WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Star Wars: Lando – Double or Nothing #3 by Rodney Barnes, Paolo Villanelli, Andres Mossa and Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
Billy Dee Williams' Lando Calrissian remains one of Star Wars' most beloved characters to this very day. His suave disposition in The Empire Strikes Back and his heroic bravado in Return of the Jedi remains forever etched in the minds of fans, even despite his betrayal of Harrison Ford's Han Solo.
Following Donald Glover impressing as a young Lando in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Marvel Comics gives us even more insight into his days as a smugglerwho prides himself on his swagger and of course, the speed of the Millennium Falcon.
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In Star Wars: Lando -- Double or Nothing #3, we actually see just how Lando's mysterious past sets up his feud with the film's villains, the Crimson Dawn, while also foreshadowing the Kessel Run he'll eventually have to make with Alden Ehrenreich's Han Solo.
In Rodney Barnes' trip down memory lane, Lando and his trusty robot sidekick L3-37 are in the Wastelands of Kullgroon, as part of a job they took to free oppressed workers for a young warrior named Kristiss. Things don't go according to plan as Lando's taken prisoner by facility's overlords, and Kristiss is thrown into the slave bays, where she meets her father and everyone else she wants to free.
Lando's precarious position buys her time to encourage her people to leave, although most prefer to remain where they are, as they believe slavery under the Empire is better than poverty. In the meantime, L3-37's off on her own, devising an escape plan. With time running out, Lando tries to bust out on his own, fearing death's encroaching. He's eventually caught and here, the alien leader known as Batalla throws him into a pit against some of Crimson Dawn's nastiest gang leaders.
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As we discovered in Solo, Lando ran afoul of the crime syndicate in the past, and we finally get the proper backstory. It turns out he smuggled, raided or annoyed certain leaders, and now, they've assembled to take him out gladiator style. This informs Lando agreeing to help Han steal the coaxium in Solo, because the payday would have helped him settle debts he owed to characters like this.
Lando fights his way out of this arena but as the odds start to work against him, L3-37 arrives with the Falcon and he escapes. As is his usual sly mindset, he wants to leave Kristiss behind, but the altruistic L3-37 convinces him not to do so.
In trying to get to their employer, they wind through the planet's alien terrain, avoiding huge worm-like monsters. This reminds readers of the treacherous Kessel Run from Ron Howard's movie where they had to avoid space storms and creatures to escape with the coaxium from the mines of Kessel, and deliver the hyperfuel to the Dawn's leader, Dryden Vos.
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In this issue, we get a clear foreshadowing of the trip -- with Lando outrunning aliens in his Falcon and trying not to die because of Crimson Dawn. It's quite ironic because it's his shenanigans here against Dawn members which helps to put him on the even more dangerous path towards the Kessel Run. Such is Lando's luck, but that kind of karma is expected when you're one of the most untrustworthy scoundrels the galaxy's ever seen.