Star Wars 40: The Empire Strikes Back: Battleground Hoth

"Use your harpoon and tow cables...go for their legs! It's our only hope of stopping them!"

- Luke Skywalker

Star Wars 40: The Empire Strikes Back: Battleground Hoth is the fortieth issue in the Marvel Star Wars series of comics.

Plot summary
At the medical center of Echo Base on Hoth, Luke Skywalker is recovering from wounds sustained from an attack by a wampa ice monster. A tender moment between Princess Leia and him is briefly shared before Han Solo and Chewbacca enter to check on Luke’s status. Leia and Han argue a bit and Leia kisses Luke in order to make Han jealous.

Meanwhile on board the super Star Destroyer, Executor, Lord Vader’s crew receives the information transmitted by the Imperial Viper probe droid. Vader knows that the rebel base is on Hoth and orders the fleet towards that location.

Admiral Ozzel of the Empire brings the fleet out of lightspeed too quickly thus alerting the Rebels to their presence. As such, the rebels activate an energy field keeping all laser fire from reaching the planet. As punishment for this, Darth Vader uses the Force to strangle Ozzel. He promotes Captain Piett of the Executor to Ozzel’s position.

The Empire deploys AT-AT and AT-ST walkers to the planets surface. Under the command of General Veers, their purpose is to take out the generators that power the energy field. Luke Skywalker leads a squad of snowspeeders to counter the Walkers while Bren Derlin leads the ground assault.

Han Solo meanwhile, has Chewbacca prep the Millennium Falcon so that he can get the Princess off the planet.

During the ground battle, Luke’s gunner Dak Ralter is killed and their speeder crashes into a snow bank. An Imperial Walker bears down on them ready to crush the crippled speeder with one of its feet.

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

In the original shooting script, the Rebels had captured several wampa monsters and imprisoned them at Echo Base. The scenes never appeared in the final drafts however and were not included in the movie. The Marvel Comics adaptation re-inserts references to the wampas being held captive at the base.

Artist Al Williamson incorrectly switches the roles of Admiral Ozzel and Captain Piett in this issue.

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