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As much as the Star Wars movies would have you believe, Return of the Jedi is the first time Luke Skywalker and Boba Fett face off in battle. And that obviously doesn’t bode well for Boba. But as Marvel expands on the mythology behind Disney’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge theme park, they reveal an early encounter between the two characters set before the events of Return of the Jedi.
We experienced that encounter in the new preview of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – Echoes of the Empire #1 courtesy of CBR. This series aims to bring the icons of the Original Trilogy to the world of Batuu, which is justified Disney’s decision to introduce characters to the park with the Sequel Trilogy crew. This issue is set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, a time when Lucas is facing a huge Imperial bounty on his head. Boba Fett was very happy to collect the bounty:
How this Wild West-style standoff plays out, we’ll just have to wait and see when the issue hits stores on April 22. But it raises the question of whether Marvel is breaking its own Star Wars canon by depicting it as the first encounter between Luke and Boba. According to the 2015 Star Wars series from writer Jason Aaron and artist John Cassaday, the two characters first clashed even earlier in the franchise timeline, after the events of A New Hope.
In that story, Boba chases after the mysterious Rebel pilot who blew up the Death Star. He tracks Luke down on Tatooine, as the latter returns to Obi-Wan Kenobi’s remote cabin. Boba blinds Luke with a flash grenade, and the two briefly battle it out before Boba walks away with the most important name – Skywalker.
Is Marvel violating its own continuity here, or could it be argued that Luke is blind and doesn’t really know who he’s fighting? Either way, we can safely say that Marvel didn’t bother to acknowledge the original Luke Skywalker / Boba Fett crossover from the Star Wars Holiday Special. That’s probably for the best.
For more on Galaxy’s Edge, see IGN’s review of Star Wars: Tales From the Galaxy’s Edge Enhanced Edition.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer at IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
