In Star Wars: Darth Vader #17, the Sith Lord struck down the “buff Hutt,” creating serious changes for not only the criminals but the Empire.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers from Star Wars: Darth Vader #17, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
Although he was mentioned earlier in the film series, Jabba the Hutt made his formal first appearance in Return of the Jedi. He was instantly one of the most disgusting creatures in the franchise, and at the time he was also one of a kind. However, as more Star Wars lore was developed over the years, more Hutts were introduced. However, many of Jabba’s kind met their demise at the hands of the most well-known Sith Lord in Darth Vader #17 (by Greg Pak, Raffaele Ienco, Alex Sinclair and VC’s Joe Caramagna), including one aptly nicknamed “Buff Hutt.”
Bokku the Hutt was introduced during the War of the Bounty Hunters crossover event as a young, potential rival for Jabba. Bokku, though, wasn’t like many others of his kind. While Jabba was an overweight, slimy slug of a crime lord, Bokku was physically impressive. With his surprisingly muscular physique this Hutt demanded respect, but that ultimately led to his undoing.
War of the Bounty Hunters featured a resurgent Crimson Dawn stealing a carbonite-frozen Han Solo from Boba Fett after the events of The Empire Strikes Back. After that, Qi’ra put Solo up for auction so that a galaxy full of criminals could bid on the rights to the former smuggler. During that time, Vader was looking for information about Solo and came across Bokku’s criminal empire. The ambitious Hutt tried to confront him at first, but Vader made the “Buff Hutt” into an unwilling ally.
When it was time for the auction, Bokku attended with the rest of the Hutt council, but he behaved oddly during the affair, bidding against Jabba and running up the price. Jabba, however, still won the auction by offering an obscene number of credits. In the end, though, none of that mattered because Vader showed up and simply took Solo for the Empire.
After being told off by Vader, Jabba was willing to forget the whole thing and let Vader have Solo because he wanted to preserve his relationship with the Empire. Bokku, on the other hand, was humiliated by Vader taking Solo after Jabba had won the auction, so he riled up the Hutt Council and made a move that ended up leading to his downfall. While an Imperial shuttle was taking Solo up to the Executor, Bokku betrayed Vader. Revealing that he was a member of Crimson Dawn and obeying Qi’ra’s directive, he attacked with the entire Hutt fleet.
Admiral Piett saw the situation unfolding in front of him, so he communicated with the Emperor and was told that Vader would personally take card of the situation. The Sith Lord then broke off his pursuit of Luke and boarded the Hutt’s flagship to put a stop to their sudden aggression. When he arrived, Vader viciously slaughtered every member of the Hutt Council in a limb-severing, violent show of force. Then, he and Bokku, the last surviving Hutt, got into a verbal sparing match. The Hutt attempted to reason for his life, but Vader had already decided on the slug’s fate and plunged his crimson blade into his former ally.
Vader found his predetermined demise almost comical, but Bokku had one more trick to pull. As he lay dying, he instructed his droid to activate their contingency plan to kill Vader. At the flick of a switch, Bokku’s flagship crashed through a portion of the Executor and plummeted to the planet of Jekara. It was a quality final action for Bokku, but he once again underestimated Vader. Using the Force, Vader created a metal cocoon that shielded him from Jekara’s atmosphere and cushioned his fall to the planet’s surface. However, the life and story of the fascinating “Bokku, the Muscle Hutt” was brought to an end by the power of the dark side.
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