Han Solo and Greedo's shootout has been controversially altered over the years, but a comic story includes a detail that might have been missed.
A Legends-era Star Wars comic starring Greedo provides a potential explanation for the bounty hunter's improbably poor marksmanship during the infamous "Han shot first" scene with Han Solo in the original film. One of the most derided additions to the entire Star Wars franchise is the shootout between Han and Greedo, which has been edited and altered numerous times since 1997. The original film showed Han shooting Greedo in cold blood, but the scene was re-edited so that the bounty hunter fires his blaster at Han and misses before the smuggler blasts him. This has led to controversy among die-hard fans, who use the phrase “Han shot first” to describe the original iteration of the scene.
In preparation for the then-upcoming prequel trilogy, the original Star Wars trilogy was re-released in 1997 with changes, some overt and others more subtle. The Special Editions are quite divisive, though most die-hard viewers take issue with the Han and Greedo scene, which has been altered no less than four times. Still, each post-1997 version of Star Wars continues to share the same problem. Greedo, who ought to be a dangerous bounty hunter if he was hired by Jabba the Hutt to go after Han Solo, shouldn’t miss the smuggler at point-blank range, nor should Han Solo wait for an assailant to fire at him first.
A mere three years after the controversial Special Editions, the Star Wars Tales #6 story “The Hovel on Terk Street” by Tom Fassbender, Jim Pascoe, and Eric Powell, is told from Greedo’s perspective as he’s hired to track down a Rebel Alliance sympathizer. After being ambushed and disarmed, Greedo purchases a replacement blaster from Jawas, which later malfunctions during a fight. Greedo proves to be a formidable bounty hunter throughout the story, but it implies that the next blaster he buys might be faulty as well, leading to him perhaps firing prematurely and inexplicably missing Han Solo in A New Hope, which somewhat mitigates the “Han shot first” controversy.
The Star Wars Tales story depicts Greedo as a skilled and ruthless mercenary, tracking down a Rebel sympathizer, killing a Gamorrean (an extremely physically strong species) in hand-to-hand combat, and making cunning uses of thermal detonators and hidden knives. While not on the same level as legendary bounty hunters like Boba Fett, Greedo is shown to be more than capable of threatening even a dangerous smuggler like Han Solo. The story’s implication that Greedo was using yet another defective blaster would explain his shootout with Han, though it’s still dubious to suggest that an experienced mercenary would purchase another similarly faulty weapon.
What Star Wars Tales implies is that Greedo might not have intended to fire at Han Solo in the first place, let alone miss him at such close range. Greedo’s next weapon might have been yet another malfunctioning blaster, or perhaps his original weapon (having sustained damage since he’d last used it). While not a perfect solution to the “Han shot first” controversy, the Star Wars comic shows how dangerous Greedo truly is while potentially explaining his inexplicable shootout with Han Solo.
