Cover: Rick Hoberg & Frank Giacoia

Star Wars #4

Oct 1977 · Marvel · 0.30 USD

📊 ~203,817 copies sold its debut month

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“In Battle with Darth Vader”

About this Issue

Star Wars #4 is the climactic installment of the four-part Death Star sequence within Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin's six-issue adaptation of A New Hope — the chapter in which Obi-Wan Kenobi meets Darth Vader in their final lightsaber duel and deliberately allows himself to be struck down, enabling the rest of the heroes to escape aboard the Millennium Falcon. As part of a series that, according to former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, provided the publisher with critical income during a period of severe financial strain in 1977 and 1978, every chapter of this adaptation carried outsized commercial weight for Marvel. The issue also marks a small but meaningful milestone in Marvel's relationship with its readership: it was the first issue of the series to include a fan letters column, debuting under the title 'Star-Words,' signaling that Star Wars had already built the devoted audience expected of a long-running Marvel title. Taken together, those qualities make issue #4 both a narrative turning point in the first licensed Star Wars comic run ever published and a document of how rapidly the franchise captured the public imagination.

In "In Battle with Darth Vader," Luke, Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca fight to survive the deadly confines of the Death Star's garbage chute, while Obi-Wan faces Darth Vader in a final, fateful duel. Written by Roy Thomas and George Lucas, with dynamic art by Howard Chaykin and inks by Steve Leialoha, this 1977 Marvel comic captures the tension and heroism of the original Star Wars film in a thrilling, standalone chapter. The cover by Rick Hoberg and Frank Giacoia perfectly captures the chaos and danger of the moment.

writer Roy Thomas · artist Howard Chaykin · inker Steve Leialoha · colorist Carl Gafford · letterer Tom Orzechowski · writer George Lucas · cover Rick Hoberg, Frank Giacoia

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $7

CGC 9.8 · 227 in census $8,817

CGC 9.6 · 434 in census $3,047

CGC 9.4 · 388 in census $2,627*

CGC 9.2 · 282 in census $2,003*

CGC 9.0 · 254 in census $1,638*

CGC 8.5 · 223 in census $1,097

Show all 20 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 185 in census $1,097*

CGC 7.5 · 104 in census $960*

CGC 7.0 · 99 in census $702

CGC 6.5 · 76 in census $698*

CGC 6.0 · 40 in census $688*

CGC 5.5 · 27 in census $587*

CGC 5.0 · 32 in census $476

CGC 4.5 · 30 in census $476*

CGC 4.0 · 25 in census $451

CGC 3.5 · 10 in census $423*

CGC 3.0 · 13 in census $377*

CGC 2.5 · 3 in census $285*

CGC 2.0 · 7 in census $251*

CGC 1.5 · 2 in census $169*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

The six-issue A New Hope adaptation was scripted by Roy Thomas and penciled by Howard Chaykin, working from an early version of George Lucas's fourth draft screenplay rather than from the finished film — meaning the creative team was, as one period reviewer noted, discovering Star Wars at the same time as their readers. Archie Goodwin served as consulting editor, and a review process between Marvel and Lucasfilm was in place throughout, with Goodwin sending drafts to Lucasfilm's licensing department for approval. Because Chaykin had not yet seen the completed film when producing his art, he drew all lightsabers with red blades regardless of which character wielded them — a visually distinctive error corrected only when Marvel recolored the series in 2015. The cover of issue #4 was penciled by Keith Pollard (with inks by Frank Giacoia and Rick Hoberg), a point that went uncorrected in indexing databases for several years; the interior story art remains Chaykin's, inked by Steve Leialoha with colors by Carl Gafford and lettering by Tom Orzechowski.

Trivia · 8 facts

Published on-sale July 12, 1977 (cover-dated October 1977); written by Roy Thomas, penciled by Howard Chaykin, inked by Steve Leialoha, colored by Carl Gafford, lettered by Tom Orzechowski, edited by Roy Thomas with Archie Goodwin as consulting editor.
Story title: 'In Battle with Darth Vader' — adapts the Death Star escape sequence of A New Hope, including the garbage-compactor trap, Obi-Wan disabling the tractor beam, and the Kenobi/Vader lightsaber duel in which Vader strikes Kenobi down.
First issue of the Marvel Star Wars series to feature a fan letters page, titled 'Star-Words,' with the letters column name credited to reader suggestion (Mark Ernst is acknowledged in the editorial note).
Cover art by Keith Pollard (pencils), Frank Giacoia, and Rick Hoberg — a credit that was misattributed to Gil Kane in early database records and later corrected.
Part 4 of the 6-issue A New Hope adaptation; Thomas worked from an early draft of Lucas's screenplay, resulting in subtle but documented differences from the finished film throughout the run.
Because Chaykin had not seen the completed film during production, all lightsabers in the original printing were colored red; Marvel's 2015 recolored reprint corrected Luke's and Obi-Wan's blades to canonical blue.
The story content of this issue has been reprinted in numerous formats, including Marvel Special Edition Featuring Star Wars #3 (1978), Marvel Movie Showcase #2 (1982), Classic Star Wars: A New Hope (Dark Horse, 1994–1995), Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... #1 (Dark Horse, 2002), Star Wars Comic Pack #5 (Dark Horse, 2006), The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 1 (Marvel, 2015), and the recolored Episode IV – A New Hope trade paperback (Marvel, 2015–2016).
The broader Marvel Star Wars series, of which this issue is a part, was according to former Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter a significant factor in Marvel's financial survival through 1977 and 1978, a period when rising newsprint costs and shrinking newsstand distribution put the company under serious pressure.