WARNING: The following contains spoilers from Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters - IG-88 #1, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
While bounty hunting many not be the safest way to make a living in the Star Wars galaxy, it is definitely one of the best paying jobs out there. From being hired to settle someone’s personal vendetta, to being hired by the Galactic Empire itself, there is always work to be had. However, only the best could make it in such a dangerous line of work, and as The War of the Bounty Hunters crossover event has show, hunters have no qualms about coming after one of their own if the price is right.
The war started when Jabba the Hutt thought that Boba Fett had sold Han Solo, rather than delivering the rebel smuggler to him on Tatooine. The crime lord put out a bounty on Boba, and chaos ensued. In Star Wars: IG-88 #1 (by Rodney Barnes, Guiu Vilanova, Antonio Fabela and VC’s Ariana Maher), the titular bounty hunter finally got its chance to take out Boba Fett, although the effort did not end particularly well.
Unbeknownst to Jabba, Boba had not actually sold Han, but rather Crimson Dawn had stolen the carbonite frozen smuggler and placed him up for auction. This misunderstanding placed Boba in the crosshairs of countless hunters who were all trying to acquire Solo and collect the bounty. Jabba ended up winning a bid for Solo at an auction hosted by Crimson Dawn, but Darth Vader showed up and claimed the rebel for the Empire. However, Boba was able to steal back Solo, and when he was returning to Tatooine, IG-88 became involved.
Prior to hunting down Boba, IG-88 was set on a much darker prize. In her latest plot to kill Vader, Sly Moore contracted IG-88 to destroy the Dark Lord. The Umbaran gave the deadly droid a remote that would make Vader’s cybernetics malfunction, and with that technology in play, the famed bounty hunter had been a match for Vader. However, Vader was able to ultimately use the Force to make IG-88 destroy itself.
After it's loss, IG-88 was abandoned on a junk world until a cyborg droid smith named RB-919 was contracted by a bounty hunter named Deva Lompop to rebuild it. This led to the bounty hunter serving the resurgent Crimson Dawn and its efforts to acquire Han Solo for a second time. RB-919 had aspirations of working with IG-88, but the rebuilt droid gunned him down as per the instructions relayed to it by Deva Lompop.
Commandeering RB-919’s ship, IG-88 went in search of Boba Fett and Han Solo. Finding him on Tatooine, the hunter waited for his prey to leave and, using codes provided by Deva Lompop, entered Boba’s ship. Solo was there — still frozen, but Fett returned before IG-88 could make off with the prize. The two engaged in a gunfight, and when the droid went for Solo, Boba shot at his newly-installed carbonite system. The expelled gasses froze the droid in place, and not wishing to destroy the robot, Boba left IG-88 in the blazing suns of Tatooine to thaw and contemplate its failure.
While initially the issue seemed to be setting up a rematch between Vader and IG-88, the ending of the issue makes this now seem very unlikely. In the last few panels, IG-88 revealed that the carbonite had done some damage to it circuits, and it was no longer compelled to follow Deva Lompop’s directives. With that news, IG-88 — missionless and masterless — returned to the junk planet to contemplate its existence and consequently its next move.