A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... The events and players are very familiar but something isn't quite right. Luke Skywalker valiantly attacks the Death Star, fires his torpedoes -- and they miss their mark! Welcome to a Star Wars you never imagined, a Star Wars shattered, a Star Wars where the possibilities are ENDLESS! Dark Horse Comics is proud to introduce Star Wars: Infinities -- A New Hope, the first in a series of non-continuity Star Wars stories which are sure to delight Star Wars fans of all ages. Taking off from the end of events in the movie A New Hope, Infinities readers will follow Luke, Han, Leia, 3PO, and R2 on a journey every bit as action-packed and fantastic as the original Star Wars trilogy. Collecting the four-issue miniseries.
The Infinities version of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope begins with the pivotal Battle of Yavin. Events begin to change when the torpedoes fired by Luke Skywalker experience a technical malfunction and fail to destroy the Death Star, but prevent the complete destruction of Yavin 4. Unable to fire a fully charged shot from the Death Star's superlaser, Grand Moff Tarkin orders the technicians to fire at reduced power, nearly leveling the Massassi Temple on the moon's surface and fire again to destroy the moon.
The Imperials send out a wing of TIE Fighters to pick off the remaining members of Red Squadron. Luke, driven to near-insanity by the failure of the mission and the apparent destruction of Rebel base, turns his fighter to face the TIEs alone. Eventually, Han Solo convinces Luke to flee and the Millennium Falcon jumps into hyperspace with Luke's X-wing on its tail.
The Rebel forces attempt to flee the Yavin system, but are captured by the Imperials. The Rebel leaders are imprisoned on the Death Star to await execution, but Princess Leia is taken to Coruscant, where she is put under house arrest at the Emperor's palace. After an interview with the Emperor, Darth Vader subtly begins Leia's training in the dark side of the Force.
When the Falcon drops out of hyperspace and takes Luke and R2-D2 aboard after abandoning their battered X-wing, Luke and Han get into a fight when Luke accuses Han of abandoning the Rebellion. The fight quickly turns violent and, in his anger, Luke draws his lightsaber and threatens to strike Han down. Before Luke can do so, the spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi appears to Luke and warns him that he is slipping to the dark side. Obi-Wan then instructs Luke to go to Dagobah and seek out the Jedi Master Yoda. Han takes Luke to Dagobah, where he begins his training under Yoda's tutelage while Solo and Chewbacca remain on the planet and tinker with the Falcon. Two months later, Han leaves with Chewbacca to complete further repairs on the Falcon and promises to come back if Skywalker ever needs a lift. While on Dagobah, Luke enters the mysterious cave as part of his training. There, he fights and kills a vision of Darth Vader, but was shocked when he saw that the face beneath the mask was that of Leia.
Five years passed and the story resumes when the Empire celebrates the fifth anniversary of the defeat of the Rebellion by renaming the Death Star the Justice Star and having it eclipse the sun over the capital as a symbol of everlasting peace. Leia, who is now a highly trained Sith Lady, convinces the dying Palpatine to reinstate the Imperial Senate, which had been disbanded five years earlier. Han and Chewbacca, who had been slumming around the galaxy for five years, see coverage of the anniversary while in a bar on Ord Mantell. Surprised and infuriated that Leia was still alive and now a servant of the Empire, Solo breaks his chair over his table, and draws the attention of bounty hunters and Imperial stormtroopers. Han boards the Falcon, dodges an orbiting Imperial fleet and heads back to Dagobah.
Back on Dagobah, Luke's training is nearing completion. The last test that remains is to once again go into the dark cave. In the cave, Luke once again faces the shadow of Vader, but this time, he is able to overcome his fears and truly connect to the Force. Luke even has a frightening vision of the Emperor, a young Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon Jinn, Darth Maul, his grandmother Shmi, his mother Padmé, his father Anakin as a child, and Leia.
Once Han Solo arrives, He makes his way into the dark side cave as Skywalker is performing the final test of his Jedi training. Han and Chewbacca then join Skywalker, Yoda, and R2-D2 for dinner, and informs Luke of what had happened with Leia and the Empire and soon after, Yoda informs Luke of a pair of shocking truths: Darth Vader is his father and Leia is his sister.
The denouement finds Luke, Yoda, Han, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 flying the Falcon to Coruscant. Once there, the Falcon lands on the Justice Star where Yoda and R2 disembark. Yoda confronts Admiral Tarkin and takes control of him with a Jedi mind trick into giving him control of the station, which he uses to destroy the fleet in orbit over the planet.
Leia duels Luke
Meanwhile, Chewbacca flies the Falcon to the planet, where Luke and Han attempt to infiltrate the Emperor's palace. Once there, Luke and Han defeat a number of red-cloaked Imperial Guards armed with doublesabers and a reprogrammed, more aggressive C-3PO before confronting the Emperor and his two apprentices, Darth Vader and Leia Organa. At his master's orders, Vader turns his lightsaber over to Leia so she could duel with Luke. Luke refuses to kill Leia, but duels with her all the same. Eventually, Luke is able to connect to Leia's rational mind by revealing the fact that he is her brother. When the duel ends and Skywalker redeems Leia, the Emperor turns his rage on the twins, casting Force lightning at them. Before they can be killed, Anakin Skywalker attacks his former master to save his children.
Luke, Leia, Han, and C-3PO are able to escape as the Emperor turns his power on Anakin. They cut their way through stormtroopers, make it to the Falcon and escape the planet. After Palpatine kills Anakin, Yoda, who is using R2 to control the orbit of the Justice Star, contacts the Emperor and announces that he is coming. Just as the Emperor returns to his throne tower, the Justice Star crashes into the planet, obliterating Darth Sidious and his greatest weapon.
The story ends a few years later on Naboo. Leia has been proclaimed the Supreme Chancellor of the New Republic after the defeat of the Empire. R2's old memory has been inserted into a new, identical body and has been reunited with C-3PO. At the very end, the specters of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin appear to Luke and Leia.
Star Wars Infinities: A New Hope was originally planned to be written by Peter David, who wrote the similarly non-canon Star Wars Tales story "Skippy the Jedi Droid." Upon taking the assignment, David was informed by Lucasfilm Ltd. that he was being given absolute creative freedom for the story. David's drafted outline involved R5-D4 malfunctioning after being bought by Owen Lars, preventing him from acquiring R2-D2, leading to a chain of events that would have concluded the story with Leia Organa becoming the reigning Sith Lord of the Galactic Empire and taking Luke Skywalker as her apprentice and lover, unaware of them being siblings.
However, when David presented his outline to Lucasfilm, they rejected it for being "too dark" and told him that the story had to end with Luke, Leia and Han Solo triumphing over evil. David was furious at his proposal being rejected, finding no sense to change one of the film's plot points and deviate from it if the scenario would still result in the same happy ending the original 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope had. Dark Horse Comics ultimately hired Chris Warner to write the story instead.
- Star Wars Infinities: A New Hope (TPB)
- Omnibus: Infinities
- Star Wars Infinities: A New Hope
- Star Wars Infinities: The Empire Strikes Back
- Star Wars Infinities: Return of the Jedi
Although the comic story itself is not canon, the plot point of the Imperial Palace formerly being the Jedi Temple was retained in the new Star Wars canon after the Expanded Universe was rebranded as Star Wars Legends by Lucasfilm Ltd., with the 2014 novel Tarkin confirming the Jedi Temple's refurbishment into the Imperial Palace.