Star Wars Spotlight: Boba Fett - Enemy of the Empire.

Each week Star Wars Spotlight combs through the digital archives of Marvel Unlimited to showcase one classic story from that distant galaxy filled with Jedi, Sith, princesses, scoundrels and droids.

Have you ever taken a job and immediately realized that your employers have zero faith in your abilities to complete the task? If so, then you can relate to Boba Fett’s experience in ENEMY OF THE EMPIRE when Darth Vader hires him to track down deserter Abal Karda and a box he stole. Though the mission seems simple enough, Fett understands exactly how the Sith Lord feels about him when he learns that another group of condemned assassins have been commissioned to kill the bounty hunter after taking possession of the box.
That’s the basic story in John Wagner’s four issue limited series drawn by Ian Gibson and John Nadeau which takes place before “Empire Strikes Back.” Fett tracks Karda down across a variety of exotic locales, followed closely by the assassins and eventually finds him at an Ancient Order of Pessimists hermitage on Maryx Minor.
Having been driven a bit mad by his exploits, Karda fails to offer Fett much of a challenge, but the battle with Vader proves far more exciting as it mixes the Sith Lord’s familiar styles with the hunter’s aeronautical abilities which remain mostly absent from the films aside from that brief hop from Jabba's barge to the skiff—and we all know how that worked out for him.

As Fett suspects, the contents of the box prove far more valuable to Vader than a simple deserter like Karda. In fact, once in possession of the prize, the man formerly known as Anakin makes a surprise decision that hints at some of the changes to be seen in “Return of the Jedi.”
While certainly more humorous than some of the other Star Wars stories compiled on Marvel Unlimited, ENEMY OF THE EMPIRE still presents the brisk action scenes and varied alien life forms and locations that fans have come to expect from the franchise. This tale also lays some groundwork for the working relationship between these two hardcases who ultimately respect, if not trust, each other.
From the Jedi Temple Archives
We all remember seeing Boba Fett for the first time in “Return of the Jedi.” The mysterious helmeted individual appears out of nowhere and carts Han Solo off in carbonite. The legend grew between the two films, but some were disappointed as the Mandalorian bounty hunter wound up on the wrong end of a Sarlaac pit. However, while many assumed he died in that moment, the Expanded Universe eventually corrected that, noting that he nearly killed the Saralaac in his escape from death, something no one else had ever accomplished.