Marvel #25 - #26

First I want to start off by saying that I love the retro yellow space suits in #25. I wonder if 'The Clone Wars' team took their inspiration for their episode 'Blue Shadow Virus' from this as Padme wears something very similar.

Anyway, on with the story.



Our heroes have been split up once more with Luke and Leia (and the droids) heading back to Yavin IV without Han and Chewie. En route, they trade in Governor Greyshade's luxury space yacht for a hunk of junk that is a little more conspicuous. Before they leave the planet, they see a mining explorer belonging to the Imperial- affiliated House of Tagge blast off towards the Yavin system. On board is Baron Tagge himself, a new villain devised by Marvel. This guy has a bone to pick with Darth Vader and dreams of taking his place at the Emperor's side as his favorite. Hence his dastardly plan...

Following Tagge, Luke and Leia discover that Yavin IV has been blockaded and narrowly escape being blown to smithereens by some magnetic mines launched by the mining explorer. They decide to get a closer look at the ship and so don the spiffy yellow space suits and drop down onto a small moon. From here they witness Tagge launch a squad of TIE fighters down into the gaseous storms surrounding the planet. Luke and Leia get back to their ship to warn the alliance, but are blasted by a returning TIE fighter...

Issue #26 has Luke and Leia rescued by the quick intervention of a squad of X-Wings. Finally setting down on Yavin IV, they show General Dodonna what they recorded with Luke's macro binoculars. Theorising that the Tagge TIE fighters must be armed with some sort of special device that allows them to navigate through the gas of the planet, Luke sets off to salvage the TIE that was shot down over the small moon. He succeeds in locating the downed craft but its pilot is still alive and blasts R2.

Luke pilots the TIE back to Yavin IV where a new plan is formulated to destroy whatever operation Tagge has hidden down within the gas giant. Luke sets out once more in the captured TIE, and successfully navigates the storm. Slamming all his torpedoes into the gigantic space station that has been constructed, Luke makes a run for it, but the destruction of the station means that the eye of the storm through which Luke came becomes unstable. Using the force, Luke finally manages to escape and return to the rebel base, but unknown to him, Baron Tagge also survived, following him out...

New Kenner Figures! Its crazy how long they took to come out with these things. All 20 figures are here from both the 78 and 79 lines. And Han is still called 'Hans'. Mego dolls were also big whoop in the 70s (just ask Plaidstallions).