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Emilia Clarke’s duplicitous crime boss Qi’ra is alive and well 13 years after Solo: A Star Wars Story, and she’s has made her dramatic return in the recent Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters #1 (opens in new tab) – part of a massive 34-part Star Wars comic book event currently underway now at Marvel Comics.
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Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters #1 is the second major chapter in this in-continuity comic book saga, which reveals the untold story of how Boba Fett lost Han Solo’s carbonite-frozen body after The Empire Strikes Back (opens in new tab) but somehow recovered it to ultimately deliver it to Jabba the Hutt for Return of the Jedi (opens in new tab).
So where does Qi’ra fit in? After the death of Dryden Vos in Solo and then Maul in Star Wars Rebels, Qi’ra has assumed command of the once-feared criminal empire and is angling to bring them back to the fore in the Star Wars universe.
After the events of Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters Alpha (opens in new tab) which revealed how Boba Fett lost Han Solo, Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters #1 reveals more about who all is vying to nab the prized cargo. While most of the interested parties were previously announced (or pretty much assumed), this issue reveals Qi’ra as a deadly new player in this game.
Major spoilers for Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters follow. You have been warned.
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Qi’ra first appears in Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters #1 as a mysterious hooded figure receiving the stolen good that is Han Solo’s carbonite chamber. While her name and the name Crimson Dawn aren’t revealed until later in the issue, eagle-eyed fans get a tipoff early on as Margo, an Imroosian woman who was part of Dryden Vos’ concierge, is shown helping Qi’ra here.
So what does Qi’ra want with Han Solo? Whereas he aimed to ‘save’ her in Solo: A Star Wars Story, here she hopes to use him as a pawn in the uneasy status quo that is post-Empire Strikes Back Star Wars continuity – as he’s wanted by the Empire, the Rebel Alliance, and pretty much anyone else due to the bounty put out by Jabba the Hutt.
Qi’ra is organizing an event to show off Han Solo, inviting guests as diverse as Jabba and Sana Starros (Han’s kinda-sorta-wife). Qi’ra tells Jabba she’s giving Han Solo over to the Hutt crimelord as a “gesture of goodwill,” but given she’s inviting more than just him to this little soiree, it seems she has bigger plans.
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Star Wars ‘War of the Bounty Hunters’ continues this week with Bounty Hunters #13 (opens in new tab), while the next major chapter is July 14’s Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters #2 (of 5) (opens in new tab).
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