Welcome back to another new comic book day, EveryWookiee!! I’ve scoured yesterday’s new releases and below are the first appearances, cameos and key events from this week’s Marvel and IDW Star Wars comic releases: Darth Vader #17, War of the Bounty Hunters IG-88 #1, and Monster of Temple Peak #3!
I’ve gotta say, it’s a light week for key issues in the Star Wars Comics world. We’ve got one first appearance of a character, but who knows if he’ll be around again…
Let’s dive in, but before we do, spoiler warnings as always! Don’t forge ahead unless you’ve read the issues or don’t mind spoilers!
IG-88 #1
IG-88 was forced to blast himself in the head by Darth Vader during the War of the Bounty Hunters. Our issue this week opens on an abandoned IG-88 on an abandoned junk world. The tale is narrated by RB-919 and he makes his first appearance here.
He’s been tasked with retrieving and refurbishing IG-88 and he’s no slouch with a blaster either!
It turns out he was hired by none other than Deva Lompop to fix up IG-88. Deva makes her first comics appearance in War of the Bounty Hunters: Jabba The Hutt #1.
Of course, he gets a bounty hunter’s welcome for bringing IG-88 back to “life.”
Being as much machine as man, hopefully we see more of RB-919 because I thought he was an intriguing character. IG-88 is back on the hunt for Boba Fett as directed by Deva. There’s a nice little Easter egg of Clone Wars Boba Fett in his mission file.
Looks like Boba Fett has installed a carbon freezing unit in his ship since his troubles on Nar Shadaa and IG-88 runs afoul of these upgrades.
High Republic Monster of Temple Peak #3
No new characters here, but we get some developments from Ty Yorrick’s Padawan past. Ty Yorrick made her first comic appearance in The High Republic Adventures — The Monster of Temple Peak #1.
While exploring a secret temple of the Yarrow, Klias and Ty discover a “Yellow Soothsaber” and a type of holocron called a “Vitalicron.” The Vitalicrons first appeared in The Old Republic video game, but both pieces of technology first appear in comics here.
Darth Vader #17
This issue bridges the gap between the end of War of the Bounty Hunters and our next Vader tales, including Crimson Reign. Honestly, not much of “key nature” here.
Vader kills Bokku the Hutt and Ochi of Bestoon reveals his allegiance to Crimson Dawn to the reader. With Ochi’s flip-flopping allegiances, let’s see if this sticks. Ochi made his first comic cameo in Darth Vader #6 (2020) and his first full comic appearance in Darth Vader #7 (2020), and his first cover appearance on Darth Vader #6 2nd Print (2020).
