How Han Solo Almost Ran Into Qi’ra Before ‘A New Hope’
There are few characters with more hectic love lives than Han Solo. Throughout movies, comics, and novels, we have seen the notorious smuggler bounce from love interest to love interest during the course of his life. Starting with Qi’ra from his home planet of Corellia, we saw Han attempt to reconnect with his fellow scrumrat three years after their initial separation. This didn’t go well as Qi’ra instead chose to remain with the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate in service of the renegade Sith Lord Maul. After the events of The Empire Strikes Back, Qi’ra would reenter Han’s life thirteen years later in, albeit unbeknownst to Han. She would steal the carbonite-frozen Han from Boba Fett and auction him off to the major crime syndicates in order to put Crimson Dawn back on the map. This would ultimately end with Han being reclaimed by Boba Fett and delivered to Jabba the Hutt while Qi’ra went on to the next phase of her plan.
During the stretch of comics in between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, we saw Han have a brief fling with bounty hunter Sana Starros, who he pretended to marry for a job.This would lead to a misunderstanding and an unsteady relationship between Han and Sana in Kieron Gillen’s Star Wars comic run. The scoundrel would ultimately settle with Leia in The Empire Strikes Back, even though their romance had its ups and downs in various media between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. But believe it or not, Han almost ran into Qi’ra just a few years prior to A New Hope.
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Han Solo & Chewbacca is a Star Wars comic miniseries following Han and his Wookiee co-pilot as they were sent to Corellia on a mission for Jabba the Hutt. From writer Marc Guggenheim and artists David Messina and Alex Sinclair, the series began with Han and Chewie reluctantly teaming up with Greedo to retrieve the ashes of one of Jabba’s most hated rivals. Upon reaching Han’s old home, the three began to form a plan to steal the urn containing the ashes from Augustus Graves, CEO of the Corellian Engineering Corporation (CEC). While there, however, Han ran into one of the CEC’s oldest employees: his estranged father Ovan. With Ovan’s help, Han and Greedo were able to enter Graves’ penthouse and break open the safe containing the urn, only to find that the urn was missing. After a daring escape from CEC security, Han, Chewie, and Ovan ditched Greedo on Corellia as they tracked down the urn to a junk shop on Antillion. This shop was run by none other than Madelin Sun, also known as the Archivist.
The Archivist is a character from Charles Soule’s recent comic miniseries, Crimson Reign, which followed Qi’ra, now the leader of Crimson Dawn, as she orchestrated a plot to distract the Empire and stretch its resources in order to assassinate the Emperor. In the third issue of Crimson Reign, we saw how Qi’ra came to recruit the Archivist to her cause. As stormtroopers raided her shop for Force-related artifacts, Qi’ra arrived and made short work of the stormtroopers before offering the Archivist every relic and weapon in her arsenal for her to study. Now in the third issue of Han Solo & Chewbacca, we see this story play out again but from a new perspective. In the said issue, we discover that Han was the one who tipped off the stormtroopers to the Archivist’s collection. This is to get the shop cleaned out so that Han and Ovan could sneak inside and claim the urn for themselves. In the process of doing this, Han nearly ran into Qi’ra again, whom he didn’t recognize as he watched and waited for her and the Archivist to leave the premises.
From there, Han and Ovan were able to retrieve the urn. On their way out, they suddenly encountered none other than Krrsantan, who was also after the urn for Jabba. Meanwhile, Qi’ra and the Archivist left the planet and continued the rest of their story in Crimson Reign #3.
The crossover between these miniseries is subtle, but intriguing, leaving open the possibility that Han and Qi’ra could have crossed paths once more prior to the original trilogy. These events also help to solidify the similarities and differences between Han and Qi’ra. Han sold out the Archivist to get what he wanted from her, while Qi’ra assisted the Archivist to get what she wanted from her. Each character sought to gain something from the Archivist, though they went about doing so in their own unique ways. This development makes me even more excited to see how Han Solo & Chewbacca plays out and whether these scrumrats from Corellia will meet again.
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