she wasn't spotted as they passed the Imperial troops.
A short while later, the Rebels arrived at a temple atop a hill. Threepio and Artoo set out to decipher a set of hieroglyphics in the spot that was once an Alliance hideout. Before they could do much more, a trio of guests made their presence known. Out of the shadows stepped Han's old colleagues Rik Duel, Dani, and Chihdo. After a brief standoff, Duel admitted that they were all on the same side.
Rik said that he and his crew were told by Colonel Kindar to remain on Stenos after Imperials forced the rest of their group to depart. Leia recognized Kindar's name as the one that they were supposed to contact if the missing Alliance members had been found. Rik asked Han to get the Falcon, before dismissing the fact that his own ship could suffice. Han and Luke left to retrieve the vessel, knowing that Chewie would keep the rogues in line if necessary.
After the Falcon was stored safely in the temple, the group set to moving rubble. Rik explained that they were looking for a small red statue of the Stenax god, Vol. The droids continued deciphering the hieroglyphics until Artoo's sensors allowed him to find the location of where the temple's altar had been. They bounced rays from the sun, but left an even bigger pile of rubble to clean up.
Han and Chihdo went into town to get some shovels to help clear the rock. At the store, the Rodian explained to Solo that the Stenaxes were forbidden to fly until the statue of their god had been found and returned. They briefly caught the Imperial's attention, but only because Han had dropped a shovel that he'd been carrying, which he promptly picked up as they left quietly.
The digging resumed once the duo returned. Luke finally found something in the floor. He reached down and pulled out the statue of Vol. However, he soon found the Zeltron Dani pointing her blaster at him as soon as he lifted up the idol. The Rebels learned that Han's old allies had double-crossed them. Dani took the statue from Luke with a kiss, as she and Rik left.
Han was about to go after them when Chihdo entered the temple with a cadre of Stormtroopers behind him. He'd claimed that the temple's occupants were conspiring against Imperial interests, which led to a firefight. Chihdo slinked off during the chaos to rejoin his fellow pirates. In the middle of the battle, Threepio heard a sudden sound. The group looked up and saw Stenaxes armed with spears swooping into the compound.
The Stenaxes and the Rebels continued the conflict until the remaining Stormtroopers opted to flee. Han reached out a hand to thank the natives, only to be hissed at in return. Leia knew that they'd heard about Vol and wanted the statue back. Han was more than happy to point them in the right direction.
Rik, Dani, and Chihdo had just reached their ship, the Moonshadow, when they found Matrin and his troops waiting for him. Duel handed over the statue, and Matrin had no sooner given the order to execute the pirates when the Stenaxes descended upon them. Rik saw the Falcon flying away and cursed Han for what he knew had to be his involvement in this.
Luke admitted that they didn't know what happened to the trio after they left, and he really hadn't given it much thought since. He assumed that the Stenaxes had killed Matrin and his troops, along with the Moonshadow's crew. Lando wondered if the Stenaxes would be grateful enough to them for finding their god to help them with this quest. Just to be safe, he advised Chewie to set the Falcon down out of sight of the main city.
This is still one of my favorite issues of the series. This was Mary Jo Duffy's first issue as regular scripter. Kerry Gammill penciled the flashback story, and Tom Palmer penciled the rest of the story and inked the entire issue. Readers who longed for Solo's return appreciated this story, and Rik, Dani, and Chihdo proved to be popular characters.
Well, that's it for this article. Next time, I'll recap the seventy-first issue of this series. We'll see what happens when Luke and Lando set foot on Stenos and learn the whereabouts of the bounty hunters they were searching for. We'll also see a new opponent and the return of some characters who were presumed dead. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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