Star Wars (2015) 36

Publisher's summary

*The Empire has held Threepio captive for far too long.' *There's no way they are prepared to deal with this rescue. *That's right — Artoo is ready to take action!'

Opening crawl

It is a time of turmoil in the galaxy. While the evil
Galactic Empire remains strong, the Rebel Alliance
continues to undermine Imperial forces throughout the
galaxy in their fight for freedom.

An Imperial siege on Tureen VII compelled Alliance heroes
Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo, to intervene.
Darth Vader dispatched Scar Squadron, an elite group of
stormtroopers, to stop them. Although humiliated and
disgraced when the rebel forces were able to break the
siege, Scar Squadron did not emerge empty handed–they
captured C-3PO.

Scar Squadron has turned their focus to extracting as many
rebel secrets as possible from the protocol droid.
Meanwhile, R2-D2, concerned for his fellow droid and
friend, has abandoned the rest of the rebel force in order
to launch a solo rescue mission....[3]

Plot summary

On a solo mission, the resourceful astromech droid R2-D2 is aboard an Imperial Star Destroyer, determined to save his friend, C-3PO.

Earlier, Imperial officers located a drifting X-Wing with no signs of life and decided to bring it in with a tractor beam, noting that they must be careful as Darth Vader is on board.

When a containment team attempts to seize R2-D2, he electrocutes them with one of his many appendages. An Imperial officer scoffs at the idea that a single droid took down his team and orders more troopers to the hangar, telling them to be on the lookout for the biggest, nastiest droid they've ever seen.

R2-D2 slips past the new troopers unnoticed and interfaces with the ship's systems. A technician reports that a second team is headed to the hangar—a team they didn't dispatch—and that they've lost contact with the first. The newly-arrived stormtroopers soon come under heavy fire, and both teams are quickly defeated.

As the Imperials wonder what the droid could be after, R2-D2 continues searching for C-3PO's location. C-3PO is in an interrogation room, bolted to a table, and an Imperial officer tells him that he's given all the information he's going to give, so he will be dismantled on the orders of Darth Vader himself.

R2-D2 arrives and the Imperial laughs. Soon, R2-D2 and C-3PO are heading back to the hangar as C-3PO remarks that they must have noticed his escape because he was a very important prisoner. The Imperial officer instructs his crew to shoot down the X-Wing holding the droids, but they can't get a lock on it. A technician suggests they must be dealing with a highly skilled pilot, a master spy.

Darth Vader appears and Force chokes the technician for his incompetence. Vader orders them not to kill the droid and heads out in his TIE Fighter to intercept the ship.

Vader fires upon the X-Wing with the droids on board, but R2-D2 turns the ship around to attack him directly. Suddenly, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo appear in their ships to help. Luke gives R2-D2 coordinates, and the group jumps to hyperspace.

C-3PO tells Luke that R2-D2 was trying to get them killed and that his own calmness under pressure kept them alive. Elsewhere, aboard an Imperial shuttle, Scar Squadron discusses having found a Rebel outpost and readies their weapons for an assault.

Media

Cover gallery

Textless cover by Mike Mayhew

Solicitation cover by Mike Mayhew

Final cover by Mike Mayhew

Star Wars 40th anniversary variant cover by Ed McGuinness

Star Wars 40th Anniversary textless variant

Action figure variant cover by John Tyler Christopher

Miles High Comics variant cover by Phil Noto

Collected in

• Star Wars Vol. 6: Out Among the Stars
• Star Wars Vol. 3
• Star Wars by Jason Aaron Omnibus
• Star Wars Modern Era Epic Collection: The Screaming Citadel

Appearances

Notes and references

External links

• Star Wars (2015) #36 on Marvel Comics' official website (backup link)