Marvel Super Special was a magazine-sized colour anthology that Marvel used through the late seventies and eighties for whatever did not fit a thirty-two page comic: rock bands, monster movies, and film adaptations. Two of its issues matter here, and they matter more than their obscurity suggests, because they are where the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi adaptations first appeared.
Issue 16, May 1980
The complete Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back, cover-dated the month the film opened, with a painted Bob Larkin cover. The same story was serialised four months later as Star Wars 39–44. It was also published at treasury size as Marvel Special Edition Featuring Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back 2, at roughly the same moment, which is why no reference work will confidently tell you which of the two is the first edition. This site does not pretend to know either.
Issue 27, August 1983
The complete Return of the Jedi adaptation, again Goodwin and Williamson, with a Bill Sienkiewicz cover, on sale 3 May 1983 — three weeks before the film. It was serialised afterwards as the four-issue Star Wars: Return of the Jedi limited series.
Why the format is worth caring about
Magazine size gives Williamson room. The same pages reduced to comic-book dimensions lose detail that the larger printing keeps, and the paper is better. If you are ever going to read a Marvel Star Wars film adaptation once, read it here.
The collector's note
Neither issue is rare and neither is expensive. What confuses people is the numbering: these are issues 16 and 27 of a general Marvel line, not issues 16 and 27 of a Star Wars series, and searching for them under a Star Wars title will not find them.
