Crimson Jack

"I'm sure Mr. Solo has some cargo of considerably more value to us than his misspent life."

- Crimson Jack

Crimson Jack was the leader of a gang of space pirates who crossed paths with Han Solo on several occasions.

Early life
Crimson Jack, famous for his distinguishing red beard, began his career as a second rate pirate, making his living ambushing spice caravans in the Outer Rim, employing a Corellian gunship. However, soon after the first major victory of the Rebel Alliance over the Galactic Empire, his gang happened across one of the casualties of the battle, an Imperial battlecruiser. The surviving crew of the battlecruiser put up little resistance against Jack's pirate gang, and Jack saw an opportunity to enhance his profile and decided to refurbish the captured cruiser and use it in his pirating operation. He amassed a large force, with the battlecruiser as his flagship and a fleet of starfighters, including X-wings, TIE Fighters, and many more.

Since it was very expensive to run such a large operation, Jack found several criminal interests, including Jabba the Hutt, to back him financially in exchange for a cut of his profits. His gang was made up of mostly Humans with a variety of weapons including blasters, cutlasses, and one even wore the armor of a fallen Imperial stormtrooper. His second-in-command was the beautiful, but temperamental, Jolli.

Encounters with Han Solo
Soon after the Battle of Yavin Jack's gang captured the Millennium Falcon and quickly relieved Han Solo and Chewbacca of the treasure they had been given as reward by the Rebels for rescuing Princess Leia Organa. Despite the objections of Jolli, Jack decided to let the pair of smugglers go. He speculated that he might come across Solo and Chewbacca, with their ship's hold full of treasure, again.

It was not long after that Jack and his crew captured Princess Leia in her space cruiser on her way to investigate the disappearance of Luke Skywalker. Jack speculated that he could hold the princess for a ransom, but he was unable to convince her to reveal the location of the Rebel base. As luck would have it, the Millennium Falcon was captured again, but this time without any treasure to pilfer. Solo offered information instead, he played on Jack's greed and said he would provide the location of the Rebel treasury. This was a ruse developed by Solo and Leia to trick Jack into taking them all to the Drexel system, the last known location of the missing Luke Skywalker.

Once the cruiser arrived in the Drexel system, Jack's suspicions were raised when they discovered that the only planet in the system was completely water covered, an unlikely place for a treasury. But before anyone could take action, a jamming signal from the planet caused the cruiser's systems to fail which distracted the pirate crew enough for the captured trio to escape from Jack's clutches.

The jamming signal originated from Governor Quarg's city-ship on the water covered planet of Drexel II. While the signal wasn't powerful enough to draw the giant cruiser down to the planet, neither could the cruiser escape; it was a standoff. But as a war raged on the planet's surface the jamming equipment was eventually destroyed in the conflict.

Free of the constraining signal, Jack sent a Y-wing, piloted by Jolli, and a TIE Bomber to engage Solo and the Millennium Falcon. The Falcon and the Y-wing were both critically damaged in the battle, and now that Solo was helpless, Jack's cruiser moved in for the kill.

But Solo had one last trick up his sleeve when he revealed that Chewbacca had erased Jack's navigational data while on board, which left the pirates lost if they were to destroy the Falcon. The two captains arranged an exchange, Solo would provide the required navigational data and Jack would provide parts needed to repair the Falcon.

The exchange took place in space with both wearing breathing equipment and rocket packs, but Jack was bent on killing Solo and signaled for his men to ambush him after the exchange was made. At this point Jolli requested aid in getting back to the cruiser, but Jack dismissed her, instead concentrating on his plans for revenge. Jolli was enraged by this and turned on her employer and comrades, fired on them from her damaged craft, and then rammed her ship into the cruiser's bridge killing the crew and herself. Jack, the only member of his gang still alive, and Solo were still vulnerable outside of their respective ships. Each drew a blaster, but the red bearded pirate wasn't quick enough and was killed by Solo.

The Millennium Falcon left the wreckage of Jack's enterprise adrift in space, to be discovered by some of Jabba's men much later. The Hutt crimelord was far from pleased when he discovered who was responsible for the destruction of Crimson Jack.



Behind the scenes

 * Crimson Jack was created by Roy Thomas & Howard Chaykin; however, most of his storyline development was done by Archie Goodwin & Carmine Infantino.

Appearances

 * Marvel Star Wars 7: New Planets, New Perils
 * Marvel Star Wars 11: Star Search
 * Marvel Star Wars 12: Doomworld
 * Marvel Star Wars 13: Day of the Dragon Lords
 * Marvel Star Wars 14: The Sound of Armageddon
 * Marvel Star Wars 15: Star Duel