Comics A/V Which Version of Ord Mantell?

When trying to piece together the most cohesive ordering of the old EU, there's one glaring contradiction; the backstory to Han's line about the bounty hunter on Ord Mantell. Interestingly, both depictions were made during the run of the original trilogy, both through the newspaper strip by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson, and through the audio adventure story by Brian Daley.

When it comes to who has the greater authority of Star Wars lore, both Goodwin and Daley are both extremely important writers. Daley authored the Han Solo Adventures trilogy, which are some of the earliest EU stories in retrospect. He also wrote the Star Wars radio dramas, which added a tremendous amount of lore to the original trilogy, a lot of which was directly taken from earlier scripts that had to be cut from the moves.

Archie Goodwin was the most prolific writer for all three of the original Star Wars comics: the original Marvel line, the Pizzazz magazine comics, and the newspaper strip. Now these three lines unfortunately don't line up well with each other, but in defense, it's more difficult due to the sheer volume of stories being made and inconsistencies stemming from retcons being developed in the film (who knew that Luke's father would be Darth Vader in 1979)? Furthermore, the concept of Star Wars media existing within a shared universe didn't really exist until the 90s formally established the Expanded Universe. Hence where we run into these two conflicting stories, and trying to make them work.

Funny enough, they both existed within the Legends/Pre-Disney EU. But in this and many other cases, you really had to bend over backwards to explain both stories existing in the same continuity. It goes against the author's intent and logic in general.

Anyways, the comic strip takes place first canonically, when the Rebels had not yet fled Yavin and were actively scouting for a new base. Luke and Leia are rescued by Han, who must stop to make repairs on the nearby planet of Ord Mantell. Luke and Leia are unfamiliar with the planet; Han mentions visiting before, as it's free of Imperial interference.

In the radio drama, the trip to Ord Mantell takes place after the Rebels have relocated to Hoth, but while the base is still under construction. Leia is familiar with the planet due to a family holdings account being housed in one of their financial institutions (Luke and Han are unfamiliar). The goal of the mission here is to steal a transfer of credits to fund the Rebel base, credits that would be going to the Empire instead.

In both stories, the plans go awry when Han is recognized by local bounty hunters due to the bounty on his head by Jabba the Hutt.

Some of the implications for continuity are that the events of "Showdown" in the comic strip specifically mention the events of the comic strip version of the event. Although that story is part of a "filler" arc and not directly connected to tying into the films. Honestly, it seems like either event could very well exist. I only have one very loose argument in favor of the radio drama version; the comic strip involves Han saving Luke and Leia, but by the time of Empire Strikes Back, Han mentions that's "that's two you owe me, junior" (specifically referring to Han helping Luke destroy the Death Star, and Han saving Luke on Hoth). Of course, that doesn't immediately de-canonize any EU story where Han saves Luke.

I'd be curious to hear everyone's opinion on which version of the story works better for the grand narrative (also taking into account the surrounding stories). Personally, they're both great stories that you should check out. The radio drama has been reposted many times:

The original comic strip is out of print and very hard to find, but the Dark Horse edit of the comic should be readily available in print or digital.

I'll also mention yet another early telling of the same story in a "choose your own adventure" book:
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Scoundrel's_Luck
But due to the nature of such, I doubt this one is meant to be considered canon with the series.

 

"The Bounty Hunter of" is my favourite of the Ord Mantell stories, but I think "Rebel Mission to" makes more sense as the event Han's talking about. It's closer to TESB (something even Goodwin realised was an issue with his story, hence "Showdown") and the threat is more directly tied to Han's involvement with the Rebellion.

Of all the repeated events of this era (DS plans, Han's reward, evacuation of Yavin, etc.) the many bounty hunters on Ord Mantell probably bother me the least. It might stretch credibility, but I can imagine Han repeatedly pushing his luck on Ord Mantell and getting burned each time. It helps that all three major versions are pretty good stories, in my opinion. The YJK addition made because KJA had forgotten Skorr was dead but couldn't be bothered to come up with a new idea is a bit annoying, though.

There's still been nothing on the BHoOM in canon, right? I expect Marvel will be looking into any OT-era hooks they can come up with once the current series ends, so maybe that'll change soon.

 

Isn't the incident in the old Marvel series issue #37 also generally accepted as one of Legends' "bounty hunter on Ord Mantell" incidents? The planet name is not revealed, but Archive Goodwin specifically inserted the scene into the issue in order to resolve the plot hole of Han still having Jabba's death mark in TESB even though the bounty had been removed during the comic series. (It creates another plot hole, though, in that in the comic Han is returning to the Rebels because of the bounty hunter, while in the film Han is leaving because of it.)

Not yet. I was a little surprised they didn't take the opportunity to tell that story when the mainline series jumped forward in time to shortly before TESB, but yeah, that's an open story hook for the moment. Interestingly, Ord Mantell itself has actually been developed a fair bit in canon, being a primary location in the Bad Batch and having substantial appearances in several other stories.

 

You could definitely take it as one, but I would be inclined not to for exactly the reason you say, and that there's no reason to add even more hunters to the pile.

 

Is there a need to choose either (or any of the five) over the other? I don't think any of the versions contradict each other - none of them explicitly state that this was the first or only time Han encountered bounty hunters on the planet, and the three comics versions were all written by the same author (Archie Goodwin). The old EU/Legends continuity seems to have treated them all as having happened.

- "The Bounty Hunter of Ord Mantell" (early on, Luke and Leia searching for new bases, before Dodonna tries to ground her on Yavin 4)
- Scoundrel's Luck (Han gambles away reward, comatose Vader in TIE restored to the Imperials)
- Marvel SW (1977) #7 "In Mortal Combat" (Epilogue) (Jabba/Mosep Bineed renews bounty on Han; not stated to be Ord Mantall, but suggested to be in Hidalgo's Reader's Companion.)
- Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell (setting up Hoth base)
- "Showdown" (Hoth base more or less already operational)

At worst, we just need to head-canon a couple additional lines of dialogue (or their implication) into the tunnel scene in TESB:

LEIA: I thought you had decided to stay.
HAN: The bounty hunter we ran into in Ord Mantell changed my mind.
LEIA: Which one?
HAN: Exactly.
ZAHN (passing in the hallway): Point.

 

For me, Skorr will always be the bounty hunter on Ord Mantell.

 

This is a hard decision, in one hand, Skorr is just awesome, you gotta love him, but the audio drama had Han piloting an X-wing, that's not something you see every day, i think even Leia piloted X-wings more often than Han (she did in the Marvel series after ESB).

Then again the newspaper strips run by Goodwin is among my favorite Star Wars comics ever, just by reading it one gets a really satisfying transition between the immediate post-ANH issues of the Marvel series and ESB, in fact it works so well that it makes me resent the fact that they kept making so many stories in this time period (even though it is inevitable), so i'm gonna go with the comic version simply because it's part of that one run.

 

Also, in the radio drama Han instantly mistrusts Phoedris, because he learns Phoedris is a "bug", as he puts it. An early indication of his dislike for insect species, as later seen in the Dark Nest Trilogy. Nice continuity, even though it was probably completely unintentional.

I'm a big fan of the Goodwin/Williamson strips as well. And the way their stories flow from one to another was always done masterfully.

 

Hahhaa, true! I remember making the same observation the first time i listened to the story, although it may not be accidental, didin't Troy Denning say in an interview that he was a big fan of Brian Daley's work, especially in regards to Han?

This may sound like a conspiracy theory, but given that Denning was active even in the early West End Games era, before Heir to the Empire even released, trying to make continuity in the setting with the sourcebooks, he might have checked out all of Daley's radio dramas and actually based Han's reaction to the Killiks on what Daley established.

Yes, that was the icing on the cake, not only were the adventures themselves really creative, important and with good characterization, but they flowed seemlessly, it truly conveys Star Wars as an ongoing serial like Lucas intended.

 

You may well be right on that. I actually read Dark Nest before I first listened to the Ord Mantell drama. So when Han says "Bugs. Why did it have to be bugs?" in the novel, at the time I thought it was nothing more than a callback to Indiana Jones. If Denning is a fan of Daley, then there may be more to it.

 

Scoundrel's Luck is a really underrated Han Solo story -- one almost no one's read, alas.

 

I read it while going through Mandalorian-related WEG material, and I was pretty impressed. Han's characterised very well, and Captain Sodarra was a fun character too, he seemed to genuinely respect Han even as he was inevitably betraying him.

It had a funny tendency to reuse the same handful of obscure alien species several times over, though.

 

I was hoping you were incorrect here, since the strips were reprinted relatively recently, in the IDW/Marvel Classic Star Wars Newspaper Strips Vol 2. But you are right; I didn't realize that second volume was so expensive online right now. ($199 on Amazon!) Maybe fallout from the break with IDW? The other two volumes are still readily available, so I guess pick them up while you can. (Hopefully Vol 2. will be reprinted sometime soon and the price jump is temporary.)

There's also the encounter with IG-88 on Ord Mantell in the Battlefront: Renegade Squadron game. (Where Han complains about always running into bounty hunters when he visits; by this point new stories were at least acknowledging it as a recurring event.) There are a number of other references mean to foreshadow Han's run-in on Ord Mantell that don't really mesh with any of the existing stories, including the Dark Horse Valentine's Day one-shot, a WEG Rules Companion adventure, and the non-canonical Smuggler's audio play series.

The events of Scoundrel's Luck were eventually folded into the modern EU through references in various materials, most notably Troy Denning's final EU novel Crucible, though they were few and far between.

Good point! Most of the Ord Mantell stories are strangely set close to ANH, even those written after the trilogy was finished.

I'm not sure where that misconception popped up--it the context of the times, it made more sense as a setup for Han still being pursued by bounty hunters in Goodwin's upcoming daily comic strips in addition to TESB. It was probably reasonable for someone reading the comic then seeing TESB and making the connection there, but it's not an explicit contradiction/retelling.

Exactly right--by the time the 90s rolled around this was being addressed in text--in Young Jedi Knights: Return to Ord Mantell Han Solo says "Seems like every time I went to Ord Mantell I ran into one bounty hunter or another and every one of them meant trouble," and then goes on to name drop both Cypher Bos and Skorr.

It's so in character of Han to give a non-answer like this.

Doesn't sound like a conspiracy theory at all! Han's dislike of bug-like aliens (which hasn't aged well, TBH) in the Dark Nest trilogy is a definitely a direct reference to Brian Daley's work, though not the audio drama. Leia mentions that it's rooted in a debacle where Han inadvertently started a water-holo-based religion among the Kamarian insectoids, which is the incident that opens Daley's Han Solo's Revenge. This joke was later expanded upon in the sourcebooks, with the Kamarians spreading the cult to other worlds and Han Solo's smuggler comrade Sonnoid (also from Revenge) reorganizing the belief system into his own income stream. Han's later kidnapping by Kamarian fanatics is said to be the reason for bug phobia in The Joiner King. (I'm pretty sure that event was Dennings, but it might have come from one of the other sources dealing with the fallout from the Kamarian incident.)

If I had to choose, I'd be Skorr all the way too! I think the EU had come to the conclusion that while all accounts were true, Skorr was the hunter Han was referring to since this encounter was the first published and the second incident with Skorr was the last chronologically.
Since Skorr has appeared in the background in the Forces of Destiny and was apparently mentioned in the FACPOV TESB collection (didn't know that until today!), I'd say he's a reasonable candidate for the Canon version of events as well.

 

Never thought to make the connection with issue 37, but that definitely fits the bill. It felt like the comic promptly tied up its current run, then rushed to make a transition into Empire Strikes Back. Personally, I still love the idea of Han's terrible luck leading to him losing his treasured reward soon after Yavin. Having Han's debt be cancelled just to be reinstated made it apparent how little Marvel was being kept in the loop.

Ord Mantell being featured in The Bad Batch makes me think we're being lead into the Disney canon version of the arc. Apparently Skorr's already been name dropped in the new canon source "From a Certain Point of View." Hoping they follow through.

I noticed the exact same thing. The comic strips were only available in those volumes in 2015. Even the original strips assumed you skipped a day or two in the recaps. I have no idea why JUST volume 2 skyrocketed, but it's definitely worth it if you can find it for the original MSRP. Compare it to the Epic Collections and there's no contest.

 

There's probably someone else out there who knows more than I do about print runs and such, but I'd imagine there were more copies printed of #1 and/or #2 is more popular since it starts the Goodwin/Williamson run. #3 might have more available because it was released most recently. But the internet being the internet, the price on these things tends to jump when there are fewer copies for sale, whether the demand is actually there or not. I'd scope out a few of the larger brick and mortar comic shops if possible.