MAJOR SPOILERS: Han Solo & Chewbacca #1 from Marvel Comics

For almost 45 years, since the premiere of 1977, Han Solo has been an enticing mystery of a man. An everyman scoundrel who anybody can relate to because of his rise from obscurity. He has little back story.

Well that is about to get blown WIDE OPEN in Han Solo & Chewbacca #1 out this Wednesday 3/9/22.

If you haven’t grabbed a pre-order yet do it today before the run on LCS happens.

Variants:

• Cover A (TFAW)
• Cover A (Midtown)
• Cover A (ebay)
• Shalvey Variant (TFAW)
• Shalvey Variant (Midtown)
• Shalvey Variant (ebay)
• Noto 1:25 Variant
• Hughes 1:50 Variant

Spoilers after this point. Seriously, turn back if you haven’t read the book. You’ve been warned.

Ok, one more image here to make sure you really are certain you want to see this.

So, in Han Solo & Chewbacca #1 Han is drinking in a bar with an old-timer he met. He decides to buy on more round and he decides to toast that round to Han’s dear old Pops! That’s right, Han Solo’s Dad! Han comes from nothing as far as we have ever known. We meet him as a street orphan on the streets of Corellia in Solo: A Star Wars Story and he’s such a nobody of a person he has no last name to give the imperial recruitment officer at the spaceport. He simply says he has no people. He’s alone. The imperial officer designates him, “SOLO”.

The old-timer Han is drinking with in Han Solo & Chewbacca #1 asks him what his old man’s name was. Han replies “Ovan”. This is big in itself! Han has named his father! This is the first we’re ever hearing of this ever in Canon or Legends!

What’s interesting about this is that Ovan was the name of Han’s Stepfather in Leigh Bracket’s first draft of Empire Strikes Back, so this is a DEEP cut by Guggenheim back to the apocrypha!

Before the attack on the ice planet, Leia instructs Han to go on a mission to convince his stepfather Ovan Marekal, leader of “the Transport Guild,” to join the Rebellion. Brackett imagines Marekal as “the most powerful man in the galaxy next to the Emperor,” so he’s probably a good guy to have on your side. But as in the film, you never see that mission play out, since Han is busy running from the Empire and romancing Leia.

Den of Geek

But it gets, better! The old-timer he’s drinking with introduces himself.

That’s right! Han just accidentally ran into his dad! Unless this is a huge misdirection by Marc Guggenheim, we just got the first appearance of Han Solo’s father, Ovan!

So that guy on Phil Noto’s cover A to issue #3? First cover appearance of Ovan.

In the old expanded universe, Han Solo’s dad was named Jonash Solo. He was a descendant of a long line of defunct Corellian royalty named the “Solos.” Of course, because of Han’s interaction with the imperial recruitment officer, we know this is no longer true in canon. Solo is not a Corellian royal line, but simply a designation for somebody who was alone and showed up without a last name. So, somebody named “Ovan” could plausibly be Han’s dad in new canon.