First Appearance Summary: Boushh himself has only ever made one cameo in comics and that is Star Wars Adventures #13 (vol. 1) from IDW. It looks like War of the Bounty Hunters is prepping his first full appearance.
A bounty hunter who has long lay in the shadows, crept in the corners, and humbly occupied obscurity in the Star Wars universe may be popping up in the massive post-Empire Strikes Back Marvel Comics cross over, Star Wars The War of the Bounty Hunters!
The event check list published in this week’s War of the Bounty Hunters Alpha by Charles Soule and Steve McNiven gives the titles of all the comic issues involved in the cross-over. There are some exciting revelations!
First of all, it looks like 4-LOM and Zuckuss are getting their own one-shot, as is our favorite murderous assassin droid, IG-88. What most interests me, though, is the Boushh one shot scheduled to release in September! The most readily recognizable appearance of Boushh would be in Return of the Jedi, where Leia impersonated the Ubesian male bounty hunter to gain entry to Jabba’s palace with Chewbacca at the end of a chain.
When it comes to comics, Boushh ( or at least Leia in Boushh’s armor) first appears in the Marvel UK Return of the Jedi trade paperback which released in May 1983. The first U.S. release would be Marvel Super Special 27 with an amazing Bill Sienkiewicz cover. For those who dismiss digest size, magazine size, or trade paperback comics, you’d be looking at Return of the Jedi #1. In that case, you’re still getting an awesome Bill Sienkiewicz cover and in all cases you get stellar Al Williamson interiors. From the best I can tell, Shadows of the Empire #4 from Dark Horse is the first cover appearance of Boushh’s armor.
Shadows of the Empire has a member of the Black Sun crime syndicate handing Leia the outfit in order to pass customs on Coruscant. Meanwhile, the new canon has Leia and Chewie facing off against Boushh on Ord Mantell in Age of Rebellion Princess Leia. This is where I imagine Boushh’s War of the Bounty Hunter appearances will pick up or lead into.
Now when it comes to actually tracking down the real Boushh in comics, not some Alderaanian princess traipsing about in the deceased’s kit, things get real scarce. Boushh did make an appearance in Paul Ens and Tom Hodges’ “Evasive Action: Prey” daily webstrip on the Starwars.com Hyperspace fan page, but these were never collected in print.
Up until incredibly recently, the actual Boushh has only ever appeared in role-playing source books, novels, and other media. Except for one book in particular, Star Wars Adventures #13. In the “Tales from Wild Space” back up story, “The Blue Brothers”, the Ortolan keyboard player, Max Rebo, gets caught up in a case of mistaken identity with his brother. Boushh, unnamed and without dialogue, shoots down the two during an escape.
From best I can tell, this is the only actual comics appearance of the real Ubesian bounty hunter, Boushh.
Comics mentioned in this article:
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[…] War of the Bounty Hunters goodness with a smattering of High Republic! Looks like we finally get that first full appearance of Boushh we’ve been looking for, and an origin at that in War of the Bounty Hunters- Boushh! On the High Republic side, Keeve […]
[…] I wanted to point out issues which have a final order cut off on Monday 8/23/2021. If you’re not familiar, final order cutoff is when the distributor locks orders and the publishers then print accordingly. So, if you want to absolutely guarantee you get a book, get your order in before then. Boushh #1 will be the first full appearance of Boushh (not Leia in Boushh’s disguise) after making 1 obscure cameo. Check out our full write up here. […]
[…] We’ve been talking about Boushh’s complicated comic book appearance history for a few mo…. The time is almost here for his first full comic book appearance though! Next week, as a part of the War of the Bounty Hunters cross-over, War of the Bounty Hunters #1 Boushh is release from Marvel. […]
[…] Next week is War of the Bounty Hunters week again in the Star Wars Galaxy! Check out my preview write up for Boushh #1 from yesterday! Boushh, his gang, and what looks like a new mystery lady make their first full comics appearances in Boushh #1 next week along with cover appearances on the Noto and Randolph covers. Full analysis of past Boushh appearances can be found here. […]
[…] Sana shows up back at Domina Tagge’s empty-handed with no Spark Eternal to show for her efforts. She’s tasked with tracking down Aphra. Domina insists on Boushh and his crew joining the hunt. Boushh’s first appearance is in WOBH Boushh #1 (although that is another sticky question to unravel). […]