Comic Analysis: “Star Wars” (1977) #9

Hello and welcome to Laughing Place’s ongoing analysis of Marvel’s original Star Wars comic book. Issue #9 was released on December 13, 1977, making it the final issue to come out during the year Star Wars first debuted in movie theaters. This issue continues the Seven Samurai-inspired story that has been playing out since the adaptation of the movie ended with issue #6. In the bullet-point list below, I’ll comb through issue #9 panel by panel and pick out any interesting oddities or tidbits that jump out to me.

  • Cover: As I mentioned last time, the Cloud Riders’ name was much later repurposed for Enfys Nest’s gang of marauders in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Han does not appear to be using his usual blast in this illustration, though it looks correct inside the actual issue.
  • Page 1: The title of this issue is “Showdown On a Wasteland World!”
  • Page 2: Han Solo recaps the events of the past few issues, just in case you’re jumping in mid-story.
  • Page 3 (panel 1): According to Wikipedia, “Luna-weed” has only ever been mentioned twice across all of Star Wars history– in this issue and the next one. The name “Don-Wan Kioti” is spelled differently than it was in the previous issue. Han compares Jaxxon to a plain old rabbit, which do exist in the Star Wars galaxy.
  • Page 3 (panel 2): The “Ji-ant” species of insect has only ever been mentioned here.
  • Page 3 (panel 4): This is also the only time “high-hounds” ever appear in Star Wars.
  • Page 5 (panel 3): Surprisingly, Don-Wan does actually know how to wield and fight with his lightsaber.
  • Page 7 (panel 3): The Wodanian Wood-Sprite is another creature mentioned here that never made it past the pages of this particular issue.
  • Page 8 (panel 4): Drexel, however, is a system that would go on to be incorporated into the Star Wars roleplaying game and then later mentioned in the current (post-Disney acquisition) cannon– after first appearing in these pages.
  • Pages 8-9: Once again, Luke and Leia’s adventure is limited to just a couple pages in this issue.
  • Page 12 (panel 5): Han acts as though he has never been in a ground-based blaster fight before, which we know very well is not the case.
  • Page 14 (panel 1): RIP FE-9Q (called FE-9O here). We hardly knew ye.
  • Page 17: This Behemoth creature only ever appears here and in the NEXT ISSUE: “Day of the Behemoth!”

Mike Celestino
Mike serves as Laughing Place's lead Southern California reporter, Editorial Director for Star Wars content, and host of the weekly "Who's the Bossk?" Star Wars podcast. He's been fascinated by Disney theme parks and storytelling in general all his life and resides in Burbank, California with his beloved wife and cats.