Without a clear idea of quite how George Lucas was going to proceed with the next movie, Marvel and Roy Thomas opted to focus on Han Solo and Chewbacca. The two "star-hoppers" (the term that was everywhere in these early issues) thus continue on to star in a modestly designed retelling of "Seven Samurai". As one of the earliest Star Wars stories, it's full of oddities like a Don Quixote Jedi knight wannabe and the infamous Jaxxon antropomorphic rabbit, but it's more interesting in what it sets up.
By the time the story ends, both Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin have finished with their commitment to Star Wars, and the new creative team get to follow-up on their subplots. Archie Goodwin writes and veteran Carmine Infantino chart the best selling title's course to another basically standalone space opera adventure, this time dealing with the film's whole principal cast. The story deals with two fractions warring on an ocean-based planet, and what it lacks in ambition it at least makes up in retaining the core of Star Wars.
The several oneshots that follow respectively tie up a Roy Thomas subplot, introduce an intriguing new character and finally feature the first traditional fill-in issue of the run, scripted by a young Chris Claremont. It's still early days for Archie Goodwin's Star Wars run, but glimmers of a broader shape can be gleaned while Carmine Infantino was using a break to focus on their ongoing story.
With the next extended storyline, it proves to be an extended arc featuring numerous complications set around Wheel, the space station casino. It also features the first major appearance of the movie antagonists (as seen on the cover, prophetically subtitled "Empire strikes"), teasing a Luke Skywalker/Darth Vader showdown. What the readers ultimately get is a multi-layered plot filled with intrigue, gladiatorial matches and close calls involving splitting the cast and reuniting them again, only to escape before getting too directly involved with their archenemy.
The conflict is personified by the Wheel's manager, a complex figure that fills the role of the villain, with a surprisingly well developed character arc that resolves on a very complete point. As the ex-senator enjoys his own semi antagonistic relationship with the Imperials, the role of a true antagonist is still to be filled in this group of issues.
Following another fill in issue, this one bizarrely featuring an Obi Wan Kenobi story set in the days of the Old Republic, Goodwin returns to continue his story. After their brush with the Imperials, and the first real glimpse of Darth Vader, the creative team readies an imperial fraction previously mentioned only in passing - the House of Tagge. The highly competitive family vying for the Emperor's affection ends up proving a major threat for Lucas' heroes in these stories.
Baron Orman Tagge is introduced as Darth Vader's rival, a goggles wearing nobleman brandishing his own lightsaber. The book cleverly ends up relegating the movie antagonist to a subplot that does not interfere with the already in production second movie. Vader's actions in these issues mostly stem from his trying to gauge the identity of the rebellion's Force sensitive addition, which end up introducing one of "Empire Strike Back"'s strongest thematic points, suggesting a close collaboration with Lucasfilm.
Yet, what is most interesting is how the creators deal with another part of Star Wars lore that figures in the eventual follow-up to the film's conclusion. Namely, a oneshot story calls back to the original movie, by featuring a Han Solo and Chewbacca adventure dealing with their debt to Jabba the Hutt. The character appears as depicted in the earliest Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin's issues, which featured a notably different design, based on a random Mos Eisley Cantina alien. More importantly, Goodwin and Infantino tie up the subplot involving Han's debt to Jabba, which reappears in the shooting script of the original "Star wars" movie. Thus a one-off issue relegated to being a foot-note in the larger Star Wars saga ended up creating a continuity problem, but more importantly provides an interesting look at the nature of the Marvel-Lucasfilm collaboration.
And while this string of issues introduces a solo Princess Leia story and a Chris Claremont written Annual with its own set of continuity questions, what is most interesting is the way Goodwin and Infantino proceed. The creators use the backdrop of the House of Tagge's blockade of the rebel base in the Yavin system to have Luke Skywalker return to his native Tattooine, years before the third film's iconic beginning.
The creators use the occasion to stage a small reunion with the characters eventually excised from the first movie's final cut, whose small roles could be first glimpsed in the movie's novelization. The main plot deals with another Baron Tagge contrivance, a new Empire weapon devised by his scientist brother and poised to provide the advantage in the fight against Rebels.
Compared to the striking decorum of Jabba's palace and its immediate surroundings in "The Return of the Jedi", this slight excursion feels once again like the creators returning to odd bits of the original film (much like the previously mentioned original Jabba scene), while still maintaining the through-line of Luke and his friends foiling the Tagge family Imperial plots. It culminates in the lightsaber clash with Baron Tagge, followed up a major Rebel attack at the Tagg family devised new Imperial weapon.
The final pre-"Empire Strikes Back" storyline eventually returns Vader to prominence, as he makes his play. The Dark Lord of the Sith utilizes the Tagge/Rebel conflict to further his own ends, by manipulating both sides into basically eliminating each other. The book also teases another clash with Luke Skywalker, with their lightsaber duel advertised on the final issue's cover. In a remarkable plot twist, Vader ends up fighting the duel by proxy using Baron Tagge in his place to gauge Luke's fighting prowess.
Having finally learned the identity of the Force sensitive Rebel fighter, Vader's decision to postpone the duel to effectively take place in "Empire Strike Back" may feel a bit anti-climatic, but the plot mechanics that enable it provide a miniature statement of intent. By having Tagge appear in the guise of Darth Vader to a helpless Luke, Marvel both reveals their intent regarding his status as a Vader replacement in these issues, as well as directly foreshadow the major clash with Vader featured in the then-forthcoming movie.
The second movie adaptation was delayed for an issue featuring a fill-in story pencilled by Michael Golden. Ironically, Luke and Leia's adventure in a parallel galaxy ends up sporting the strongest visual identity of Marvel Star Wars stories thus far.
What followed it was the "Empire Strikes Back" movie adaptation, featuring Al Williamson's gorgeous linework. Archie Goodwin writes using the movie's shooting script and the finished visuals as the guideline, much like Roy Thomas did before him. Following the adaptation, Goodwin has remained involved with the title mainly in the editorial capacity, his own pre-"Return of the Jedi" Star Wars stories relegated to a couple of issues preceding the next creative team.
They would have to grapple with bridging two Star Wars movies, in the face of both the readers and Marvel creators having a much firmer grasp on the particulars of Lucasfilm's cinematic vision with these characters and their universe. Yet, the stories featured in #7-38 remain charming in their own, slightly off-brand way, mapping an early Star Wars universe by trial and error that still provides aficionados with an interesting curio and a look back at the first days of what eventually became a huge franchise.
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