Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters get Bounty Hunter Ship variants in September

War of the Bounty Hunters variant covers
(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Marvel's massive six-month Star Wars event crossover 'War of the Bounty Hunters' that began in May and concludes in October rolls on, and in September a new wrinkle will be added - Bounty Hunter Ship Blueprint variant covers by artist Paolo VIllanelli. 

The six covers depict different bounty hunters that are a part of the storyline along with their famous ships. They include:

  • Bossk and The Hound's Tooth (September 1's Doctor Aphra #1)
  • Boba Fett and Firespray (September 8's War of the Bounty Hunters #4)
  • IG-88 and IG-2000 (September 15's Darth Vader #16)
  • Zuckuss and The Mist Hunter (September 15's War of the Bounty Hunters - Boushh #1)
  • Valance Beilert and The Broken Wing (September 22's Bounty Hunters #16)
  • Dengar and The Punishing One (September 29's Star Wars #17)

The crossover includes all of Marvel's ongoing Star Wars comic book series, the War of the Bounty Hunters limited series, and one-shots. 

The crossover event tells the story of what happened between Bob Fett leaving Cloud City with Han Solo's body frozen in carbonite and arriving in Jaba the Hutt's palace on Tattooine (spoiler alert: it wasn't a smooth ride). 

See the covers and more details below. 

Original story follows.

A massive Star Wars event began this week with War of the Bounty Hunters Alpha. How "massive"? 34 issues, coming out weekly between now and October.

Set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, War of the Bounty Hunters follows Boba Fett from Cloud City to Jabba the Hutt's palace on Tattooine. While you may not remember any bumps on the road for delivery of Han Solo (frozen in Carbonite), there were - deliveries are never that easy - especially for Mandalorians, if you've watched The Mandalorian on Disney Plus.

"'War of the Bounty Hunters' is a story about Boba Fett doing his thing, but it builds into something much bigger, and that’s what the best comic crossovers and big stories do," head writer Charles Soule said at the time of the announcement. "They tell a great story in and of themselves, but they're also the start of something, and they open a lot of new doors. And this story will absolutely do that."

War of the Bounty Hunters John Cassaday variant covers

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Most all of the major Star Wars bounty hunters are showing up with Boba Fett - Bossk, Dengar, 4-LOM, IG-88. The only conspicuous absence is Din Djarin, the star of Disney Plus's The Mandalorian. Lucasfilm announced back in June 2020 that Mandalorian comic books were on their way, but 11 months on and there's still no sign of them. An event like Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters seems like a great story to end with Din Djarin's comic book debut, wouldn't you say? Hmmm….

Anyway, this event kicked off this week in Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters Alpha #1, which we explored in detail here - warning, spoilers.

To get a sense of what's to come (and in most cases, links to pre-order and buy it), here's a complete rundown of the six-month, 34-part comic book Star Wars event.

(Image credit: Steve McNiven (Marvel Comics))

May 2021:

June 2021:

(Image credit: Carlo Pagulayan (Marvel Comics))

July 2021:

August 2021:

  • War of the Bounty Hunters #3 (of 5)
  • Star Wars #16
  • Darth Vader #15
  • Doctor Aphra #13
  • Bounty Hunters #15
  • 4-Lom & Zuckuss #1 (one-shot)

(Image credit: Steve McNiven (Marvel Comics))

September 2021:

  • War of the Bounty Hunters #4 (of 5)
  • Star Wars #17
  • Darth Vader #16
  • Doctor Aphra #14
  • Bounty Hunters #16
  • Bossk #1 (one-shot)

October 2021:

  • War of the Bounty Hunters #5 (of 5)
  • Star Wars #18
  • Darth Vader #17
  • Doctor Aphra #15
  • Bounty Hunters #17
  • IG-88 #1 (one-shot)

Keep track of all the new Star Wars comics, graphic novels, and collections in 2021 and beyond.

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)