REVIEW - Star Wars Tales #17 "Planet of the Dead"

Han Solo has recently premiered his solo movie (no pun intended). To honor that, let’s review one of his less action-packed stories, but one that excels in representing the character.

“Planet of the Dead” is a story found in the series originally published by Dark Horse, and now by Marvel. In here, Solo and Chewbacca are forced to land in a seemingly deserted planet after they run out of fuel (blame Solo on this). This planet is filled with a dense fog and, as the title suggests and as they soon find out, with armies of the undead.

What makes this story so compelling is the fact that it does not exploit the obvious blockbuster potential. While watching Han Solo and Chewie fighting hordes of zombies sounds like any fan would enjoy, it is the portrait of the best side of Solo’s character what is really worth seeing.

They find one of the few inhabitants that are left in that world who tells them about how their developing civilization trying to reach the starts constructed an ark but the mission failed and when they were coming back the natural dense fog stopped them from landing safely, causing the passengers to die. Soon they came back as living dead and they appear every day reenacting the crash to terrorize the survivors in the planet who have to live in fear.

This is the turning point of the story. Han Solo leaves his guns apart and develops a more ingenious plan. Since every day they re-live that horrible event, he decides to help them “survive” this time. He clears the way with some bright crystals making the fog go away. This time they see how the ghost ship lands safely and the spirits of the passengers as well, reaching the so-long-awaited afterlife.

This very decision of his shows more about Han Solo than any explosive battle would have. It shows how smart he can be, and it shows some sensibility in him behind that cocky exterior of his. Even in the end the citizens thank him for leaving those crystals in case the spirits lose their way again, which actually wasn’t his intention at all since he pretended to retrieve the crystals once the work was done, but after seeing their thankful faces and a comment of his friend Chewie, he decides to leave all the valuable items there. This story (and this issue) is highly recommended to any fan of Han Solo or enthusiasts of the Star Wars universe in general who want to see something beyond the space battles and guns blasting.

“The Planet of Dead” is written by Steve Niles; drawn by Davidé Fabbri; inked by Christian Dalla Vecchia; colored by Sno Cone; lettered by Steve Dutro; published by Marvel Comics. Cover art by Alvin Lee. Star Wars and all the related characters previously mentioned are trademarks of Lucas Ltd. And Disney, so as are the comic book panels showed in this post for review purposes. Marvel and its logo are trademarks of TM Marvel Characters, Inc.