Trigger warning! This post is politically incorrect and full of old-fashioned values!
Just as I heap praise upon Marvel on SWPAS for how it has fully integrated the saga into its comics, they had to go and pull the same kind of stupid crap it always does with its superhero comics: drop some headline-grabbing “bomb” to cause buzz among those who care. I dreaded Joe Quesada getting his grubby paws on Star Wars for this very reason.
This time, it’s dropping the bomb in Star Wars #6–now on stands–that Han Solo was married. Allegedly. Or so some woman claims in the comic when she literally shoots her way into the scene. (Better yet, it was apparently a multi-ethnic union…say what you will about Han; he’s definitely no racist.) Had this been a Dark Horse comic from 10 years ago or a Star Wars fan fic from 25-30 years ago in some zine, this wouldn’t have been a big deal. In fact there might be such stories kicking around from several years ago. It’s also not the first time somebody has referred to Han’s pre-Leia past. Salla Zend was in those Dark Empire comics, Bria was Han’s major squeeze in the Han Solo trilogy of novels by the late A.C. Crispin, and there was the cut scene from ANH where some prostitute or other was sitting on Han’s lap in the cantina. The difference is nobody ever believed a fan fiction counted for anything and only expanded universe continuity-obsessed readers would’ve cared about the comic or novels. But today, with all of this extraneous stuff being called “canon,” it makes this revelation a “big deal.” In fact Marvel was teasing it at BookCon last weekend. Worse yet, every media from The Hollywood Reporter to i09 to The Dog Catcher Journal thinks this is all somehow going to tie into TFA. (Please for the love of God, NO.) Not only is there speculation that “Mrs. Solo” might be Lando’s sister (ugh!!), Han might be Finn’s dad. Not only do the numbers not quite work, at least how I figure them, fans do need to realize there’s probably more than one black family in the GFFA.
In any case, it’s another Marvel soap opera twist in the same vein as killing off somebody, gender-switching a character, outing another as gay, or breaking up a long-term couple. The thing is, it’s totally unnecessary. Marvel has only been cranking these out for six months, not 60 years. In 23-24 years, Dark Horse never had to pull any stunts with Star Wars. Even if Sana “Solo” is a loony stalker who thinks she’s married to Han like that nut who stalked David Letterman or if this was some sham marriage to get out of something or if this was a drunken Vegas-type wedding on the fly or she finally signs the papers or she croaks by the end of the arc, why does this plot twist even need to be there? What does it add to Han or to the saga as a whole?
No, this reeks of what a friend calls the OTP Obstacle. As though Han and Leia have absolutely no issues whatsoever, Sana Solo is there simply to be another obstacle to their relationship and stir up drama. Even though at this stage they haven’t been to first base, it puts forth the idea that Han is an adulterer and Leia an adulteress by the time things do happen in TESB. Han may be an adulterer anyway; he was after all trying to put the moves on Leia just before Sana shows up and who knows who he’s been banging in between?
“But Han’s a scoundrel, a criminal, a shady character!” you might say. Han can be a bit of douchebag at times but not this much of a douchebag. Maybe I’m just getting old here, but abandoning a marriage and hiding it (while looking to hit on another woman) is serious. I would never trust a man like that, ever, because God knows what else he’s hiding and I would never be certain he wouldn’t similarly abandon me. Leia would have to be crazy to take up with Han, then, if she knew all of this about Han beforehand.
This ultimately illustrates the problem of trying to count all of this extraneous stuff as “canon.” It’s too easy for comics, spinoff books, and video games to veer off the road, especially with so many people involved and so much product being produced. I don’t think any of it should be canon, just the movies and t.v. shows. That way when they will inevitably “reboot” again, nobody gets too upset and in the meantime, weird detours like retroactively giving Han a wife don’t bother us too much now.
lazypadawan's Holocron 
Yup! Great piece and reflects my sentiments exactly. It’s just som much unnecessary angsty post-modern comic book drama. Maybe someday we will get to the point where some future new villain will spout lines like:
“I am your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate.”
LikeLike
You know it’s a crazy day when I’m on the same page as The Mary Sue on this one.
LikeLike
Well, LP, this is just further proof that Disney should’ve just stuck with the old EU and kept going. It seems that the old EU was more respectful of canon than this current run is. And I too am getting tired of Marvel’s political correctness. It’s so lazy. Why not just introduce an interracial rebel couple instead of foisting it on an existing character (and F.Y.I. I’m the daughter of a black woman and a white man).
LikeLike
Actually the correct term isn’t OTP obstacle, it’s Romantic False Lead.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RomanticFalseLead
And I personally think you are being a bit hard on the EU because of what happened with the post-ROTJ stories. Even from a perspective critical of the EU, I can accept the games are canon since they justify over contradict things in the films, ESPECIALLY the KOTOR games and they have a fixed light side canon ending if there are good/bad multiple endings(except SWTOR where it’s acknowledged that the Republic made LS choices and the Sith characters made DS choices), also the criticism of Mary Sues that the Del Ray books tend to get does not exist there.
I just finished the Sith Warrior storyline on SWTOR, which involved the Old Republic vs. the Ancient Sith Order and there is perfect justification for the Rule of Two, the Sith are constantly defined as fighting against themselves and the final battle in the Sith Warrior and Inqusitor story lines end with a fight with your former master and a rival Sith Lord respectively.
LikeLike
The term came from a friend, not TV Tropes. I thought I made that clear in the post.
As for the rest of it, I’m not following your point.
LikeLike
My point is that we should not fully rule out the EU as non canon simply because of a couple of bad seeds and the constant jump the shark that the post-ROTJ novels have done.
It may not be same canon as the movies and TCW, but the EU should at least be taken into consideration into one’s personal headcannon until the TV or movies override it whether with the current canon or legends EU.
LikeLike
I view the films as one universe, the tv series as another universe, asnd the EU spinoff stuff as a thrid universe, all 3 are free to veer off and do what they want to do. That is how Lucas pretty much originally had it setup, and how Disney should have kept it.
LikeLike
I certainly think that this really ruins the Han Solo character from a moral perspective-Unless of course, he married her Vegas style and Han Solo doesn’t know it.
All of this makes me more dubious that these people at Marvel and Lucasfilm even know what they are doing.
Where is George when you need him??
LikeLike
As for my thoughts on the matter we should wait to see how the plot develops and how it impacts Han’s character.
In HIMYM barney started off as a womanizing douche, but a funny one, but developed into a much better character when he fell for Robin, so what if Han became much better person as his relationship developed with Leia and this was a remnant of his old life?
Because I would not be surprised if someone like that had a couple of flings once in a while.
LikeLike
Oh I’m pretty sure he did. Marriage is a different kettle of fish though.
LikeLike
I’ve been annoyed by many things ever since the Disney purchase. This, however, isn’t one of them. Maybe it’s because I am so sick of how fans worship Han Solo, and how I see him as the most overrated character ever… and to see this happening actually makes me laugh hard, thinking at how fans who hated the SEs and prequels will once again be pissed off, only this time, Lucas can’t be blamed.
LikeLike
I kind of fear this is a setup for TFA. Knowing JJ, he will probably copy Ghostbusters 2 and have all the original characters separated (probably for years) and pad out the first part of the film by having them being reunited by the new characters.
LikeLike
Ugh…the girlfriends that the EU gave him were bad enough. Now the NuEU is giving him a wife? Bad, bad idea.
I never thought Han was celibate before he met Leia. Nor has any H/L fan I’ve ever met. (It is fans of Luke and Mara who insist both were virgins until they married.) A man that good-looking, charming and funny would have had plenty of girlfriends. But, contrary to Ann Crispin’s wish fulfillment Mary Sue fanfics, aka the “(I Wanna Screw) Han Solo Trilogy,” he had never been IN LOVE before he met Leia. That I find far more believable than him being obsessively in love with the likes of Bria (a dull, weak, selfish girl who everyone inexplicably thinks is the greatest thing in the universe — even Boba Fett) for over a decade, or being married, unless it was a marriage of convenience or a drunken mistake.
IMO, you weren’t too hard on the EU. You weren’t hard enough on it.
LikeLike
I am not a Han Solo expert. Having read one or two articles about him, I think that he values friendship and real relationships (think about Chewie). As maychild states, he had never been in love before he met Leia, but if he had and he would have married the person in question, I do not think that he would just leave his wife. Now, you may argue that the mariage had ended de facto before ANH… How is Han’s wife and the relationship depicted, anyway? I have not read the comic.
LikeLike
She just shows up, drops her bombshell, and that’s it.
LikeLike