Unlike pretty much any other bounty hunter in Star Wars, Greedo’s known for being a bit crap at his job. After all, our one and only encounter with him in the movie is him getting shot up by Han Solo. But in the Disney canon, it’s now not the only time the Rodian has crossed paths with a big Star Wars hero.
The past few issues of Marvel’s Star Wars ongoing, by Jason Aaron, Salvador Larocca, Edgar Delgado, and Clayton Cowles, have been focusing on an arc exploring the backstory of Yoda—specifically, a solo adventure for the little green Jedi where he finds himself investigating a mysterious mountain and its violent inhabitants for the bizarre force-linked powers it exudes. Like past “flashbacks” in the series, it’s told through the framing device of Luke Skywalker reading the journal of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but this has the extra layer of Ben remembering an adventure from one of his closet friends.
Honestly, it’s kind of a slog to read, and so far has really yet to offer anything interesting to say about Yoda himself—but it’s worth it for a brief interlude in today’s issue, Star Wars #28, in which Obi-Wan, relatively early on into his exile on Tatooine, uses his Force persuasion abilities to stop a trash-talking Rodian from getting himself blasted in a high noon standoff...
Except the dumb Rodian isn’t just any old Rodian, as we learn when the disappointed crowd that had gathered disperses—it’s none other than a young Greedo. Seems like being overconfident and getting himself into scraps he can’t win is a character trait that stretches beyond his encounter with Han.
Poor Greedo. Even with the canon slate being wiped clean by Disney, he’s still a bit of a useless dolt. If only Obi-Wan had hung around that Cantina in A New Hope a little longer, Greedo might have ended up just buying Han a drink instead of getting a blaster bolt through his chest.