SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Star Wars #54, by Kieron Gillen, Salvador Larroca, Guru-eFX and Clayton Cowles, on sale now.


The Star Wars franchise has been known for dropping bombshell revelations in the movies, especially in the early trilogy. One of the most famous ones, and biggest scenes in cinema ever, came during The Empire Strikes Back when Darth Vader revealed he was Luke Skywalker's father.

Another was the revelation in Return of the Jedi that Princess Leia was Luke's twin sister, something which fans already began to theorize when Leia saved the Jedi in training from falling to his death in Cloud City. This was initially thought to be the siblings' first Force-sensitive moment, but as Marvel continues to peel the curtain back as its current run of Star Wars comics acts as prelude to the 1980 sequel, we actually see that they shared their first shared Force experience way, way earlier than fans realized.

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When Vader cut Luke's hand off and the Jedi fell to the bottom of Cloud City, he was left hanging from a vent. Leia rescued her brother, ordering the Millennium Falcon to return as she felt his pain and heard his cries. This telepathic link kicked off fan speculation that they were siblings, something Yoda would confirm in the next film. It was a jaw-dropper, because many thought Luke was trying to win her from Han Solo, but now we knew she and he were the chosen ones Yoda hoped would help bring balance to the Force.

Now, Marvel is filling in blanks we never knew existed, revealing that the pair shared a Force-history before this moment when Leia saved Luke. Except here, it was Luke who sensed his sister... though he didn't actually know what he was experiencing.

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In Star Wars #54, Leia has to escape Darth Vader's clutches with codes to free the rebel cruisers, which were hacked by Imperial spies and grounded. General Draven ends up sacrificing his life at Vader's hand (literally) to buy Leia time, but her only means of fleeing is in a Tie Fighter. She commandeers it, bolts out and heads into the battlefield, trying to communicate with the Rebel Alliance X-Wings so they don't shoot her down. Luke and his Rogue Squadron, which now boasts Han as a pilot, are decimating the Tie Fighters as they maneuver their way to their armada, but they quickly spot Leia's fighter trying to do the same.

Thinking it's an enemy ship, the rebels aim to shoot it down, but as Luke locks in and places his hand on the trigger, he feels a disturbance in the Force. He admits this doesn't "feel good" and tells everyone there's someone on their team inside. It throws back to when he heard Obi Wan Kenobi's ghost in A New Hope as he destroyed the Death Star, but here, he relies more on his own instinct. He can't see inside the ship, he can't hear anyone... but he knows there's an ally inside. Instead of shooting it down, Luke orders everyone to let it pass through, and Leia docks allowing the codes to be transferred and the fleet to escape.

They don't address Luke's gut feeling, but it's an understandable storytelling choice because exploring it here would take away from the subsequent rescue at Cloud City. Also, Luke doesn't really know how to use the Force to connect with living things as he hasn't gone to Dagobah to train with Yoda yet. It seems it was reflex action, picking up on his twin's presence.

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Leia and Luke chalk it up to luck, with the sheer magnitude of the bond shared remaining hidden. It's a sequence made for fanboys but it clearly shows that Force-sensitive people, whether they're Jedi-trained or not, can harness the mystical energy without even knowing it. And once more, it's an important intervention which allows Luke to save, not just his sister, but the entire alliance from annihilation.