STAR WARS #6 (1977) — FINAL MOVIE ADAPTATION — LUKE SKYWALKER VS. DARTH VADER
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Up for sale is a highly collectible copy of Star Wars #6, published by Marvel Comics in 1977. This important Bronze Age Star Wars issue concludes Marvel's original six-part adaptation of the film now known as Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, bringing the legendary Battle of Yavin and attack on the Death Star to its dramatic conclusion.
The issue features the climactic Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader space battle, the destruction of the Death Star, the second comic-book appearance of Wedge Antilles, and the conclusion of the historic first Star Wars movie adaptation in American comics.
For collectors of the original Marvel series, #6 represents an important dividing line:
Star Wars #1–6 adapted the original movie.
Beginning with Star Wars #7, Marvel moved beyond the film and began telling original Star Wars adventures.
Star Wars #6 features:
• Final issue of Marvel's original six-part Star Wars movie adaptation
• Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader
• Climactic Battle of Yavin
• Destruction of the Death Star
• 2nd appearance of Wedge Antilles
• Wedge is identified by name in this issue after his brief, unnamed first appearance in #5
• Death of Biggs Darklighter
• Han Solo and Chewbacca return to aid Luke
• Luke uses the Force during the decisive Death Star attack
• Darth Vader survives the destruction of the Death Star
• Rebel victory and medal ceremony
• Final adaptation issue before Marvel begins original Star Wars stories with #7
• Classic 1977 Marvel Bronze Age Star Wars
This is one of those issues where several pieces of Star Wars history converge within a single comic.
The story is appropriately titled:
“The Final Chapter?”
Marvel had begun adapting George Lucas's original film with Star Wars #1 earlier in 1977.
Across six issues, readers followed Luke Skywalker from Tatooine through his first encounter with Obi-Wan Kenobi, his meeting with Han Solo and Chewbacca, the rescue of Princess Leia, the death of Obi-Wan, and finally the Rebel Alliance's desperate attack on the Death Star.
Star Wars #6 brings that entire adaptation to its conclusion.
For collectors, that makes #6 the natural bookend to #1.
One begins Marvel's adaptation.
The other finishes it.
One of Key Collector's specific designations for Star Wars #6 is the battle of Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader.
But this isn't the lightsaber confrontation that later generations would associate with Luke and Vader.
This is their original Death Star encounter.
Luke is flying his X-wing.
Darth Vader is pursuing him in his TIE fighter.
Neither Luke nor the reader yet understands the extraordinary connection between the two characters.
There is no revelation about Luke's father.
There is no established history between them.
At this point in the saga, Darth Vader is simply the terrifying Imperial warrior responsible for killing Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Luke is a young Rebel pilot trying to destroy the Empire's ultimate weapon.
Looking back with decades of Star Wars history behind these characters makes the encounter particularly fascinating.
This is Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader battling one another before either Luke—or audiences—understands what their relationship will eventually mean.
The Rebel Alliance has discovered a weakness in the Death Star.
The weakness is tiny.
The station is enormous.
And the Rebels have only one opportunity to exploit it.
X-wing and Y-wing pilots attack the Death Star while Imperial defenses attempt to destroy them.
The Rebel plan requires pilots to enter the station's trench and fire proton torpedoes into a small thermal exhaust port.
If they succeed, the resulting chain reaction should destroy the battle station.
If they fail:
The Death Star will destroy the Rebel base on Yavin 4.
There is no second chance.
The situation becomes even more dangerous when Darth Vader personally enters the battle.
Vader climbs into his TIE fighter and begins hunting the Rebel pilots attempting to complete the trench run.
This creates the central confrontation highlighted by Key Collector:
Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader.
Vader begins eliminating the Rebel fighters around Luke.
The young Rebel pilot is rapidly running out of allies.
And Vader is closing in.
Star Wars #6 also features the second comic-book appearance of Wedge Antilles.
This follows his first appearance in:
Star Wars #5 — brief and unnamed
Here in #6:
Wedge appears again and is identified by name.
That distinction makes #5 and #6 particularly nice companion books for Wedge collectors.
#5 — 1st appearance
#6 — 2nd appearance / identified by name
Wedge would eventually grow far beyond his relatively small role in the original film adaptation.
He becomes one of the Rebel Alliance's most accomplished pilots and one of the characters most closely associated with Rogue Squadron.
Wedge's participation in the Battle of Yavin is particularly significant when viewed through the character's later history.
Many Rebel pilots entering this battle do not survive.
Wedge does.
He will continue fighting.
He will participate in the Galactic Civil War.
He will fly at Hoth.
He will fight again at Endor.
And he will eventually become one of the most respected military pilots and leaders associated with the Rebel Alliance and New Republic.
Readers in 1977 could not possibly know how much history would eventually accumulate around this supporting pilot.
That's part of what makes these earliest Wedge appearances interesting today.
The Battle of Yavin also brings tragedy.
Biggs Darklighter is killed.
Biggs represents another connection to Luke's life before he became a Rebel hero.
He was part of Luke's world before Princess Leia, Han Solo, the Millennium Falcon, lightsabers, and the Death Star transformed everything.
Now Luke watches another person connected to his old life disappear.
The battle is producing heroes.
But it is also costing the Rebel Alliance dearly.
As the attack continues, Luke finds himself in an increasingly desperate position.
Rebel fighters have been destroyed.
Darth Vader is behind him.
The Death Star is moving into position to destroy Yavin.
And Luke has one chance to make the shot.
Then something extraordinary happens.
Luke hears the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Obi-Wan may have fallen to Darth Vader aboard the Death Star, but his presence has not completely disappeared.
He tells Luke to trust something Luke is only beginning to understand:
The Force.
Luke switches off his targeting computer.
To the people monitoring the attack, the decision seems almost incomprehensible.
The entire Rebel plan depends on hitting an extraordinarily small target.
Technology should be essential.
Luke chooses something else.
He trusts the Force.
This becomes one of the defining moments in Luke Skywalker's development.
The young man who only recently learned that the Force was real now places his life—and the survival of the Rebel Alliance—in its hands.
Luke is moments away from being destroyed by Darth Vader when the balance suddenly changes.
Han Solo returns.
Han had received his reward and appeared ready to leave.
He had insisted that he was looking out for himself.
But when Luke needs him most, Han and Chewbacca bring the Millennium Falcon back into the battle.
Their attack disrupts Vader's formation and gives Luke the opening he needs.
It's a defining moment for Han.
The cynical smuggler who initially seemed interested only in getting paid has chosen to risk his life for his friends and the Rebel cause.
Han's intervention prevents Vader from killing Luke.
Vader's TIE fighter is knocked away from the Death Star.
That accident ultimately saves him.
While the battle station is moments away from destruction, Vader is sent spinning into space.
It is an important piece of storytelling.
The Rebels are about to achieve an enormous victory.
But the Empire's most dangerous warrior survives.
Readers in 1977 could not know exactly where Darth Vader's story would go next.
But Marvel now had a living villain available when the comic moved beyond the film adaptation.
Luke fires.
The proton torpedoes enter the exhaust port.
And the impossible happens.
The Death Star explodes.
The Rebel Alliance has destroyed the Empire's ultimate weapon.
Yavin survives.
Luke Skywalker has gone from an unknown farm boy on Tatooine to the pilot responsible for one of the greatest victories in Rebel history.
It's the climax of the original Star Wars movie and the climax of Marvel's six-issue adaptation.
The story concludes with one of the original film's most memorable scenes.
Luke Skywalker and Han Solo stand before Princess Leia and the assembled Rebel Alliance.
They are honored for what they accomplished.
Luke helped destroy the Death Star.
Han returned when his friends needed him.
Chewbacca stands beside them.
The heroes who were strangers only a short time earlier have now helped save the Rebel Alliance.
It is the perfect conclusion to the original movie.
But for Marvel Comics, it isn't the end.
This is one of the most important collector aspects of Star Wars #6.
Marvel has now finished adapting the movie.
But the comic series continues.
That means #6 represents the boundary between two very different periods of the original Marvel run.
Star Wars #1–6: Movie adaptation
Then:
Star Wars #7 onward: Original Marvel Star Wars adventures
For collectors interested in the earliest expansion of Star Wars beyond the original film, that transition is historically interesting.
Marvel suddenly faced a fascinating question:
What happens next?
Remember where the world was in 1977.
There was no Empire Strikes Back yet.
No Return of the Jedi.
No Yoda.
No Lando Calrissian.
No Boba Fett as audiences would later know him.
No revelation that Darth Vader was Luke's father.
No enormous library of Star Wars novels, comics, television series, games, and reference books.
Marvel was working at the very beginning of the franchise.
Once #6 completed the film adaptation, the comic had an entire galaxy available but remarkably little established mythology telling the creators what that galaxy contained.
That is what makes the transition into #7 and the original Marvel stories so fascinating today.
Modern Star Wars stories exist inside an enormous established universe.
The writers of the original Marvel series had a completely different challenge.
They were creating stories while much of what audiences now consider fundamental Star Wars mythology had not yet been revealed.
That gives these comics a unique flavor.
They capture Star Wars while the franchise itself was still discovering what Star Wars would become.
And Star Wars #6 sits directly at that turning point.
The movie adaptation ends here.
The unexplored galaxy begins with the next issue.
Marvel's original adaptation forms a natural six-book set:
Star Wars #1
Star Wars #2
Star Wars #3
Star Wars #4
Star Wars #5
Star Wars #6
Together, those issues tell the complete story of the original 1977 film in comic-book form.
Each issue also has its own collector attributes.
But #6 has a distinction none of the others can claim:
It completes the adaptation.
For collectors building the original six-issue movie set, #6 is therefore essential.
The comic adaptation is written by Roy Thomas, based on the original story by George Lucas.
Artwork on the issue includes Howard Chaykin layouts with finished art by Rick Hoberg, bringing the original Death Star battle to the comic-book page.
This early Marvel material comes from a remarkable moment when artists and writers were translating imagery from a completely new cinematic universe into comics for an audience that had only just discovered Star Wars.
Marvel's original Star Wars comic occupies an important place in the franchise's early publishing history.
Today, Star Wars merchandise and stories exist in virtually every form imaginable.
In 1977, everything was new.
Marvel's adaptation gave comic readers another way to experience the film and then, beginning with #7, continued giving fans Star Wars adventures during the long wait between movies.
That makes the original series more than simply another licensed comic.
It became part of the earliest expansion of Star Wars beyond the theater.
Star Wars #6 also sits firmly within the Bronze Age of American comics.
That gives the book crossover appeal between different collecting groups.
It is:
A 1977 Marvel Bronze Age comic.
An original Star Wars movie adaptation.
A Wedge Antilles early appearance.
A Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader issue.
A Death Star battle issue.
And:
The final chapter of Marvel's original A New Hope adaptation.
That's a considerable amount of collector interest packed into one issue.
Star Wars #6 offers several strong reasons for collectors to take notice:
• Final issue of Marvel's six-part original Star Wars movie adaptation
• Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader
• Climactic Battle of Yavin
• Destruction of the Death Star
• 2nd appearance of Wedge Antilles
• Wedge identified by name
• Death of Biggs Darklighter
• Han Solo and Chewbacca return to save Luke
• Luke trusts the Force
• Darth Vader survives
• Rebel victory and medal ceremony
• Final adaptation issue before original Marvel stories begin in #7
• Roy Thomas adaptation
• Howard Chaykin / Rick Hoberg artwork
• 1977 Marvel Comics
• Classic Bronze Age Star Wars
• Part of the historic original #1–6 movie adaptation
This is not simply another issue in the middle of the original Marvel run.
It closes the comic adaptation of the movie that started the entire Star Wars phenomenon.
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Star Wars #6 is a standout issue from Marvel's original Bronze Age series, concluding the historic six-part adaptation of the original 1977 Star Wars film with the Battle of Yavin, Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader, the destruction of the Death Star, and the second appearance of Wedge Antilles—now identified by name.
More importantly, #6 represents a genuine turning point in early Star Wars comic history.
The movie adaptation ends here.
With Star Wars #7, Marvel was free to move beyond the film and begin creating original adventures in a galaxy whose mythology was still being written.
For a serious Star Wars, Original Trilogy, Wedge Antilles, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Marvel Bronze Age, or early movie-adaptation collection, Star Wars #6 is an important piece of the franchise's earliest comic-book history.