Comic Book / Star Wars (Marvel 1977)

aka: Marvel Star Wars

"If it's a comic book, someone has to wear a cape, right?"

A long time ago, in a comic book market far, far away, Marvel Comics released an official comic-book adaptation of the movie Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (then simply called Star Wars) in 1977. Like the movie, this adaptation was a success, and so Marvel continued publishing the comic beyond the end of the original story.

Marvel Star Wars eventually ran for a total of 107 issues and three annual specials. It ended in 1986. The series covered the events of the movies as well as stuff happening between them and eventually after them, making it an Expanded Universe before the Star Wars Expanded Universe as we know it today.^note Or as we know it today; Disney's buyout of Lucasfilm saw the old expanded universe Exiled from Continuity and rebranded as Star Wars Legends.

Dark Horse Comics, the publisher of Star Wars comics until 2015, had published reprints of these stories as the Classic Star Wars series, and in trade paperback form as Star Wars: A Long Time Ago, a seven-volume series, later reprinted in 5 omnibus volumes. In addition, Dark Horse also reprinted a series of manga versions of the Original Trilogy and The Phantom Menace which retold the stories in the typical stylistic elements of the medium.

Some stories were only published in the UK version of the comic (which was a weekly rather than a monthly publication) but had since been reprinted, again by Dark Horse in a separate omnibus volume (titled Wild Space) along with other rare Star Wars comics.

With Disney now owning the rights to both Marvel Comics and Star Wars, the company has since re-obtained the rights from Dark Horse to make new comics set in the universe. For tropes relating to the 2015 reboot bearing the same name, go here. Marvel has likewise gained the rights to reprint this series under the Star Wars Legends banner, which they have under the "Original Marvel Years" series of Epic Collections, as well as two hardcover omnibi.

The original 1977-1986 series returned for a one-off issue 108 in May of 2019, serving as one of the few Legends stories (along with tie-in media and Star Wars: The Old Republic) to be published after the 2014 reboot.

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Marvel Star Wars exhibited the following tropes beyond those in the movies:

• '80s Hair: In the infamously bizarrely-drawn last issue, Luke ended up with a mullet.
• Aborted Arc: Issue 39 is the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back. Small nods aside, we never find out what happened to many of the characters that appeared between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back.
• Action Girl: Leia obviously, but also Dani, Shira, Amaiza, Jolli... actually almost every female character who appears in more than three issues is either this, a Dark Action Girl or Mon Mothma.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: Han Solo had a tendency to go on adventure-filled treasure hunts in lost ruins in this series — even before a certain Harrison Ford film was released in 1981.
• Adventures in Comaland: Luke had one of these in issue #50, when he was struck down with a mysterious illness called the "Crimson Forever", during which he had visions of Obi-Wan and Yoda who advised him how to resist the disease.
• Art Shift: Starting with the adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back, the art changes from Carmine Infantino's loose, angular style to a more detailed look with much closer likenesses to the film characters (usually veteran inker Tom Palmer over Al Williamson or Walt Simonson.)
  • The last issue also has a strikingly different style than its predecessors. For example, for some reason Luke's gone from a slim short-haired figure wearing mostly black and wielding a lightsaber into a perpetually shirtless mulleted wall of beef toting a BFG he never once fires.
• Ascended Extra: Lando Calrissian is very prominent in the stories set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, more so than in either movie. This, of course, is justified by him having to play the part of The Lancer in Han Solo's absence.
• Audio Adaptation: "Droid World" and "Planet of the Hoojibs" were both adapted as book-and-tape sets.
• Badass Boast: Done in order to clue in a droid that an infamous Rebel is there so it'll try to capture him, but still.
  "Yoda said it, Artoo: There is no try! Only do.. or do not! And I mean to do! This can't stop me! Nothing's going to stop me! I'm Luke Skywalker... destroyer of the Death Star! I'm the one who dueled Darth Vader and lived to tell about it!"
• Beast Man: The "Lepus carnivorus", better known as Lepi, such as Jaxxon himself, are man-sized, green-furred sentient rabbits.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: They often forget Luke's right hand, though there is the absurd line "I love you, mechanical right hand!"
• Big Bad: Main villains varied from arc to arc, though Lady Lumiya and Baron Orman Tagge were the most important.
• Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Zeltrons are attracted to Force-sensitives. Which explains why they all want Luke◊.
• Blind Weaponmaster: Subverted with Baron Tagge. He's a blind man who trained himself to wield a lightsaber like a pro, but only by relying on a cybernetic visor which lets him see. Take away that visor, as Luke did during their duel, and the baron becomes helpless.
• Bowdlerise: The adaptation of Empire Strikes Back changes it so that instead of beheading the illusory Darth Vader on Dagobah, Luke merely knocks off his helmet. Downplayed later on with Vader cutting off Luke's hand; Luke still loses his hand, but the act is carefully obscured by some scaffolding.
• Breakout Character:
  • Lumiya is the most famous character in the series and the only one to feature in an important role in later Expanded Universe stories but she had a mere six appearances (plus seven more as Shira Brie). Her lightwhip appeared in just three issues but is similarly iconic.
  • On the heroic side Dani became this, she had a major character arc, effectively became a Sixth Ranger to the heroes and appeared in more issues than any other Marvel created character (17 plus various mentions elsewhere). Unlike Lumiya she hasn't been seen or referenced much since the comics run ended but as the prototypical Zeltron she's had a lot of influence (Delilah Blue from the Legacy comics is clearly her Expy.)
  • Recurring character Jaxxon, a member of a humanoid-rabbit like species called the Lepi, proved popular enough to get inducted into the current canon Star Wars universe. And then the cyborg Valance joined him.
• Break the Cutie: After she believes Kiro has died, Dani loses much of her cheerful, flirtatious personality.
• Broad Strokes: How most of the elements from this series brought into the main Expanded Universe are handled.
• Canon Discontinuity: A lot of the stories are considered non-canon at best, simply due to being supplanted by later material. One example is a flashback story where Luke's father, Darth Vader, and Obi-Wan Kenobi (three separate people) save a planet together - although that story was written before The Empire Strikes Back, and therefore a professional example of being Outdated by Canon. Mind you, one of Lucasfilm's resident kings of Continuity found a way to make it work...
  • As can be seen here, Marvel Star Wars is considered to be on a lower level of canon than most of Star Wars Legends, although its material can be used or discarded as other authors wish, as long as it does not contradict the higher levels of canon.
  • An issue of the Marvel series deals with Wes Janson's death. Wes is alive and well in the X-Wing Series, set a few years later. Supplemental material, specifically Adumar: Pilots Wanted, Retcons this rather than ignoring it completely. It's a story Wedge would tell new recruits before calling in Wes. Even Luke fell for it.
  • And of course, with the Legends decision in 2014, the comic series in its entirety is non-canon, with only a few elements surviving in the new continuity.
• Canon Immigrant: Shira/Lumiya, into the mainstream Expanded Universe.
  • Baron Tagge was probably the first; he was referenced (and his role much expanded) in the mid-90s.
  • And more recently, Fenn Shysa makes an appearance in Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor.
  • But the original example has to be the TIE Bomber. It managed to make an appearance in The Empire Strikes Back, meaning it even survived the Legends retcon!
  • Zeltrons, too, the species of hedonistic red near-humans. The Zeltron attraction to Force-Sensitives is actually a plot point in Coruscant Nights.
• Captain Ersatz: Early bit player Don-Wan Kihotay is an extremely transparent space-fantasy take on Don Quixote, right down to literally wearing medieval knight armor in-universe. Key difference is that while Quixote was a crazy obsessive fan of (fictional, idealized) chivalry who took it way too far, Don-Wan is a very obsessive fan of the (very much real, but outlawed) Jedi Order who also just happens to be force-sensitive, and openly desired to be a Jedi Knight, even if it was the equivalent of painting a target on his head in the Imperial-ruled Galaxy.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: Drebble. Lando owes him money because Drebble claims Lando cheats at cards. So Lando uses him as a fake identity. Lando's work is so good that the Rebels want to give Drebble a medal!
• The Chessmaster: Darth Vader. The Marvel series really ran with the idea of Vader being an evil genius to a much larger extent than anywhere else in the Expanded Universe. Largely by necessity, as Lucasfilm generally forbade direct confrontations between Vader and the main characters, as they might have upstaged what they were planning for the movies.
  • Shown literally in the cover for issue 35, "Dark Lord's Gambit".
• Chick Magnet: Luke, bordering on The Casanova. Especially around Zeltrons.
• Cool Boat: Governor Quarg's base of operations is a vast wooden ship built around the wreck of his father's starship. It's so large that it can be mistaken for a landmass when seen from space, and its sonic jammer lets it bring down any starships unfortunate enough to be in orbit.
• Covers Always Lie:
  • On the cover of issue 1, Darth Vader's helmet is green and shaped more like a gas mask.
  • The cover of issue 5. As the Death Star, visible in the sky, fires two lasers on the planet's surface, Luke tells Chewbacca, "Hurry, Chewbacca! We're being attacked by the Death Star!" Han replies, "It's too late kid! We're finished!" This is part five of an adaptation of A New Hope, and includes no such scene.
  • The main cast is referred to as The Star Warriors on the covers, but not in the stories. Probably better that way.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Don-Wan Khiotay, seemingly a loony old guy who believes he's the last of the Jedi, is skilled enough to hold his own alongside hardened mercenaries.
• Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: Deliberately staged by the Empire to set up Shira's cover
• Curse Cut Short: On Mandalore, we get "sonova—"
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The entire Mary storyline. Luke goes on a mission to help guerrillas fight the Empire. While there, he falls in love with a guerrilla named Mary. They succeed, but then they turn on each other, and in the process, Mary is killed. Yes, this was around the same time as Iran-Contra. Why do you ask?
• Dragon Rider: The Dragon Lords of Drexel get around their oceanic homeworld by riding on the backs of the local sea-dragons. They even ride the dragons into battle like knights in scuba diving gear.
• The Dreaded: Wookies seem to be this in this setting. Torture-hardened imperials immediately beg to be asked questions when Chewie confronts them, and pirates, thugs, and all manner of galactic tough guys not only want nothing to do with him, they are openly terrified of him.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Out of universe, two issues (one apiece) were co-created by Randy Stradley and Jan Duursema, both of which would later go on to create such works as Crimson Empire, Dark Times, Dawn of the Jedi, Republic, and Legacy for Dark Horse's time with the license.
• Early Adaptation Weirdness: Many characters appear in a very different form than they do in the movie. This is usually because many of the the comics were written before the films were released so the artists relied on concept art that didn't make the final cut or just guesswork. Most notably, Jabba appears as a yellow, bipedal walrus like guy.
• Enemy Mine: Leia and Luke are forced to combine forces with a squad of Imperial commandos to survive a hostile planet in a 1980 storyline, World Of Fire. While one of the commandos is a complete scumbag their overall leader is portrayed as a sympathetic Worthy Opponent who just happens to be on the wrong side and Leia even tries to persuade him to defect. He refuses, using a My Country, Right or Wrong arguement.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: The Marvel series probably has more female antagonists than probably any other series in Star Wars Legends. Lumiya is by far the most famous but there are many others ranging from serious villainesses like Kharys to one issue annoyances like Captain Traal. There are even a couple of nameless female Mooks!
• Even the Guys Want Him: Luke again. One of his Zeltron entourage is male.
• Eye Scream: Comes up in Orman Tagge's backstory. Vader blinded him, forcing him to resort to a cybernetic visor. When Luke fights him, he cuts off Tagge's visor◊ without hurting him, leaving him (temporarily) blind again and BSOD-ing.
• Faith–Heel Turn: After he shoots down Shira, Luke has a crisis of faith in the Force.
• Fantastic Diet Requirement: Hoojibs, aliens resembling mouthless rabbits, feed directly on energy, which they absorb through a flexible antenna on their heads, without needing to metabolize organic food for it. They normally feed on Power Crystals that occur naturally on their homeworld, but can also drain energy from machines.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • Of all people, Leia! Leia doesn't like Zeltrons. Mon Mothma asks what's wrong with her. Given what we know about Zeltrons, this says more about Mon Mothma.
  • On a more general level anti-droid prejudice is depicted as very common, which retroactively fits in very well with what we later see of the Clone Wars. The issues featuring the bounty hunter Valance prominently feature anti-droid prejudice, but take it to a new level. Valance, who obsessively hates droids, is a cyborg, and it turns out they're subject to prejudice, as well.
• Fat Bastard: Governor Quarg, the obese, tyrannical dictator of the planet Drexel.
• Fish People: Kiro's race.
• Go Seduce My Arch Nemesis: Vader orders Shira to do this to his son.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Emperor, naturally, before Return of the Jedi. Also doubled as The Ghost since he was often referenced, but never seen during that time.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: The Zeltrons have pink skin. Dani is the most prominent Zeltron character. We also get male examples with Leia's Zeltron fanboys Bahb, Jahn, Marruc and Rahuhl.
• The Hedonist: The Zeltrons are a non-villainous example. While they mainly just want to have fun they also are (usually) compassionate as they are all The Empath so care a lot about the feelings of others.
• Heroic Build: This was very much a Marvel Comic, and Depending on the Artist, the art often followed (but not always) this aspect of Marvel's house style. Particularly obvious in the "corner art" depiction of Luke on the covers of issue 1-38. With a bit of art touch-up, the "swordsman" would be indistinguishable from Marvel's Conan the Barbarian.
• Honey Trap: Shira/Lumiya
• Hurt/Comfort Fic: Wedge is stuck on Hoth. Luke rescues him, only to learn that in the meantime, Wedge has witnessed Janson die and barely escaped himself. Retconned as a story that Wedge tells the recruits so they know how horrible war is. And because he thinks their expressions are hilarious when Wes walks in afterwards.
• Idiot Ball: Luke and Dani think Kiro's dead because he fell in the water fighting an enemy, the water got bloody, and he never came up, and he's a fish man!
  • They aren't really sure it's him, but when they get back to their ship and see that Shira/Lumiya has been released, and the flower Den gave to Dani there, it pretty much seals the deal that Kiro lost (although it turns out later that he survived and made it back to his home planet).
• Jedi Mind Trick: Played for Black Comedy in one issue with Darth Vader using a Mind Trick to persuade an incompetent officer to go for "some fresh air", by stepping out an airlock. Another issue gives us a rare glimpse of the aftermath of a Mind Trick when Luke uses a long distance one to make an Imperial station commander to drop her shields. The commander mindlessly orders the shields dropped then comes out of her trance and is surprised and angry to notice the lack of shields, blaming it on her underlings' incompetence.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Han shoots Greedo while the latter is still talking, unlike in the movie where Han let Greedo finish speaking before shooting him.
• Kill the Lights: Issue #33 has Baron Tagge try to thwart Luke Skywalker's escape from his ship's hangar bay. Tagge takes a lightsaber to a junction box, killing the lights in the hangar, aiming to keep Luke unable to see his adversary, while Tagge's cybernetic visor can see Luke perfectly. It goes much differently than Tagge had planned.
• Language Equals Thought: In the first arc after the retelling of the original movie, the narration mentions that violence is such an everyday occurrence on the Wookiee homeworld that their language has fifteen separate words for it.
• Lovable Coward: The Hiromi; they also tend to collectively be Small Name, Big Ego, but they mean well enough in the end.
• Magical Computer: The cyborg Lobot can manipulate energy to alter technology because Everything Is Online, even bombs!
• Magikarp Power: Lahsbees. At puberty, they go from being cute little things to being hulking monstrosities called huhks.
• The Magnificent Seven Samurai: "Eight for Aduba-3", the first original storyline. The one that brought us the aforementioned Jaxxon as well as "Don-Wan Kihotay", a blustery Jedi wannabe.
• Mistaken Identity: In "Chanteuse of the Stars", said chanteuse is something of a diva and quits before a show. Leia, trying to evade recognition, puts on the woman's wig and is mistaken for her by the chanteuse's own manager.
• Mundane Utility: In the second issue for the adaptation of A New Hope, Vader is seen using the Force to summon a drink during the conference between the Imperial officers.
• My Nayme Is: Cody Sunn-Childe.
• Never Say "Die": Generally averted, but just like in the films, there are some odd examples where "destroyed" is used instead. And in the Crimson Forever arc, Luke is killed by the eponymous disease (he gets better) and Leia and Lando have to continue on without him - but they never say die. Just that he succumbed to it. And since everyone else who'd contracted it had died...
  • Also in the last issue of this arc Leia is contacted with an offer for a way to stop the plague and undo the worst of it - including the death of Luke Skywalker.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Luke gets these on occasion. The comic directly after ESB has him slowing his heart rate and breathing to the point where a droid monitoring his life signs thinks he's comatose, though he's up and moving. In another comic, he uses the Force to find six bombs and make their primers explode, but not the bombs themselves. And of course, there's the long-range Mind Trick mentioned above.
• Offhand Backhand: A variation. In one flashback story, a knife-wielding thug decides to sneak up on Obi-Wan from behind and shank him. Obi-Wan, without so much as a backwards glance, casually angles the hilt of his lightsaber and switches it on, skewering his would-be killer.
• Out of Focus: The Empire itself in the first year or so of the series run. Between issue #6 (the last installment of the adaptation of A New Hope) and issue #18 the Empire did not appear 'onscreen' at all except in the form of flashbacks with the villains in the interim being space pirates, mercenaries and raiders; likely due to the Empire regrouping after what must have been a devastating loss. After this, though, the Empire was almost never Out of Focus again until the post-RotJ stories.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Dani, prior to going through Break the Cutie and becoming a Broken Bird; Leia's Zeltron fanboys Bahb, Jahn, Marruc and Rahuhl and Hirog and the rest of the Hiromi after their Heel–Face Turn (prior to that they had been Laughably Evil Ineffectual Sympathetic Villains.)
• Pragmatic Villainy: In issue 7, Han is boarded and robbed by the space pirate Crimson Jack. Jack's first mate suggests killing Han after they take his cargo, but Jack chooses to let Han live; after all, a living man can be robbed many times, but a dead man can only be robbed once.
• Pun: Nagais and Dolls, My Hiromi.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Luke has one of these once, when told 'We'll never make it!' in a dire situation.
  "I-am-not-going-to-stand-here-and-watch-another-of-my-friends-DIE!"
• Rape as Drama: Dani. Also hinted at with Tai.
• Redemption Equals Death: Captain Valance.
• Remember the New Guy?:
  • Sort of. Wedge Antilles was in A New Hope, but never featured in the non-movie-adaptation comics until "Hoth Stuff", when he was suddenly Luke's oldest friend and had Biggs Darklighter's backstory.
  • Shira Brie just kind of abruptly turns up in issue 56 with barely any introduction, but the other Rebels act like she's been around for quite some time (and Luke is already shown to be developing romantic feelings for her).
• The Reveal: The new Sith is... Luke's crazy ex-girlfriend!
• Reverse Polarity: In #52: To Take The Tarkin, Leia switches a couple of wires to reverse the polarity modes of The Tarkin's fire controls. When the station tries to fire its superlaser on the Millennium Falcon, the superweapon explodes.
• Robot War: The civil war on Droid World.
• Rule of Cool: Lightwhips.
• Rule of Funny: Disco planet? Funny. Green carnivorous rabbits? Funny. Goth elves? Hilarious. Hoojibs? Possibly their own Memetic Mutation.
• Running Gag: The number of times either Luke or Leia attempt a Relationship Upgrade but are interrupted by something - usually the main plot kicking off - approaches this. Which becomes even funnier after Return Of The Jedi revealed that they're siblings.
• Sapient All Along: The sea-dragons of the Drexel arc initially come off as mindless, hyperaggressive monsters, albeit ones that can be tamed and ridden by the Dragon Lords. The dragons are later revealed to be intelligent beings who communicate through ultrasonic waves, and their partnership with the Dragon Lords is one of equals rather than servitude. Their aggression is caused by the Arc Villain's sonic jammer device, which damages their sensitive hearing and causes them extreme pain.
• Sea Serpents: The oceanic planet Drexel is home to enormous serpentine sea-dragons.
• Series Continuity Error: Post-Empire, Luke still uses his blue-bladed lightsaber for many issues afterwards, even though the comic itself depicted him losing it on Bespin.
• Shirtless Scene: Luke has a surprising number of opportunities to show off his Marvel-style Heroic Build:
  • Luke actually looks like Rambo in the last issue, with his hair growing literally five inches for one issue, and he's very buff, constantly shirtless, and holding a giant laser cannon. Yes, that is as bizarre as it sounds.
  • When he's infected with the Crimson Forever, a rather dramatically named plague, he has fever dreams in which he fights Vader while shirtless. Despite wearing a shirt while lying in the quarantine wing.
    • Then again, he was dying. It's amazing we got something as lucid as fighting Vader while shirtless instead of an hour or two of Luke following unicorns through an acid trip.
  • Han is shirtless in a cantina for some reason.
• Shout-Out:
  • Lando basically cosplays◊ as a palette-swapped Captain Harlock as a disguise in one issue.
  • Also, the Nagai are named after Go Nagai and the Hiromi after musician Go Hiromi. Mary Jo Duffy was responsible for all three shout outs, and loved her some anime.
  • Two of the mercenaries who torture Jaxxon in issue 16 are named Dafi and Fud. Sound familiar?
• Single-Biome Planet:
  • One very early story ('The Kingdom of Ice' from the UK version of the comic) featured an iceworld home to an important Rebel base over a year before the appearance of Hoth.
  • Drexel is an ocean planet, with no dry land whatsoever.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor: Shira.
• Sleepwalking: Luke's not bad at sleep-fighting, apparently.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Usually, the Rebels are the champions of democracy, right? Not so when they order Luke's execution over friendly fire in a situation when if he hadn't fired blindly, the entire squadron would've died, compromising their mission. This leads to Luke doubting the Force until he learns Shira was an Imperial spy after all and clears his name. Then the Alliance are so democratic that they don't let the Heroes of Yavin take part in the government because they missed a meeting they didn't even know about. On the other hand, and at one point, our heroes are so popular, they could basically start their own Empire, but they're too clueless to realize it.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: All over the place Depending on the Writer. Stories and characters ranged from the very silly to serious fare that wouldn't be out of place alongside Timothy Zahn or Michael Stackpole. Largely the silly issues were made earlier on, with later ones being more plotty, but this isn't universal.
  • Played straight when it comes to the issues adapting the movies.
• Space Elves: Or rather Space Dark Elves in the form of the Nagai — they are tall, slender yet strong, agile, androgynously good-looking, are arrogant towards most other species, have angular features and even pointed ears.
• Space Pirates: These were alluded to in the film, but they made their first appearance in this series.
• Take Me to Your Leader: Used in a friendly way here◊.
• Title Drop: The 89th comic is called "I'll See You In The Throne Room!", which on the first page is shouted by one of the characters.
• Too Dumb to Live: After being blinded by Darth Vader, Orman Tagge became obsessed with defeating him, procuring a lightsaber and training endlessly with it. He also had a dirty trick in mind that he planned to use if it came to that, which he was forced◊ to use on Luke◊ - namely, he planned to turn the lights off during the fight. With his cybernetic replacement eyes, he could see in the dark. The poor man never understood the power of the Force...
• Tyke-Bomb: Shira.
• Underground City: In "World of Fire."
• Unwanted Harem: Luke around Zeltrons, at least until he apparently gets used to them. "Chanteuse of the Stars" has him actively fleeing from hot red women who think he's the most beautiful man they've ever seen. Eventually one of them (Dani) becomes a close, platonic friend partly because she fell for someone else - she has a thing for blond Force-sensitive men - and so stopped chasing him and partly because she went through a lot of Character Development.
• Villain Episode: "The Hunter" is a combination of this and A Day in the Limelight as the focus is on both the evil cyborg Captain Valance and the surviving heroes of the group Han and Chewie assembled in "Eight for Aduba-3" from earlier in the series run. Uniquely none of the core heroes (Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie and the droids) appear outside of flashbacks.
  • "Dark Encounters" is another one that features Valance and Vader fighting over a Rebel deserter and ends with the cyborg's and the deserter's deaths. Luke and the droids only briefly appear as part of an interlude that isn't involved with the main story.
• Villains Never Lie: After Luke apparently kills Shira, who was popular with Alliance personnel, he goes on sabbatical to grapple with his faith in the Force, soon finding that Shira had been lying about her homeworld and tragic backstory. Vader communicates with him and tells him that not only had she been lying, she'd been working for him the entire time. Now the Alliance is against Luke, and the only way he can keep from being a pariah is to join Vader. Luke is shaken by this, but actually goes to try to find Imperial records on Shira before he outright believes his father.
  • He also needed the records in order to prove his innocence.
  • A rare unintended example occurs in one of the annuals. Vader takes in a boy who had found his mother's dead body, openly saying that he was once in the same position. We're meant to think he was lying just to get the boy on his side...but Attack of the Clones not only reveals that he really was once in the same position, but that it was his Start of Darkness.
• Villainous Valor: Baron Tagge in his lightsaber-duel with Luke. As an expert swordsman, he believed he could defeat a Jedi. He doesn't, but for a while he makes a credible showing, though this is against a pre-Empire Strikes Back Luke, who has only had a few quick lessons from Ben.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: The Zeltron, a whole race of pink-skinned humanoids. The women wear Frazetta-style fanservicey clothes, and the men wear loincloths and harnesses.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Valance is a former stormtrooper who was mortally wounded during a Rebel airstrike. The doctors of the Telos-4 medical station saved Valance's life by replacing the entire left side of his body with cybernetic parts.
• Winged Humanoid: The Stenaxes are quite demonic.
• The Worf Effect: Almost completely averted with Chewbacca, who only gets truly (physically) outfought once or twice in the entire series. If anything, Chewie is the one inflicting this trope left and right to the local tough guys.
• You Are What You Hate: Valance hates droids and cyborgs with a seething passion, but is secretly a cyborg himself. He hides his condition by covering his cybernetic parts with false skin, and in his first appearance, he destroys the hospital where he was rebuilt to keep anyone from learning the truth.
• You Have Failed Me:
  • Subverted in one issue where Vader chooses to spare an admiral who failed an important mission. The admiral, while pointing out that no security could have prevented the loss, accepts responsibility as the officer in charge along with whatever punishment Vader feels is just. Vader, impressed by his courage and integrity, settles for just demoting him to leftenant.^note A British term for "lieutenant"
  • Deconstructed in the "Tarkin" story arc. After Vader kills several Imperials while overseeing the titular superweapon, the surviving officers fear that they could be next and conspire to kill Vader. (They don't succeed.)
  • In a non-Vader example, Governor Quarg is fond of hanging subordinates who fail him and letting their corpses dangle from the mainmast as a gruesome warning for the rest of the crew.

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