Star Wars 41: The Empire Strikes Back: Imperial Pursuit

"I'm glad you said there’d be no problem, hot-shot…otherwise I might be worried."

- Leia Organa

Star Wars 41: The Empire Strikes Back: Imperial Pursuit is the forty-first issue in the Marvel Star Wars series of comics.

Plot summary
Luke Skywalker escapes from the downed snowspeeder just as the AT-AT approaches him. Grabbing a harpoon gun, he runs underneath the behemoth and fires the harpoon into the AT-AT’s underside, and climbs up the rope and slices a hatch open with his lightsaber. Throwing a thermal detonator inside the AT-AT, he succeeds in destroying the vehicle.

Back at Echo Base, Darth Vader personally leads a contingent of snowtroopers throughout the rebel headquarters. Han Solo rushes Princess Leia and C-3PO through the access corridors as Imperial gunfire pummels the base. He gets them aboard the Millennium Falcon and takes off.

As the Falcon leaves Hoth, two Star Destroyers immediately give chase. Han maneuvers the Falcon expertly between them causing the star destroyers to sideswipe one another. A squad of TIE bombers exits one of the cruisers and gives chase. Han leads the TIE bombers into a congested asteroid belt.

Back on Hoth, Rogue group regroups and makes preparations to meet at the rendezvous point. But Luke isn’t following the rest of his team. Instead, R2-D2 and he take Luke’s X-wing fighter towards the planet Dagobah.

Arriving there, Luke lands his X-wing in a thick, swampy bog, R2 chirps a warning to him as he exits the cockpit. A strange, small creature watches the two from afar.

Behind the scenes
This is Part Three of the six-part adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back.

This issue features a five page article, "Building an Empire: Marvel Style" by Archie Goodwin which explains the discrepancy between the way Yoda looked in the paperback adaptation and the other versions. It also reveals that both Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon drew each of the covers of the adaptation.

Collections

 * Marvel Special Edition 2: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Marvel Super Special 16: The Empire Strikes Back
 * The Marvel Comics Illustrated Version of The Empire Strikes Back
 * Classic Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back 1
 * Classic Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (TPB)
 * Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - The Special Edition (TPB)
 * Classic Star Wars Box Set
 * Star Wars: The Special Edition Box Set
 * Classic Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... Volume 3: Resurrection of Evil
 * Omnibus: A Long Time Ago... Volume 2