Each week Star Wars Spotlight combs through the digital archives of Marvel Unlimited to showcase one classic story from that distant galaxy filled with Jedi, Sith, princesses, scoundrels and droids.

When last we left the Jason Aaron-penned STAR WARS series, it had crossed over with DARTH VADER in a story called VADER DOWN that left his right hand woman Dr. Aphra in the hands of the enemy.

In STAR WARS #16–19 – drawn by Leinil Yu – Leia Organa took Aphra to a top secret Rebel prison called Sunspot because of its closeness to a star. Accompanied by Sana Starros, Leia found herself constantly explaining why they didn’t just kill all of their enemies when a mysterious masked sentient staged a riot on the prison! 

Star Wars (2015) #16

• Published: February 17, 2016
• Added to Marvel Unlimited: August 15, 2016
• Rating: Rated T
• Writer: Jason Aaron
• Penciller: Leinil Francis Yu

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Meanwhile, Han continued getting Luke and himself in trouble as he failed to correctly cheat while playing Sabacc and lost all of the Rebellion’s supply money in the process. This lead them to a smuggling job revolving around herding Nerfs before they heard Leia’s distress call and made way for Sunspot.

Back at the prison itself, the masked attacker unleashed some of the worst criminals in the galaxy to see whether Leia would kill them or not. Realizing they needed more help, Leia freed Dr. Aphra to back her and Sana, which also revealed that the two women had a history together that didn’t end well.

Han and Luke eventually showed up to help, but got captured almost immediately. Finally standing in front of Leia, Sana and Aphra, the masked man revealed himself as Eneb Ray, a spy first seen in STAR WARS ANNUAL #1 (see below). 

Star Wars Annual (2015) #1

• Published: December 09, 2015
• Added to Marvel Unlimited: June 13, 2016
• Writer: Kieron Gillen
• Cover Artist: John Cassaday

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Thanks to some planning with Artoo, Leia used an Ion Pulse to incapacitate Eneb as well as the whole prison itself. As the station started falling towards the sun, Ray raged, wondering if Leia truly had what it would take to make the hard decisions, the kind that would swiftly topple the Empire and pave way for a new world.

Leia proved her strength as a leader by correctly evaluating the situation and developing a plan that resulted in the least amount of loss. She also allowed Dr. Aphra to escape, which would not sit well with Ray who now counted himself among the Rebel’s prisoners, but with a key-looking shape up his sleeve, or more accurately, in his tooth.

From the Jedi Temple Archives

For the full story on what happened to former Rebel spy Eneb Ray, check out STAR WARS ANNUAL #1 by Kieron Gillen and Angel Unzueta. Deep undercover on Coruscant as Tharius Demo, Ray got new orders from Leia when a group of anti-Imperial senators came up for execution. After breaking into the prison and finding the politicians, he heard that the Emperor himself would see them before their murders. He came up with a quick plan involving other Coruscant spies to finally kill Palpatine, but the effort proved fruitless as the former senator showed his own immense power, shocking Ray with Force Lightning in the process, which presumably gave him the look he sported in Rebel Jail.

Come back next week for STAR WARS: BLOOD TIES, a father and son story about Boba and Jango Fett!

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Bad design and construction of the tallest U.S. dam a half-century ago and inadequate state and federal oversight since then led to a disastrous spillway collapse in February, an independent national team of dam safety experts said Tuesday as they urged tougher safety reviews nationwide.

TROUTDALE, Ore. (AP) — A growing Oregon wildfire covered parts of Portland's metropolitan area Tuesday with ash and forced the shutdown of a lengthy stretch of highway through the state's scenic Columbia River Gorge.

What do Satan’s kids, a flame-headed demon, and a vampire hunter all have in common? They intend to keep the balance between heaven and hell as seen in the October 4-launching SPIRITS OF VENGEANCE.

Written by Victor Gischler and drawn by David Baldeón, the five-issue limited series will bring Johnny Blaze’s Ghost Rider together with Blade, Satana, and Daimon Hellstrom to stop a mysterious force from using an incredibly powerful weapon to plunge existence into chaos.

We talked with Baldeón about bringing his unique vision to these denizens of the dark and digging into the horror genre with an expert like Gischler!

Marvel.com: You’ve drawn a lot of different books in a lot of different genres. How has the supernatural/horror corner of the Marvel Universe been treating you?

David Baldeón: So far, so good! Horror is not the first thing that comes up when I think about my work so far—except maybe for ZOMBIES CHRISTMAS CAROL—but it sure feels good to stretch my horror fan legs a bit and see how I adapt to it.

I [grew up on], like any decent 80s kid, on my fair share of gory VHS tales, and quite a few of them come into play for this SPIRITS OF VENGEANCE run. Add to that the fact that I’m working with some of the very best supernatural characters around, which happen to inhabit the Marvel Universe and, well, I’m having much more fun than the guy who did the art for MARVEL TSUM TSUM should be allowed to be having!

Marvel.com: Did you look back to any of these characters’ previous runs to get a better feel for them?

David Baldeón: A little bit, mostly their more recent runs and appearances, just to keep in tune with what they look like nowadays and build on that. Their classic runs were of course present, because they have been part of my comic book diet consistently. I have had a Ghost Rider and a Hellstrom and a Blade version of mine in my head for a long long time. When this book came along, I just had to articulate them into the tale that Victor had come up with. Funny thing is what I had in my head seemed to work perfectly with what was written in the scripts!

Marvel.com: When we first talked about this book, you sounded very excited about the designs for the villains. What can you tell us about that process?

David Baldeón: As usual, it all comes from the script. Victor’s story is wonderfully layered, and the influences and connections it requires are the best ground for some very rich design work. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, it all seemed to work perfectly with the versions of the characters that I have had in my head as a fan for years.

For instance, Daimon Hellstrom, as described for this book by Victor, is very much a James Bond of the supernatural, which allowed me to weave his signature pentagram into the most dapper-looking suit I could design. And just with that the character is both designed and described visually! Our Rider is not too different from his classic look, but my long-time dream of drawing him as a death metal version of Jack Skellington worked perfectly with the look our demons needed.

And of course in my head they all came from more or less the same place, so it made sense that they shared an elongated, unnatural look. The book is filled with these little visual motifs, small clues and connections that I hope will help give it a distinct tone and a visual identity that is up to the story’s standards. And then there are the design candy characters and environments that I get to draw in every single issue, that of course I cannot comment on without going into full spoiler mode. But I’m sure they will be easily identified when the book is released.

Marvel.com: When it comes to figuring out some of the more supernatural-heavy scenes in the series, does the script have a lot of detail or does that come from you?

David Baldeón: Just the right amount of detail to let me run with it. Victor lets me do the groundwork on the visual storytelling, but of course that’s really easy to do when the script is so well crafted and the characters so wonderfully fleshed-out. I have tried to add to that, of course, and have tried to give each scene a different tone and use different visual narration techniques, depending on which character “carries” it. Which, again, is easy when the characters are so well written.

And by the way, I can’t say enough either about Andres Mossa’s gorgeous work on color. Andres’ lighting of all scenes in general—and the most gruesome and terrifying ones in particular—certainly close the deal. Not only do the pages look gorgeous, they’re pitch-perfect. If this was a movie, we could not have a better Director of Photography.

Marvel.com: Victor’s done a lot of work in the horror space. Would you say that came through in the scripts you used to draw the issues from?

David Baldeón: Forgive me the pun, but hell yeah. Victor sure knows his horror, and he is playing the classics and the references to my absolute delight, and most assuredly, the readers’. But he’s not just playing clichés or tropes, he’s using the basic and best rules of the genre to expand that supernatural corner into a wonderful wide playground. And best of all, what he’s doing—and hopefully I’m bringing it through with the art—follows what every good horror author knows: that it all works through and for the characters.

SPIRITS OF VENGEANCE #1 from Victor Gischler and David Baldeón burns its way into your hands on October 4!

Roman Catholic leaders across the U.S. spoke out Tuesday against President Donald Trump’s decision to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

WASHINGTON ― While much of America criticized as heartless President Donald Trump’s decision to end protections for people brought to this country illegally as children, one slice of America is angry for the opposite reason: that it took too long and leaves too much wiggle room.

1917 to 2017: 100 years of Kirby.

Join us this month to celebrate Jack “King” Kirby’s 100^th birthday by learning about the characters and stories he created that changed comics forever. To commemorate Jack’s centennial, we’ve sat down with the modern-day creators he influenced—and the decades of work he gifted us all.

Back in the 1960s when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby laid down the base for the Marvel Universe, they created a number of unusual and endlessly captivating nooks and crannies to explore. In 1965’s UNCANNY X-MEN #10, readers discovered a secret place called the Savage Land that played home to dinosaurs, Neanderthals, and other forms of life including the heroic Ka-Zar and his saber-tooth tiger Zabu. Those last two came into the merry mutants’ world by way of a television broadcast showing the “Antarctic Wild Man” saving a researcher wearing only a loin cloth and accompanied by a supposedly extinct cat.

At first thinking he might be a mutant, the X-Men wanted to go check the mystery out. Professor X told them that, had he been a mutant, Cerbro would have spotted him, but then allowed them to go anyway. Upon exploring a recently created crevasse, the team traveled down through an icy tunnel that emptied into a boneyard for huge animals.

From there, the teens saw many of the wonders hidden below the ice in the Savage Land, but also several of the dangers ranging from pterodactyls to primitive warriors riding huge birds and wielding impressive weapons. Those attackers got the drop on the X-Men and made off with Marvel Girl while Ka-Zar made his first appearance alongside faithful companion Zabu!

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #10

• Published: March 10, 1965
• Added to Marvel Unlimited: April 08, 2009
• Rating: T+
• Penciller: Jack Kirby
• Cover Artist: Jack Kirby

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Thanks to some misunderstood differences in customs, the strangers fought one another, but only until Maa-Gor, the Killer, popped up to murder the self-proclaimed “Lord of the Jungle.” With that confrontation over, Ka-Zar agreed to help the X-Men save Jean from the Swamp Men. Angel flew ahead to scout, but got captured himself!

Ka-Zar and company made it to the Swamp Men’s walled village just in time to help Angel and Marvel Girl fend off an attacking T-Rex, thanks in part to the small army of mastodons the jungle lord called in for reinforcements. Upon freeing the captives, Ka-Zar bid the X-Men farewell, explaining concisely that he preferred his world to the one above.

Kirby returned to the Savage Land and Ka-Zar along with Lee for the first issue of ASTONISHING TALES in 1970. The character had appeared in various places in the five years since his creation, but this marked his first real showcase, though he had to share it with the villainous Doctor Doom! With the second issue, Roy Thomas took over for Lee on the scripts. Kirby only lasted one more issue himself before making way for artists like Barry Windsor-Smith, Herb Trimpe, Gil Kane, John Buscema, and Marie Severin.

Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more throughout Kirby Month and beyond! And join the conversation on all of our social channels with the hashtag #Kirby100.