Star Wars 2: Six Against the Galaxy is the second issue of Marvel's Star Wars series of comics, and part two of the six-part adaptation of A New Hope.
Luke Skywalker is rescued from an attacking band of Sand People by Obi-Wan Kenobi. Once Luke, Obi-Wan, and the two droids R2-D2 and C-3PO are safely in Obi-Wan Kenobi's hut, R2 plays a recorded message for Kenobi from the Princess Leia Organa asking him to bring the little droid and the critical information contained within its memory to Alderaan. Initially Luke refuses to accompany Obi-Wan on his journey because of his obligations at home, but upon learning that his home has been destroyed and his uncle Owen and aunt Beru have been killed by Imperial stormtroopers, he agrees to go along. They hire Han Solo and Chewbacca to pilot them to Alderaan aboard the Millennium Falcon.
This is the first comic-book appearance for Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, and Chewbacca. The lightsaber makes its comic debut in this issue, although it is spelled "lightsabre," and has a pink blade rather than blue.
The cover art is misleading as at no point in the cantina brawl, in the film or its comics adaptation, does Luke fire a blaster or exhort Ben to fight.
This issue includes the Han Solo and Jabba the Hutt Docking Bay 94 scene that wasn't finished for the film. (Hutt is spelled "Hut" in this issue, as it was in all official Star Wars material before 1983.) Rather than portray Jabba as he appeared in the filmed version of the scene (a large Human wearing furs, as played by Declan Mulholland)—which was never meant to be how Jabba would have looked in the film anyway, had the scene been completed—the likeness of Mosep Binneed, a Nimbanel seen in the background during the Mos Eisley scenes, was used. This likeness of Jabba was also used in Star Wars (1977) 28 and Star Wars (1977) 37. After Return of the Jedi officially established what Jabba looked like, it was decided to make Mosep an associate of Jabba, and the Nimbanese a species of Hutt servants. The article "Red Five" in Star Wars Insider 149 has established that the "Jabba" in the Marvel comics is in fact Mosep, who sometimes used Jabba's name in interactions.
Similarly, Garindan and the IT-O interrogation droid look different in this issue from the way they do in the film. As editor Roy Thomas would explain in the letters column of issue 7, much of the artwork for the early Marvel issues was based on an unfinished cut of the film with incomplete post-production, so the Marvel artists didn't have access to many final images before their version went to press.
In her message to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Princess Leia states that one "Bail Antillies" is her father. Bail Antilles was later mentioned in The Phantom Menace. In 2007, the Marvel adaptation of A New Hope was released in a trade paperback and bundled with the 2006 DVD release of A New Hope. "Bail Antillies" was replaced with "Bail Organa" in this edition.
On the cover of both this issue and the previous one, the first and last two letters of the Star Wars logo are not attached to each other.
The original cover price for this issue was 30 cents. There were also several reprint versions, easily identified by "Reprint" in the upper left corner of the cover or on the inside indicia, or by the price and number appearing inside a diamond on the cover with no date or UPC. These "Reprint" versions were found in the bagged comic three packs commonly found at department and drug stores in the 1970s and 1980s. The first eighteen or so issues of this series are available in the bagged three packs.
In 1994, Dark Horse Comics acquired the rights to reprint this issue and the other parts in the adaptation.
In 2007, this issue was reprinted and included in Hasbro's Comic Packs along with a Governor Tarkin and a stormtrooper action figure.
Along with the first issue, this is one of the most reprinted comics of all time. It has been reprinted along with the other five parts of the adaptation in standard formats and also large treasury size and small novel size editions.
- Marvel Special Edition Featuring Star Wars 1
- The Marvel Comics Illustrated Version of Star Wars
- Marvel Special Edition Featuring Star Wars 3
- Marvel Movie Showcase 1
- Classic Star Wars: A New Hope 1
- Classic Star Wars: A New Hope (TPB)
- Classic Star Wars Box Set
- Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... Volume 1: Doomworld
- Star Wars Omnibus: A Long Time Ago.... Volume 1
- Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 1
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years Vol. 1
- Star Wars: The Original Trilogy — The Movie Adaptations
- The Secrets of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
- "Comic Marvels" — Star Wars Insider 91
- "Blaster" — Star Wars Insider 152