Warning! Spoilers ahead for Star Wars #3
Marvel's latest Star Wars comic series continues to contain plenty of excitement and surprises issue after issue. With a new series that began this year, Star Wars is now on its third issue with new writer Charles Soule in an all-new era of the Star Wars timeline covering the events taking place immediately after Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back and before Return of the Jedi. During this time, the Rebel Alliance is on the run, Han Solo has been captured by Boba Fett, Luke Skywalker is reeling from the revelation that Darth Vader is his father, and Lando Calrissian is determining where his loyalties lie. In Star Wars #3, the rebels risk a return to Cloud City, all with missions of personal importance.
In Empire Strikes Back, Leia, Luke, Lando, Chewie, Threepio, and R2 barely escape the clutches of the Empire on Cloud City with their lives. Unable to rescue Han after being frozen in carbonite and taken by Boba Fett, the crew of the Millennium Falcon joins with a rebel cell. Once there, they learn that the Empire has found a way to intercept Rebel communications, leaving them no way to regroup the Alliance back together after the attack on Hoth. Meanwhile, Luke finds that his connection to the Force is unstable after the shock of his true parentage. This is when Lando offers to help Luke find his lightsaber he lost if he joins Lando on a return to Cloud City.
In Star Wars #3, Lando, Luke, and Leia all return to Cloud City, although it's revealed that all three of them have their own agendas, splitting up upon landing. Lando's goal is fairly straightforward: he wants his city back. Using his knowledge of the city's infrastructure and access to the city's defense grid, Lando gets to work on trying to reclaim control away from the Imperial occupation. However, he's quickly discovered and starts taking blaster fire. It seems as though Lando hasn't quite made a heartfelt commitment to the Rebellion. It's more like he's hanging around until he can regain the normalcy of his life. He may be interested in saving Han after betraying him, but at this point, it feels like he's only interested if it happens to work out and its beneficial/convenient for him. It will be interesting to see what it will be that turns Lando Calrissian from scoundrel to rebel general.
Meanwhile, after getting directions from Lando as to where it may have landed, Luke goes in search for his lightsaber. However, this may prove to be a bigger task than he bargained for. Luke finds a massive mountain of debris that he would need to comb through if he had any hope of finding the Jedi weapon: a metal needle in a massive metal haystack. Even then, the search would most likely be for naught. Readers of Star Wars #2, the prior issue, will remember that mysterious figure who caught the blade and called out to Luke to follow his destiny. He or she probably still has the saber and intends on having Luke find them for some as of yet unknown reason.
Leia also had an errand of her own. She went back to the carbon freezing chamber where Han was frozen and taking. It was also the site where Leia professed her love to him. While Leia has her responsibility as general to regroup the Alliance with Operation Starlight, it looks as though she's just as determined to rescue Han. In the chamber, Leia is studying the carbon blocks, learning how to enable the de-carbonization process, presumedly so that once Han is recovered, he can be removed from his carbonite prison. However, she ends up being captured by Imperials and frozen in a block of carbonite herself! With any luck, hopefully, she can be rescued by Lando and Luke before the Imperials take her.
The rebels return to Cloud City is very exciting, and looks to be setting up some very intriguing arcs for the rebels going forward. This interim period between Episodes V and VI is anything but dull, with plenty of action and clashing of the light and dark. Fans should definitely be on the edge of their seats as this new Star Wars series continues!
Star Wars #3 is on comic book store shelves now!