Return of the Jedi – Jabba's Palace 1

Publisher's summary

THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF RETURN OF THE JEDI BEGINS HERE! WHO IS PLOTTING TO OVERTHROW JABBA THE HUTT? Jabba's palace is one of many places to find the vilest of scum and villainy relaxing, wet their whistles and indulge their vices…who would ever want that to end? Well, SOMEONE has Jabba in their sights! Beginning a series of One-Shots spotlighting the RETURN OF THE JEDI era, Marc Guggenheim (HAN SOLO & CHEWBACCA) and Alessandro Miracolo (OBI-WAN) bring you a tale of Jabba's Palace you won't soon forget!

Opening crawl

With the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic
Empire locked in a civil war for control of
the galaxy, criminals, scoundrels, and
gangsters find new ways to profit from the
chaos.

Chief among these is the crime lord
JABBA THE HUTT, who rules over a
criminal empire based on the Outer Rim
planet of TATOOINE.

From his palace, Jabba commands his
organization of thugs, thieves and bounty
hunters by appealing to their greed—and
taking advantage of their fear….

Plot summary

At Jabba's Palace on the Outer Rim planet Tatooine, protocol droid C-3PO and astromech droid R2-D2 find themselves being welcomed and interviewed by EV-9D9. The EV-series droid is pleased to find a new droid capable as serving Jabba's translator since the previous droid, Eightyem was disintegrated. The droids gaze upon the fallen droid, who is hung from the ceiling in a dreadful fate.

Eightyem's story of how he died begins sometime earlier. He concedes that the concept of death is different for droids than for organics, but he sets off to tell the story of his untimely demise. Eightyem was unfortunately reprogrammed and fitted with a restraining bolt as he was forced into the service of Jabba the Hutt as his translator. Each day, numerous individuals arrive to Jabba's court. Despite their various languages, Eightyem finds his work utterly monotonous and unfulfilling.

One day, a mysterious Twi'lek by the name of Silvan Kaan arrives to court. Eightyem describes the man as a master wordsmith, able to convince others to do his bidding by promising them what they want. Eightyem is no exception. Kaan praises Eightyem for his exceptionality and hopes to become friends. The Twi'lek gives the droid a deal: In exchange for performing three favors for Kaan, he will remove Eightyem's restraining bolt, giving him freedom.

For his first favor, Eightyem is tasked with sneaking into the quarters of Jabba's accountant, Tessek and poisoning his food, which would non-lethally make him fall ill. Kaan humbly offers to step in for the Quarren during his recovery to help Jabba maintain his finances.

Kaan uses the opportunity to access information he could leverage to sow resentments between various members of the court, deepening rivalries. He could see who Jabba favored more than others and manipulated small amounts of credits around to reshape appearances of such favor. One such rivalry he stokes is between the Ithorian Charn Roondha and the Gran Ree-Yees. The Gran attempts to kill Ree-Yees in hopes of usurping his position as a tax collector for Jabba. The Ithorian, who refuses to use a translator collar, preferring to let his actions speak for him, ends up overtaking Ree-Yees, and tries to choke him out. This was part of Eightyem's second favor, translating between Kaan and Roondha to instigate the violence. Before Roondha is able to kill Ree-Yees, Kaan steps in, counseling Jabba to stop the violence lest it be perceived as weakness on Jabba's part. This convinces the mighty Hutt, and he calls for the violence to stop. Roondha begrudgingly obeys the crime lord.

Later, Kaan spins Jabba's decision to Roondha differently. He frames it as Roondha falling out of favor with Jabba, especially because he is bringing in less money for Jabba than before, which is itself a datum manipulated by Kaan. Kaan even has Eightyem tell Roondha a falsehood that there is a rumor that Jabba plans to give Roondha's action on Mandalore to Ree-Yees. Roondha wants to know what he can do to prevent such a thing from happening, and Kaan skillfully gives the Ithorian the idea to kill Jabba.

Outside the palace, Kaan and Eightyem discuss that an assassination attempt would be suicide for Roondha. Kaan is able to get the droid to realize that the Ithorian would need a blaster, possession of which is restricted to the guards and those bounty hunters particularly in Jabba's favor. He then suggests that for the third favor, Eightyem sneaks into the palace armory to acquire a blaster for Roondha. As he does so, however, he is spotted by the bounty hunter Bane Malar.

Malar later confronts Eightyem about the suspicious behavior. He has noticed the time the droid has spent with Kaan, who he thinks is up to no good. Fortunately for Eightyem, however, Malar does not know what he is accusing the droid of. He nevertheless states his intention to figure out what is going on. When Eightyem brings up his concerns to Kaan, the Twi'lek considers it a game of sabacc and that Malar is bluffing. He reiterates that he is the only one able to give the droid his freedom, and warns him not to try to betray him to Jabba or Bib Fortuna as they are unlikely to believe the word of a droid over his own.

During court, Roondha uses the WESTAR-34 blaster pistol acquired by Eightyem to try and kill Jabba, but his shot misses. Malar fires back, also missing, but subdues the would-be assassin. Fortuna recognizes that Roondha could only have gotten a blaster with the help of an accomplice. Kaan, worried, convinces Eightyem to perform one more favor for the benefit of them both.

At Roondha's hearing before Jabba, the crime lord offers the Ithorian a swift death if he reveals who supplied him with the blaster. Roondha attempts to implicate Kaan, but without his own translator collar, no one present can understand his pleas. Eightyem falsely translates, saying the Ithorian refuses to betray a confidence and is insulting Jabba's mother. Roondha is subsequently sentenced to execution in the Great Pit of Carkoon where he is swallowed by the Almighty Sarlacc. On the deck of Khetanna, Malar takes the opportunity to chat with Kaan. He mentions rumors that there is an enzyme in the sarlacc stomach that gives some species unnaturally long lives to prolong their suffering. He turns it into a threat against Kaan.

As the suns set, Kaan removes Eightyem's restraining bolt, setting him free. Just then, Bane Malar approaches the two interlopers, his blaster drawn. He shows them holographic evidence of their crimes against Jabba.

Kaan is subsequently brought before the Hutt's court. He tries to claim it was all Eightyem's doing, but Jabba reveals that Eightyem told him everything already. As it turns out, Jabba was more likely to believe the droid's word than Kaan's. As the Twi'lek is dragged away, Eightyem tries to protect himself by saying Kaan threatened him with all manner of horrors to go along with his schemes. To his dismay, however, Malar shows Jabba the removed restraining bolt. Seeing through the deception, Jabba creates a punishment fitting for a droid's suffering, the very one observed by C-3PO upon his arrival.

Media

Cover gallery

Final cover by Ryan Brown

Reveal cover by Ryan Brown

Solicitation cover by Ryan Brown

Textless cover by Ryan Brown

Variant cover by Alex Maleev

Connecting variant cover by Lee Garbett

Women's History Month variant cover by Peach Momoko

Second printing cover by Todd Nauck

Second printing ratio cover by Alex Maleev

Collected in

• Star Wars: Scoundrels, Rebels and the Empire

Appearances

This Appearances list is incomplete. You can help Wookieepedia by expanding it.

Sources

• The Illustrious Jabba the Hutt Bids You Welcome to His New Marvel Comic, Jabba's Palace - Exclusive Reveal on StarWars.com (backup link)
• We're On Our Way to Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – Lando #1 – Reveal on StarWars.com (backup link)
• Marvel Comics and Peach Momoko Reveal New Star Wars Women's History Month Covers – First Look on StarWars.com (backup link)
• "Launchpad" — Star Wars Insider 217
• Learn the Untold Story of Jabba's Last Protocol Droid in Marvel's Star Wars: Jabba's Palace #1 - Exclusive Preview on StarWars.com (backup link)
• "Launchpad" — Star Wars Insider 220

Notes and references

External links

• Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – Jabba's Palace (2023) #1 on Marvel Comics' official website (backup link)