New information about Han Solo (spoilers)

[Dominus Atheos]

I apologize for the non-descriptive title, but I wanted to avoid spoilers.

This is from the latest issue of Marvel's (canon) Star Wars comic that takes place right after ANH:
Spoiler

[Gandalf]

I could buy such a thing occurring. I assume she dies, thus not complicating anything?

[The Romulan Republic]

I hope not. I hate this idea that if a character has multiple possible love interests, you just have one die. Its so lazy and crass.

Besides, their are so many ways it could go. They're no longer interested (Han doesn't seem too thrilled to see her). The whole thing was a con (hey, its smuggler Han Solo after all). She turns out to be an Imperial sympathizer. Etc.

[AniThyng]

Maybe it's one of those bet gone wrong deals. Like what happened to Starcraft's Matt Horner

[Joun_Lord]

This just sounds like a poor excuse for drama.

I could see Han having a wife, dude was I think around 30ish during the OT, and he was supposed to be quite the ladies man. However unless they decide to start disregarding film canon this seems canonically suspect. A Han being married and romancing Leia at the same time would certainly effect their relationship. There was no hint of a love triangle or her be pissed at him beyond the fact she was kinda made he was trying to leave to pay Pizza the Hutt.

Maybe everyone got amnesia after she got killed off or whatever? Or maybe this is just a really stupid attempt at creating drama at the expense of established characters.

And the artwork is fucking terrible. I'm assuming she is supposed to be human but I swear I think she might be a gorgon catlady judging by her face and hair. Plus I think she might have raided Mara Jade's now non-existent wardrobe.

I know I'm being unduly hard on this but while I'm excited about the new movies very fucking little of the new EU sounds good, aside from maybe the Tarkin book but even that I have no intention of reading in the near future if at all, and much of it sounds like they are just going to repeat the mistakes of the old EU. Also Star Wars Rebels just plain sucks large spherical objects that are no moons.

Maybe she is Finn's mom and it turns out Han is Finn's dad. Gotta connect the characters in keeping with the everyone is connected to everyfuckingbody SW tradition.

[Burak Gazan]

Sweet merciful ....

The whole goddamned point of the character of Han SOLO was he was a loner. Until he hooked up with the alliance for-real, and Leia, he was in it for himself. Period. So this 'secret wife' out of nowhere is a steaming pile of bullshit. More and MORE epic fails...

[Pelranius]

Doesn't help that it looks like she has a Mugabe mustache.

[Batman]

Depends on how they play it. Sure, Solo is a loner, but her's also a lady's man (or was in the old EU at any rate). I can absolutely seem him getting married on the spur of the moment (likely while not exactly sober) and then doing his level best to forget it ever happened.

[Borgholio]

Or she could be lying. I mean given the types of women Han would probably meet with I'd wager at least one of them would be a con-artist.

[Purple]

Or he could have gotten married and ended up experiencing such a good time that it turned him into the jaded loner we see in the movies.

[Galvatron]

Sweet merciful ....

The whole goddamned point of the character of Han SOLO was he was a loner. Until he hooked up with the alliance for-real, and Leia, he was in it for himself. Period. So this 'secret wife' out of nowhere is a steaming pile of bullshit. More and MORE epic fails...

Aside from being a total ripoff of Gambit's storyline in his early X-Men days, I see nothing wrong with this at all. Solo is a charming rogue. I have no trouble believing that he left a trail of broken hearts throughout the galaxy in his pre-rebellion adventuring days.

Quite frankly, this is also why I never liked the idea of Han settling down and marrying Leia to become a family man. I hope TFA reveals to us that they split up some time after ROTJ because of Solo's uncontainable nature.

[Gandalf]

Aside from being a total ripoff of Gambit's storyline in his early X-Men days, I see nothing wrong with this at all. Solo is a charming rogue. I have no trouble believing that he left a trail of broken hearts throughout the galaxy in his pre-rebellion adventuring days.

Similarly, I have no trouble believing he's a heartless prick for the same reason, breaking hearts for nought other than his own gratification and laughing about it later on.

This might now be the most interesting thing about him.

[Knife]

Until proven otherwise, I'm assuming Han played poker with Lando, woke up with the deed for the Falcon on Nar Shadaa, and had a new wife to boot, probably Lando's girlfriend, which he got annulled from the closed Hutt magistrate.

[The Romulan Republic]

Sweet merciful ....

The whole goddamned point of the character of Han SOLO was he was a loner. Until he hooked up with the alliance for-real, and Leia, he was in it for himself. Period. So this 'secret wife' out of nowhere is a steaming pile of bullshit. More and MORE epic fails...

Aside from being a total ripoff of Gambit's storyline in his early X-Men days, I see nothing wrong with this at all. Solo is a charming rogue. I have no trouble believing that he left a trail of broken hearts throughout the galaxy in his pre-rebellion adventuring days.

Quite frankly, this is also why I never liked the idea of Han settling down and marrying Leia to become a family man. I hope TFA reveals to us that they split up some time after ROTJ because of Solo's uncontainable nature.

Because people never change and are merely one-note archetypes for their entire life and writing them that way makes for good fiction and not boring, simplistic stereotypes.

I can believe Han being married and generally having an interesting life prior to meeting Luke and Obi-wan.

[FTeik]

Sweet merciful ....

The whole goddamned point of the character of Han SOLO was he was a loner. Until he hooked up with the alliance for-real, and Leia, he was in it for himself. Period. So this 'secret wife' out of nowhere is a steaming pile of bullshit. More and MORE epic fails...

Aside from being a total ripoff of Gambit's storyline in his early X-Men days, I see nothing wrong with this at all. Solo is a charming rogue. I have no trouble believing that he left a trail of broken hearts throughout the galaxy in his pre-rebellion adventuring days.

Quite frankly, this is also why I never liked the idea of Han settling down and marrying Leia to become a family man. I hope TFA reveals to us that they split up some time after ROTJ because of Solo's uncontainable nature.

Yeah, well, because the OT didn't show Han Solo changing from the charming rogue and loner into a responsible/respectable leader-figure ("Who volunteered for that nonsense?" "General Solo ...").

[Lord Revan]

Tbh I could see Han Solo getting married either by mistake or spur of the moment and regretting it later, it's also possible that she's his ex-wife but for what ever reason she didn't want to let go of Han, we know too little to make any judgements yet.

[Galvatron]

Yeah, well, because the OT didn't show Han Solo changing from the charming rogue and loner into a responsible/respectable leader-figure ("Who volunteered for that nonsense?" "General Solo ...").

I've made no secret of my dislike for ROTJ, especially because of how it handled Han.

[The Romulan Republic]

Why? Because it showed that the character could actually change? Develop? Be more than a one-note character?

Why is it that so many fans seem to equate change to ruined? Do they really just want to rehash the same things endlessly?

[Simon_Jester]

Hell, Han was already changing within the first movie. He went from being strictly mercenary, to being loyal/idealistic enough to attack the Death Star, in a light freighter, single-handedly, with no immediate escort (all the Rebel fighters flew in ahead of him), and to shoot Darth Vader off Luke's back in the trench run.

It's made very clear that Han has a moral center somewhere in there under the scruffy nerf-herder exterior, and that this moral center tends to come closer and closer to the surface the longer he spends in the company of the idealistic rebels.

[Galvatron]

Why? Because it showed that the character could actually change? Develop? Be more than a one-note character?

Aren't you a Star Trek fan? Given the recurring theme of both Kirk and Picard sacrificing normal lives to continue "hopping galaxies," I figured you'd understand that sort of character better than most.

And I don't think it's either undeveloped or one-note for such a character to successfully resist falling into that traditional family man role. It doesn't mean he has to be a selfish rogue for the rest of his life.

[The Romulan Republic]

To me, the lack of a normal family is a relatively minor part of Kirk and Picard's characterization.

I'm not suggesting that Han has to be a "traditional family man", though I see nothing wrong with being such a thing (well, aside from the sexism/homophobia that's associated with the traditional part, but I don't think that's what either of us is referring to here). However, that doesn't mean that his life couldn't change over time to include, for example, a serious relationship.

It would be nice to see the sequels build on Return of the Jedi rather than doing what the filmmakers seem to be doing and returning to the old status quo so that they can exploit nostalgia involving the Original Trilogy. That's cowardly hack filmmaking.

Edit: Now, does Han have to end up happily married to Leia forever? No. That's somewhat predictable, after all.

But it would be nice if his life is really different from what it was in A New Hope or even Return of the Jedi. I want a Han who's lived and grown for decades. Not "OT Han except a geezer."

[Kojiro]

Since I haven't seen it mentioned, this comic is written by Jason Aaron. If that name is familiar it's because he's also the one who wrote the female 'Thor' storyline.

[Simon_Jester]

Why? Because it showed that the character could actually change? Develop? Be more than a one-note character?

Aren't you a Star Trek fan? Given the recurring theme of both Kirk and Picard sacrificing normal lives to continue "hopping galaxies," I figured you'd understand that sort of character better than most.

Picard doesn't have a normal life because he's a man upon whom duty has landed with a sickening thud*; he's too busy doing a job that obviously exerts a lot of stress upon him and which he obviously feels a strong ideological commitment to.

Kirk doesn't have a normal life because his family members and love interests keep getting killed off in one-shot episodes. Kirk can't have a normal life because Kirk does not have a character arc, which is the fault of '60s TV, not of Kirk himself. At least, not until the movies, and in the movies we get Kirk actively lamenting the instability of his life and pining for his youth. He clearly is not a happy man in his fifties and sixties. Which is arguably a consequence of the way he lived in his thirties.

Wrath of Khan does a great job of emphasizing this. One of those numerous villains he defeated and forgot about has come back for revenge, one of those numerous women he loved and left has a son who despises him, it is all about him coming to terms with the long term consequences of a sea of short term actions.
_____________

*To borrow and slightly modify a phrase Eleventh Century Remnant used...

And I don't think it's either undeveloped or one-note for such a character to successfully resist falling into that traditional family man role. It doesn't mean he has to be a selfish rogue for the rest of his life.

Well, Han getting married and having kids is not in itself "the traditional family man," is it? Or if it is, then "the traditional family man" makes up the vast majority of the male human experience.

[Tychu]

There now is a Lando comic series starting in July. The Leia series is ending soon, so maybe we'll see the nEw Universe story of how the Falcon changed hands. Star Wars #5 mentioned Han winning the Falcon from a Sabacc game .

[Galvatron]

To me, the lack of a normal family is a relatively minor part of Kirk and Picard's characterization.

I thought it was outright stated or at least inferred on more than one occasion that both Kirk and Picard were "married" to the Enterprise. Even if they share no other character traits, I'd say Han has at least that in common with the Star Trek captains.