There is no doubt that Lando Calrissian is a cunning, guile and charismatic player in the Star Wars Universe. Solo: A Star Wars Story dove into Lando's initial contact with Han Solo, but his time between Solo and Empire Strikes Back has only been explored in the comics. Marvel's 2015 Lando miniseries by Charles Soule and Alex Maleev explored Lando's history and introduced one of the strongest Sith in the process.
Lando opens with Calrissian stealing an artifact from an Imperial Governor that he recently seduced. Lando brings the item to his debtor, who claims the item was once his and only removes 10% of Lando's debt. The debtor tells Lando that he can pay off the rest of his debt by stealing an Imperial yacht from a shipyard. Calrissian gathers his heist team of Lobot, clones Aleksin and Pavol, and an ugnaught Korin. Together, they steal the ship with relative ease, which is revealed to be Emperor Palpatine's private vessel.
Calrissian is able to outwit three Star Destroyers as the crew makes their escape. After this error, Palpatine sends his personal fixer, Chanath Cha, aboard the Scimitar, Darth Maul's former ship, to track down his yacht and bring the thieves to him. While scouring the ship for treasure, the crew intercepts two corrupted Royal Guards locked in the central chamber. The clones defeat the guards, but not before they strike a blow to Lobot, who is taken to the Med Bay. With the guards defeated, the crew enters the central chamber which is filled with a plethora of Sith artifacts. Front and center is a mask that once belonged to Darth Momin.
This mask has quite a history of its own. Lord Momin is an ancient Sith who believed that the Dark Side was not a tool for him to control so much as he is a tool for the Dark Side. These beliefs clashed with the teachings of the Sith and many labeled him a heretic. Momin carved and sculpted the mask himself by using his own lightsabers. Momin's physical body was destroyed when the Jedi intercepted his plan to destroy a city, seen in a flashback in Darth Vader #22 by Charles Soule and Giuseppe Camuncoli. Though his body was destroyed, his consciousness would stay within the mask. Flash forward a few hundred years, and the mask reappeared as a gift given to Vader by Palpatine to construct his fortress on Mustafar. Any being that put on Momin's mask would be fully possessed by the entity. Momin found a way to revive his body while building the castle and was defeated in battle by Vader. The mask would disappear until Lando, which takes place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.
With Lando and crew now in the central chamber, Calrissian begins to question the worth of all the artifacts. Aleksin's gaze becomes fixated on Momin's mask. When Pavol approaches his clone, Aleksin turns quickly with lightsaber in hand and chops Aleksin's arm off. Lando and Korin escape, only to be apprehended by Chanath Cha who instantly recognizes Lando and agrees to help him off the ship. The trio is stopped by the clones who convince Korin to look into the mask before striking her down. Cha and Calrissian escape the room and the clones behind while Lando gathers Lobot. Cha and Calrissian each encounter one of the clones while separated, quickly defeating both before regrouping. Lobot sacrifices his mind to his implants to get the escape pods operating before their escape. Lando and Lobot take an escape pod and Cha takes one for herself, bringing the story to a close.
While Lando is rarely seen away from Han, Leia, and Chewbacca in the movies, Lando showed that he can be the star of his own story. It is possible with the Lando tv series coming to Disney+ that we could see this story brought to live-action. That would also set up an introduction to Lord Momin on camera, or at the very least, his mask.
0 Comments