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Writer, Editor: Roy Thomas Artist, Co-Plotter: Howard Chaykin Embellisher: Frank Springer Letterer: Joe Rosen Colorist: Carl Gafford Consulting Editor: Archie Goodwin CHARACTER Featured Han Solo, Chewbacca Supporting Crimson Jack, Jolli, Insectoid Priest, Aduba-3 Denizens (at least five characters have speaking roles), Azoora (unnamed until next issue), Ramiz (unnamed) Guest Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa Solo CREATURE bantha (a hairless variety) DROID C-3PO (See Threepio), R2-D2 (Artoo Detoo) LOCATION Aduba-3 ORGANIZATION space pirates, Stormtroopers (at least the armor on a space pirate) STARSHIP Millennium Falcon, Crimson Jack's Cruiser (a modified Imperial Star Destroyer), Small battle spacer (Han ID's these as X-wings and TIE fighters, but they bear no resemblance) | ||
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 7 (direct market edition) "Star Wars (Marvel) 7 (direct market edition)") | ||
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This story is based on the classic western "The Magnificent Seven", which itself is based on a classic Akira Kurosawa film "The Seven Samurai" which Lucas has claimed as an inspiration for Star Wars.
As pointed out in the letters column of issue #10, the reference Han makes to Dantooine on page 2 of this issue should be Tatooine.
Aquatic bivalves in the Star Wars universe appear to be called 'clams' as well. Han makes reference to a clambake during a firefight with a group of spacers.
The 'farmers' that show up in the last panel, appear more like Asian monks. Ramiz and his buddies have an entirely different appearance (more moisture farmer looking) on the splash page of the next issue. These are some of the problems of switching the art team during a storyline.
Other odd depictions in this issue, include a hairless Bantha, and the strangely colored women in the bar that look like they stepped out of a Star Trek convention.
This issue features the column Star-Words with letters from Ervin Puillips, Jr., Glen Yamashita, and Ken Hart.
On Yavin IV, Han Solo and Chewbacca say goodbye to their friends and set off in their spaceship the Millennium Falcon. They have every intention of returning to Tatooine to pay Jabba the Hut the money they promised him.
On their way to the desert world, they run across a derelict space freighter that turns out to be space pirates. Solo manages to battle off a few of the smaller ships, but gets stuck in the tractor beam of the large cruiser and is pulled inside.
The Falcon is boarded by the pirates; some with swords and eye patches, others in Stormtrooper armor. The pirate captain, Crimson Jack, confronts Solo. The two have some past together, but this time Jack is looking for Captain Solo's cargo. Jack and his associate, Jolli, relieve the Falcon of treasures and hastily depart. Without the money to pay back Jabba, the smugglers decided to lay low on an outer rim world.
Han and Chewie land on Aduba-3, an out-of-the-way planet, picked bare by a chromium rush from years back. As they make their way into town, there are surprisingly few individuals around. They soon see why.
The locals have gathered around an insectoid priest and are preventing him from burying a borg. a half-human half-robot, in the cemetery at spacers' hill. Han and Chewie push some of the spacers off the priest who explains the reason for the problem.
The priest offers them a small sack of coins if they will help him bury the borg. They agree and hop onto the bantha that is dragging the travois. The crowd takes offense at the interference and began pelting the two samaritans with rocks. Han hopes that they will just let them pass, but he is proven wrong as he is yanked off the bantha.
With that, Chewbacca goes ballistic as the crowd tries to kill the two heroes. Helped by the priest, Han and Chewie manage to drive off the disgruntled spacers with minimal damage to themselves. Unfortunately the bantha did not fare as well. Luckily Chewie is strong enough to carry the container with the borg up to spacer's hill where the priest lays the half-man half-robot to rest.
Han and Chewie then take their leave of the priest and retire to the local cantina. Han admires a number of the women and strikes up a conversation with a cute blue one. He loses sight of her as three oriental monk types enter and offer a proposal to Han, that is, unless he has an aversion to dying.