Star Wars: The Power of the Force (Star Wars: Il Potere della Forza) was an Italian comic book with a total length of eight pages. The comic was written by Fiorenzo Delle Rupi and the illustrations were created by Filippo Rossi. The comic was translated into English by Abel G. Peña in 2013, at which point it was offered as a downloadable file.
Palpatine, the Galactic Emperor, is in his inner sanctum meditating. He is surrounded by holographic images of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Luke Skywalker. He reflects on his time as a senator in the Galactic Republic, the extended relationship between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, and his strategy to convert Luke to the dark side of the Force. Elsewhere, on Dagobah, Yoda, the Jedi Master, employs the Force to conjure an image of himself with his deceased colleague Mace Windu. Following this, he praises the courage of R2-D2 and Chewbacca. He then ponders the similarities between Princess Leia Organa and her mother, Padmé Amidala, and worries that Luke Skywalker might share a similar resemblance to his father, who fell to the dark side. In the end, Yoda places his faith in the light side and those who defend it.
In the summer of 1998, as Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace was about to be released, the toy manufacturer Hasbro introduced a line of "FlashBack" action figures related to the movie. Hasbro Italy requested the creation of a promotional comic for this new product line. They enlisted Fiorenzo Delle Rupi, who was the president of the Cloud City fan club, and Filippo Rossi, a co-founder of L'Associazione culturale Yavin 4. Delle Rupi wrote the eight-page comic, which included six pages of story and two pages of advertisements, while Rossi created the artwork. Originally written in Italian, the story was first made available in English on August 13, 2013. The translation was done by Star Wars author Abel G. Peña, and Rich Handley, his associate, reworked the lettering of the comic.
The main narrative of Star Wars: Il potere della Forza is situated between the events of Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, which took place in 3 and 4 ABY, respectively. The embedded story consists of a series of flashbacks that go all the way back to the Invasion of Naboo in 32 BBY. It also suggested that Yoda had some familiarity with Chewbacca, a fact that was later substantiated by the events of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, which happened in 19 BBY. Similarly, because the comic needed to incorporate an image from Hasbro's Flashback Photos series, it became the first to imply that Palpatine, despite the Empire's speciesist policies, had some awareness of the Wookiee species, especially Senator Yarua, from his time as a senator. This was later confirmed in Jedi Council: Acts of War and further detailed in Cloak of Deception.
It's worth noting that while the Italian title for this comic and the toy line associated with it was later used for the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed multimedia project, there is no connection between the plots of the two.