Welcome back to another new comic book day, EveryWookiee!! Every week I take a look at the Star Wars comic releases and analyze for first appearances and key events that may be worth collecting or keeping an eye on for future development.
First appearances and keys from these weekly articles get added to or sister site and Star Wars comics first appearance and key issue database, Wookywiki.com!
Han Solo & Chewbacca 1
First up, we get a new female human scoundrel Khel Tanna! This is Khel Tanna’s first appearance. She’s part of a crew including some familiar faces from the Bounty Hunters run, T’onga and Ooris Bynar who both first appeared in Bounty Hunters #1.
Next, Jabba proposed a Million Credit heist to Han. The ashes of Jabba’s rival, Krestrel D’Naran. This is Krestrel’s first mention. Keep your eyes peeled. Remember, Jabba was around during the High Republic, so this Krestrel guy might show up elsewhere. The catch? Han needs to work with the loathsome Greedo. Greedo first appeared in Star Wars #2 (1977).
Looks like Han and Greedo aren’t the only two after the Million Credit prize, though! Two fellows named Vizam and Corbus are seen having a chat about it. This is their first appearance (cameo for Corbus).
Now, Vizam should be present in the Return of the Jedi Paperback by Al Williamson and Archie Goodwin (then in Return of the Jedi issue #2 in single issues). However, the person we see manning Vizam’s gun on Jabba’s Sail Barge deck is clearly a human in the comic adaptation:
Next up, the target of the heist, Mr. Graves. Mr. Graves appears to be the same species as an old comic friend, Mosep Bineed from Star Wars #2 (1977). This is Mr. Graves’ first appearance, however.
Then we have the first appearance of Buck Vancto, a decidedly non-imperial corporate law enforcement type:
Finally, the BIG reveal! We had spoilers of this up Monday night.
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! But, was it an accident? There’s a chance this old-timer is a plant playing the long con on Han. Check out how the interaction is initiated:
“Ovan”, bumps into hand seemingly on accident. But perhaps he was intentionally trying to draw him into a “chance” encounter and gain his trust.
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.
Crimson Reign 3
First of all, the Rahzzah variant provides the first cover appearance of one of the new as-yet unnamed Knights of Ren.
Crimson Reign 3
Variants:
Crimson Reign 3 provides the origin story of The Archivist, Sava Madelin Sun. The Archivist made her first cameo in War of the Bounty Hunters #5 and her first full appearance in Crimson Reign 1.
Madelin was a Sava at the University of Bar’leth. The University of Bar’leth first appears in Doctor Aphra #1 (2016) and Aphra is headed back in the next issue, Doctor Aphra #19.
Qi’ra recruits Madelin and brings her aboard Qi’ra’s ship. There are a ton of Sith and Force relics to ogle. Put a pin in these pages because we know Soule loves to hide hints of things in earlier comics.
Qi’ra wants to recruit a Jedi for her fight to bring down the Sith stranglehold on the Galaxy. The Jedi she’s targeting? Yoda!
Some might point out that we saw Yoda’s lightsaber melted down in an earlier Darth Vader run by Soule. Qi’ra notes that lightsaber as “one” of Yoda’s lightsabers, leaving the door open for Luke to present that lightsaber to Grogu later on in the Book of Boba Fett. Just a nice little continuity note there. Qi’ra notes that the empire did not announce Yoda among the dead, indicating the Empire knows he is not confirmed dead.
During the Archivist’s research around Yoda’s sightings following Order 66, she visits Jeremoch Colton. Jeremoch was a pilot of the Royal House of Alderaan and of the Tantive III, Raymus Antilles’ ship that transported Yoda after Order 66. Jeremoch Colton was played by Jeremy Bulloch in Revenge of the Sith.
This is Jeremoch’s first comic appearance.
Finally, The Archivist reveals that Yoda not only graciously permitted her to land on Dagobah, but trained her in the way of the Force. Who knows why he did this. Perhaps, being the pacifist he is, he saw his only best defense to be educating this interloper in the hopes he could befriend her and he’d defend him from the coming conflict.
