Chewbacca Grabs the Spotlight in New Marvel Comic

Who needs Han? Not Chewbacca. At least not for a little bit, anyway: everybody’s favorite fuzzball is going solo from Solo next month.

The Wookiee is getting an eponymous comic book next month, a limited series that is part of Marvel’s ever-expanding line of Star Wars titles.

Written by Gerry Duggan (best known for his Deadpool work) and illustrated by Phil Noto (Black Widow, Jonah Hex, Uncanny X-Force) and set after the Battle of Yavin in Star Wars: A New Hope, the story finds Chewie — sans Han and Millennium Falcon — crash-landed on a planet under Imperial invasion. The marooned protagonist must team up with a young local girl named Zarro to repulse the enemy forces and get him back to the Rebel Alliance in time for The Empire Strikes Back, natch.

Here’s the first glimpse inside:

“He’s a hero, plain and simple. He’s a giant-sized underdog. He’s faithful, fierce, and can be playful. At the beginning of the story he’s on a very important mission. One he sets aside to help those in need. By the end of this arc we’ll have met the soul of the Wookiee. We’ll understand what he fears, and we’ll know why he picked up his bowcaster, Duggan recently told Marvel.com, adding that his story “has a very strong Wookiee heart.”

Like the other recent comics and novels — including Smuggler’s Run, which features Han and Chewie on a rescue mission and which is also set after the destruction of the first Death Star — Chewbacca will be considered part of the newly established Star Wars canon.

Chewbacca No. 1 hits stores Oct. 14.

Below are some alternate covers for the debut issue.