Marvel Comics announced today that Han Solo would be the star of their next Star Wars miniseries. The five issue series will be set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, and is written by Marjorie Liu (Astonishing X-Men) with art by Mark Brooks (Amazing Spider Man). Entertainment Weekly provides us with our the plot synopsis for the series,
The story involves a starship race known as the Dragon Void Run.
“Han’s been dreaming
of entering this thing for his entire life,” Liu
says. “He finally gets
the chance, except there’s a catch: Leia thinks
there are spies in the Rebellion, and she doesn’t dare send anyone else
to retrieve these vital informants who are on various planets in the
system.”
As Han and Chewie start sheltering these Rebel contacts aboard the Millennium Falcon, the Corellian pilot fights the pull of his own ego’s tractor beam: If he ditches the mission, maybe he can actually win this thing.
EW also chatted with Liu about the series. On the process of working with Lucasfilm and Marvel to come up with the idea for the series, Liu said,
"Basically, I was told that the story takes place between Episodes IV and V, and then they sort of just let me loose. I turned in several different ideas, but the core of them — what I kept at the front of my imagination: He’s this working-class dude who lives paycheck to paycheck who has a business to run. He’s the Han we know and love. He’s a con artist, he’s a smuggler, he’s this wisecracking, streetwise dude, but he’s got this internal conflict where there wasn’t one before. He’s really trying to figure out who he is."
About her inspiration for the series, Liu said,
"I started thinking about this old movie from the ‘80s that I really enjoyed, which is Cannonball Run. I thought, okay, what if this is sort of like Han Solo in Cannonball Run in space? So, I played with that and it finally came together in the story where there’s this infamous starship race. It’s the pilot dream race. Everyone wants to be in it, everyone dreams of winning it. The race is sort of a cover that will allow him to go on this mission for [Leia], but at the same time, even though the race isn’t a priority, it’s a real struggle for him because he knows he needs to focus, but he’s on the race of a lifetime."
About writing Chewbacca in the series, she told EW,
"To me, Chewie was always the heart and soul of the relationship. He was like the better angel, where Han is way more comfortable skirting the edges of morality. Chewie will go along, but he’s like, “Hey, man. This isn’t right.” I always loved that about him. I love that he is so incredibly loyal to Han. They’re absolutely 100 percent family. I always loved that Chewie can tell Han these hard truths that Han doesn’t really want to hear. Even though technically we can’t understand what Chewie is saying, we get it. We all understand."
Liu also touched on how the events of The Force Awakens might have affected the series, saying,
"It has actually colored how I think about the book. That’s been sort of an internal conversation with myself, whether I change certain beats, whether I do certain things to reflect this now-future canon that I know is coming down the line for him. I haven’t quite answered that for myself yet, but it’s definitely in my head. It can’t not be, because writing the book feels very bittersweet in a way."
Liu also revealed that Princess Leia would play a role in the series, and that we would be introduced to a new alien named Loo Re Anno. Loo Re Anno is apparently a legendary racer and part of a dying species.
EW also revealed a couple of pages from the first issue, as well as the cover. Check them out below,
The first issue is slated to hit shelves in June. You can read the entire interview with Marjorie Liu here.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
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