“The Empire Strikes Back”
March 1980
This is the first official comic book adaptation of the film Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Following on from the events of Star Wars, the Rebel Alliance have established a secret base on the ice world of Hoth. Han Solo, shortly planning to leave the Alliance, first has to rescue Luke Skywalker, Jedi in training. An Imperial assault on the Hoth base forces an evacuation, and while Han, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and droids C3-PO and R2-D2 flee to Cloud City - a mining station run by Lando Calrissian - Luke travels to Dagobah to train under the sole surviving Jedi Master, Yoda. Little do the group know, a trap has been set for them at Cloud City by Darth Vader, and Han Solo is captured and frozen in carbonite. His frozen body is given to bounty hunter Boba Fett so he can collect the bounty on Solo's head placed by crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Sensing the capture of Solo and his companions through the force, Luke abandons his training to fly to Cloud City and face down Darth Vader in a furious light-saber battle, in the course of which Luke loses his hand but gains the knowledge that Vader is really his father. Defeated, Luke falls down a ventilation shaft, but is rescued by Lando Calrissian, who has also rescued his compatriots.
