Star Wars, Annual 02, Page 28

Day 21. Thirty-one days of Star Wars (2025 edition).

On May 21, 1980, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back made its theatrical debut. To celebrate my favorite Star Wars film's 45th anniversary today, I'm posting a page from 1982's Star Wars Annual #2. At this point in time the ongoing comic series was left in a unique (and unenviable) place. It couldn’t resolve any of those dangling plot threads from the film - Vader declaring that he is Luke’s father, Han frozen in carbonite and taken away by Boba Fett for delivery to Jabba the Hutt, Luke losing his hand and getting a cybernetic replacement, and Leia professing her love for Han, etc. Those threads would have to wait until the next film. Marvel had to get creative.

This issue features Han Solo, bringing him back via flashback (told to Luke and Lando via a magic recording rock) to tell a tale from before he was captured and frozen in carbonite. Using an annual to tell an untold tale of Han Solo is not a terrible idea, and an effective way of working the otherwise-sidelined character back into the series without running the risk of stepping on Return of the Jedi's toes or overly-disrupting the monthly series.

Story synopsis: Han inadvertently foiled an assassination attempt on Tieress Chrysala, consort to the ruling Satab. A grateful Chrysala took Han to the Satab's palace, where he learned the Satab was a cruel dictator ruling through the power of the Shadeshine, which burned out the user's body, forcing each Sataba to select a replacement while he entered the Hall of Satabs, to be placed in suspended animation until a cure is found. Having been selected to be the next Satab, Chrysala spared Han that fate by touching the Shadeshine first. Then Han and Chrysala prevented the former Satab from entering hibernation, forcing his body to burn out, after which Chrysala willing entered hibernation without naming a successor, thus ending the deadly cycle. Declared a hero, Han left the planet with the Shadeshine, which he destroyed aboard the Millennium Falcon.

Did we follow all of that? I'm guessing not. That's okay. I'll just point out the bottom left panel is the same scene depicted on the issue's cover.

Annual 2 is the only issue inked by Rudy Nebres during the original Marvel run. This issue also marks Infantino's last work on the series in any capacity.

This is the May!