Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Free Comic Book Day: Star Wars! Luke Skywalker’s battle against the Wampa on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back was a standout scene in arguably the best Star Wars movie in the franchise, but aside from being entertaining, it didn’t add much significance to the Rebel Alliance’s cause – in fact, quite the opposite. Luke Skywalker’s fight with the Wampa nearly cost him his life, which would have been a crippling blow to the Rebellion. However, in the latest Star Wars adventure, that battle is given immense significance, as it – in an ironic twist of fate – actually saved the Rebellion.

In the Free Comic Book Day: Star Wars story titled “Return to Echo Base” by Charles Soule and Ibraim Roberson (which takes place between the events of Episodes V and VI), Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Lando Calrissian, and Chewbacca fly the Millennium Falcon back to Hoth, as the Rebellion received a message from a group of Rebel survivors who never made it off the planet in Empire Strikes Back. Unfortunately, the Empire still had a presence at Echo Base, meaning once these Star Wars heroes extracted the survivors, they had to fly into a blizzard to escape the Imperial troops.

Luke and the others were flying a semi-enclosed transport designed for a planet like Hoth, but even that couldn’t withstand the ice storm they were facing. Just as all hope seemed lost, Luke Skywalker reached out in the Force to locate the Wampa cave that was now vacant, as the Wampa Luke dismembered in Episode V either died or fled following their fight. The Rebels took shelter in the cave until the storm blew over, and it’s a good thing they did, as the Imperials chasing them died in the blizzard – a fate the Rebels nearly shared.

Luke Skywalker Only Found the Cave Because of His Fight with the Wampa

When Luke Skywalker reaches out with the Force to find shelter for the Rebels in this Star Wars comic, he was only able to locate the cave because of his previous fight with the Wampa. It wasn’t that he had been there before, and could simply divine its location because of that alone, but that Luke used the Force in that cave to pull his lightsaber toward him – something he had never done before.

Luke Skywalker used the Force practically for the first time in that cave when he pulled his lightsaber toward him right before his fight with the Wampa. That action created a resonance in the Force that Luke could feel when he was on the planet, which allowed him to follow the Force’s guidance right back to that location.

Star Wars Just Made Luke Skywalker’s Wampa Fight Significant to His Jedi Training

Not only was Luke’s fight with the Wampa not immediately significant to the Rebellion’s efforts in Episode V, but it didn’t seem to add much to his Jedi training, either. However, this Star Wars issue makes his Wampa fight way more significant to Luke’s larger story. The issue highlights the fact that Luke’s fight with the Wampa was one of the first times he deliberately used the Force, and it also revealed that Luke doing so left a mark in the Force itself in that location, with a resonance that Luke can still feel months, even years later.

Luke Skywalker’s Wampa fight was a fun side-adventure in an already fantastic Star Wars film, though the movie itself failed to impart how truly impactful that fight really was, as that wouldn’t become clear until the events of this comic, where Luke Skywalker saved the Rebellion thanks to the fact that he fought a Wampa in Empire Strikes Back.

Free Comic Book Day: Star Wars by Marvel Comics is available now.

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