Celebrating Star Wars #27

We all know that the first Star Wars film changed the face of pop culture forever when it hit theaters 40 years ago today—but it’s not just the movie that’s celebrating that milestone in 2017. Star Wars comics arrived with force in 1977, and hundreds of issues later, they’re more popular now than ever.

To celebrate the 40^th anniversary of Star Wars, we’re looking back at our 40 favorite moments from the history of comics from a galaxy far, far away—one day at a time.

Until the release of “Attack of the Clones” in 2002, perhaps no character had more mystery surrounding them in the Star Wars Galaxy than Boba Fett. “Episode II” not only enlightened us on his origin, but also introduced a new Mandalorian bounty hunter to capture our imaginations: his “father,” Jango Fett. The movie answered the question of where Boba came from, but the tale of Jango’s back story fell to the comics of the day, namely the four-issue arc known as JANGO FETT: OPEN SEASONS by writer Haden Blackman and artist Ramon Bachs.

Told from the perspective of Count Dooku 10 years before the Battle of Geonosis, the man also known as Darth Tyranus recounts to Darth Sidious why he has selected Jango as the base human for the Republic’s Clone Army. The tale begins with Jango as a child, orphaned and raised by the Mandalorian clan of nomadic warriors. A years-long civil war would break out among the Mandalorians, with a savage group known as Death Watch splintering off with no regard for any sense of honor. By the end, we understand fully why Dooku sees such promise in Jango.

Also heavily involved in production of LucasArts’ video game “Star Wars: Bounty Hunter”—originally available for PS2 and GameCube and now downloadable for PS4—Blackman carefully seeded elements of the game’s plot in this comic as well, most notably Jango’s rivalry with a former ally named Montross. The game even includes OPEN SEASONS as an unlockable reward.