Star Wars 24: Silent Drifting

Star Wars 24: Silent Drifting is the twenty-fourth issue in the Marvel Star Wars series of comics.

Plot summary
After Han Solo used some skillful piloting of the Millennium Falcon to destroy some TIE fighters, Princess Leia mentioned that Jedi pilots developed that same maneuver and she tells of one particular event involving Obi-Wan Kenobi. Kenobi was traveling as a passenger on a pleasure cruiser when he was notified by Captain Quasar that Merson pirates had been spotted in the Merson asteroid field. The Jedi used some quick action to destroy the attacking ships, but he suspected that the Mersons had been lured to their cruiser by a signal from within their own craft. The other passengers immediately accused Augustus Tryll, a known criminal, of working with the Mersons, but Kenobi was not so quick to judge without proof. As more Merson ships were spotted, he realized that the signal the pirates were tracking was originating from an innocent fermentation device on board the cruiser, and once that was destroyed the danger was defused.

Behind the scenes
This is Mary Jo Duffy's first Star Wars issue. She would later go on to be the regular writer on the title beginning with Star Wars 70: The Stenax Shuffle.

The framing story takes place after the events of Star Wars 15: Star Duel, according to the notation on the first page. Aside from the first four pages and the last half page, the entire story in this issue is a flashback to a time when Obi-Wan Kenobi was an active Jedi Knight in the Galactic Republic. This is the first comic book appearance to take place in the Galactic Republic era.

Kenobi's looks hardly resemble Ewan McGregor's in the prequel trilogy. They more closely resemble Alec Guinness as he appears in Episode IV. In-universe, this may simply be how the heroes envision him as Leia tells the story.

One of the letters in this issue's letters page criticizes the comic series for making Luke and Leia "... act more like young brother and sister than sweethearts." Although the creators of the book didn't know this at the time, it would be revealed several years later in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi that they were indeed siblings.

Collections

 * Classic Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... Volume 2: Dark Encounters
 * Omnibus: A Long Time Ago... Volume 1