A generation of Star Wars fans were traumatized by seeing Han Solo frozen in carbonite and carted away by that bounty hunting jerkwad Boba Fett. But now we know Han wasn’t the only Original Trilogy favorite to suffer that ignominious fate.
Read on to find out what other iconic Star Wars hero met the wrong end of a carbonite freezing chamber, but beware of spoilers for Marvel’s Star Wars #3 ahead!
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The latest issue of Marvel’s flagship Star Wars series (which was recently relaunched with a new post-Empire Strikes Back setting) shows what happens when Luke, Leia and Lando make the very questionable decision to return to Cloud City in the wake of the Empire’s takeover. The previous issue showed Luke having a vision of a mysterious, hooded figure catching his lightsaber. Luke wants to reclaim his lost weapon and make sense of that strange vision.
Lando has his own reasons for returning home. After sweet-talking his way through Cloud City’s security, Lando journeys to the depths of the city in search of his old friend Lobot. Lobot was captured during the Empire’s invasion of Cloud City and is now plugged directly into the city’s computer systems. Fortunately, that gives Lando just the opening he needs to turn the tables on the city’s Imperial occupiers. He unleashes a cloud of toxic Tibanna gas waste, hoping to distract the Empire long enough for him to free Lobot, rally his other friends, and escape. The plan works, for a few minutes anyway.
Luke’s return to Cloud City is less successful. Still haunted by memories of battling Darth Vader, Luke makes his way to the bottom of the shaft where his lightsaber fell, only to discover a massive pile of debris and a group of pesky Ugnaughts. Tracking down his lightsaber is clearly going to be the Star Wars equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.
However, Leia definitely fares the worst on this particular mission. She makes her way to the chamber where Han was frozen, hoping to figure out how to activate the decarbonization process that can revive him. Before she can finish her reconnaissance, Leia is spotted and stun-blasted by patrolling Stormtroopers. Following Darth Vader’s strict orders, they freeze their new captive in carbonite in preparation to deliver her to an Imperial prison.
In a cruel twist of fate, Leia now finds herself in the exact same predicament as Han. We’re assuming Leia won’t stay frozen nearly as long. But then again, with how little we actually know about this lost period between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, we can’t take anything for granted.
In other big Star Wars news, Lucasfilm recently revealed The High Republic, a new publishing initiative aimed at exploring an era 200 years before the events of The Phantom Menace. Here’s a full breakdown of The High Republic’s story and a look at why some fans think it’s introducing the next Baby Yoda.
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Source: IGN.com Star Wars: Another Iconic Character Gets Frozen in Carbonite