Bounty Hunters 42

THE EXPLOSIVE END OF THE SAGA! VALANCE THE BOUNTY HUNTER has one final mission to complete…and it may indeed be his LAST! Can he and the crew fight their way past BOBA FETT…and JABBA's SECRET WEAPON? The GRAND FINALE of the series that's four years in the making!

While developing the comic, writer Ethan Sacks asked Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm for specific things. The first was for the issue to be longer, meaning it would need two artists—the first being Jethro Morales—and the second being the returning Paolo Villanelli, whose return was also his second request. Villanelli was happy to return to the series to aid in bringing a story he helped start to the finish line. Part of what Villanelli drew was the comic's ending. Sacks also had a third request: he wanted a chance to write a comic about the bounty hunter Jango Fett and said as such when asked what he wanted his next project to be. The request was quickly green-lit, leading to the 2024 comic miniseries Star Wars: Jango Fett by Sacks with art by Luke Ross.

At New York Comic Con 2023, it was revealed that issue 42 would be the final of the series, with Sacks claiming it would feature Beilert Valance's "last adventure." Stating it was a "true story," Sacks claimed in a Tweet on October 20, 2023, that he had happy endings prepared for the issue but abandoned them when Villanelli returned, instead adopting what he called "Plan B." However, after the comic's release and the endings for most characters indeed being positive, Sacks revealed the Villanelli part of the Tweet had been a joke: the happy endings half of the Tweet had been the "true story" all along. Indeed, Valance's ending had been planned by Sacks from the start, with the only question being who he would reach out to. At first, all Sacks was certain of was that it would not be his former love Yuralla Vega because she had moved on from their relationship. According to Sacks, the ending sees Valance having finally found worth in his own being and having become the person Nakano Lash saw in him.

Via his Twitter account on June 28, 2023, in what would be the first public reference to issue 42, Sacks teased the comic could address the fates of the characters Dengar and Manaroo, thereby explaining why Dengar was still working as a bounty hunter into the New Republic Era despite his plans to quit and also explaining Manaroo's absence in The Aftermath Trilogy. In the final issue, Manaroo is shown to have grown annoyed with Dengar's attitude and actions. When asked by a fan if the issue was teasing Manaroo soon breaking off her relationship with Dengar, Sacks responded "a lot of seeds [had been] planted for some bitter fruit for the lug!" Issue 42 also sees a mention of Droopy McCool as a gift for Tommy Stella, Sacks's, in Stella's words, "Droopy muse."

The day of release, Villanelli shared line art from the issue and expressed hope to one day return to drawing the Bounty Hunters cast. In a Quote Tweet and Twitter thread, Sacks thanked Villanelli for his help in telling the story. He further thanked many others who had helped him in writing the series, including every artist who had worked on the series interiors and covers, colorist Arif Prianto, letterer Travis Lanham, and his editors. Most of all, Sacks wanted to thank fans of Bounty Hunters.

• Star Wars: Bounty Hunters Vol. 7 — Dark Droids

• Dark Droids: D-Squad 4
• "Sacks Appeal" — Star Wars Insider 224