Issue #8 (February 1978): Eight for Aduba-3

• Writer/Editor: Roy Thomas
• Artist/Co-Plotter: Howard Chaykin

Previously in this series.

Our story, as it were, continues. The promise of Jaxxon is finally fulfilled. I mean, look! There he is, right on the cover!

We pick up right where the last issue leaves off, with Han and Chewie doin’ a little harmless womanizing in the cantina. Well, not quite harmless. Remember the blue woman who wanted to “take a walk and swap life stories” with Han? Turns out she has a boyfriend.

This guy:

Cue a good old-fashioned cantina brawl. Just like the previous issue, we see a few cool alien designs that have no basis in reality or physics. Like Brainiac here:

Chewie finally puts the entire brawl to an end. Because he’s Chewbacca. And he can. And that’s where our Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven/A Bug’s Life story begins.

Young peasant approaches Han and enlists his aid to fight off the “big bad” who steals his village’s crops every year. His name? Wait for it….Serji-X Arrogantus. Really, you can’t make this stuff up.

Han, completely out of character, accepts. The pay? Food and shelter. Apparently, he forgot that his entire reward was stolen last issue, and Jabba the Hutt is after him. Oh well.

Page 11: Han begins accepting volunteers to be on his team. Without a shirt. Because he’s Han Solo, that’s why!

There’s a line of volunteers outside his door, but if you look carefully, it’s really just the six people he takes. Beggars can’t be choosers, I guess.

The team is pretty wild (and we’ll go into each of them more next issue), but the clear superstar here is Jaxxon. The 6-foot green rabbit. Oh yeah….

Don’t let those looks fool you.

He’s a total badass with a bucktooth.

Knowing that kids in 1978 didn’t fork over their 35 cents to read a Star Wars comic about a 6-foot green rabbit, we’re given two whole pages of Luke and Leia back on Yavin-4. Luke is still moping about being a hero. Leia is being all doe-eyed and pathetic around Luke. It’s actually a pretty brutal two pages.

Our team of eight finishes up this issue on the road to save the village. Serji-X swoops in on his prequel-era swoop bike. Remember what Darth Maul was riding around Tatooine while he was hunting annoying little Anakin? Kind of like that.

Threats are made. Han wonders (for about the tenth time) how he got into this mess. And we’re left with the gang on the road to the peasants’ village.

What a motley crew….