SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Star Wars: Age of Rebellion – Boba Fett #1, by Greg Pak, Marc Laming, Neeraj Menon and VC’s Travis Lanham, on sale now.
In the Star Wars Universe, it's fair to say Boba Fett got a raw deal. When fans saw him hooking Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back, only to be killed easily in Return of the Jedi, they were let down, but, ultimately, Boba's cool look and slick disposition made him one of the franchise's cult figures.
Marvel's Age of Rebellion one-shot, however, peers deeper beneath the surface of the mercenary and throws readers for a loop by introducing fans to the first civil war among bounty hunters -- started by Boba himself.
The bounty hunter universe has been quite fascinating in the limited time we've seen it on the big and small screens. Rebels offered insight into it, but fans were holding out hope a Boba Fett solo movie would see the light of day and grant us a more in-depth peek behind the curtain. That never materialized, but through nuanced stories like this, we really get to understand the fraternity even better -- something we hope to see more of in Disney's The Mandalorian.
Here, on the alien planet Carajam, Boba locks up another marker, only to be informed there's a contract out on Zingo Gabnit, another very skilled hunter. It turns out there are a few rebel sympathizers out there like Zingo who've been collaborating with the alliance, all because the Empire reneged on a payment when Zingo brought in a bounty dead instead of alive. Nonetheless, Boba hunting Zingo spurs other hunters to action, wanting to go after each other according to whichever side they stand on. But divided as they are, it was Boba drawing the line in the sand and determining who could hunt who.
This painted an all-win situation for Boba because, not only does he get to move up the ranks in the eyes of the Empire, granting him access to higher-paying jobs, he'll also be touted among his peers, like Jabba the Hutt -- the folks with the money and a multitude of contracts. Boba also gets to thin out the herd, because, if he takes out more hunters, that means there's more room for him to profit down the line. It's an added bonus he'd get to take a dig at the rebels, because, as we saw in Attack of the Clones, they and the Jedi were responsible for his dad's death.
Boba eventually brings in Zingo alive, but it's interesting to see the dynamic between them all. Zingo attacked his friend Turfitch and left him for dead, all so he could have more water while on the run, while Boba actually found Turfitch and quenched his thirst in the desert for information. This proved they all had a flexible code and there really was no true hero or villain in the lot. Ultimately, they were all cutthroat individuals doing whatever it took to get the mission accomplished and claim the payday.
When Boba's done with Zingo, Stallo -- another exuberant hunter on Carajam -- hails Boba as a hero and wants to work with him, only for Boba to hold him at gunpoint after getting information he too was a rebel conspirator. And so, Boba began pitting hunters at each other's throats. Some spurned the Empire due to their principles, others because they were stiffed on pay, and then there were those like Boba, mopping up the scraps and making a lot more money than they could have ever imagined. If that's not a good enough reason to break the brotherhood of bounty hunters and start a civil war, then we really don't know what is.