Star Wars 38: Riders in the Void

Star Wars 38: Riders in the Void is the thirty-eighth issue in the Marvel Star Wars series of comics.

Plot summary
Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia were on a mission to transport medical supplies for the Rebellion when an Imperial Star Destroyer attacked their craft. In an attempt to escape they made the jump to hyperspace but there was some damage to the craft as it began to shake violently as they traveled through hyperspace and Luke decided to drop back to sublight travel. Once they did, they realized that had traveled beyond their home galaxy and into the starless void. Their craft is quickly swallowed by a mysterious organic ship which proceeds to play some deadly games with them. Once the ship realizes that Luke and Leia are actually real individuals and not part of its own programming it tries to forcibly expel them. However, the ship reconsiders its actions and decides to take them back to their home galaxy where the ship is attacked by the same Imperial Star Destroyer which had attacked the Rebels earlier. The ship quickly destroyed the cruiser with anti-matter pods and returns to its home in the void after allowing Luke and Leia to leave its hold.

Behind the scenes

 * The title is a reference to the song "Riders on the Storm" by The Doors.
 * This was a fill-in issue but went on to become one of the more popular Marvel issues because of the artwork of Michael Golden.
 * Issue #38 was scheduled to be the first part of the comic adaptation of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, as stated by the teaser on the final page of issue #37. However, according to an editorial comment in the letters page of issue #38, Marvel was moving to a new distribution system and the entirety of the adaptation had to fit under that new system, forcing Marvel to push the debut up to issue #39.
 * Some fans suspect that the events mentioned in that issue should be retroactively considered the earliest appearance of the Yuuzhan Vong and the first mention of the Cremlevian War, but as of yet, no later source has retconned those two together.

Collections

 * Classic Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... 2
 * Classic Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... Volume 2: Dark Encounters
 * Luke Skywalker, Last Hope for the Galaxy
 * Omnibus: A Long Time Ago... Volume 2