Star Wars Legends: Boba Fett – Blood Ties

Star Wars: Blood Ties #1-8

by Tom Taylor, John Wagner, Ron Marz

The galaxy’s most feared bounty hunter blazes into the spotlight! Years ago, Boba Fett’s father Jango took on an important mission with a big payday. But things went awry, and now Boba must pick up the pieces! Then, a rumor spreads that Boba Fett is dead — but who is picking off his “killers” one by one? Can the son of one of Jango Fett’s clones learn the truth? Plus, Boba takes on big bounties, battles the Empire and faces down an imposter in more tales of the fan-favorite in the Mandalorian armor!

COLLECTING: Star Wars: Blood Ties (2010) 1-4; Star Wars: Blood Ties – Boba Fett Is Dead (2012) 1-4; Star Wars: Empire (2002) 7, 28; Star Wars: Boba Fett (1997) 1/2; Star Wars: Boba Fett – Twin Engines of Destruction (1997) 1; Star Wars: Boba Fett – Agent of Doom (2000) 1; material from Star Wars Tales (1997) 7

Genres: Star Wars, Comics, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Marvel, Aliens

336 pages, Paperback

Published November 9, 2021

About the author

Once a professional juggler and fire eater, Tom Taylor is a #1 New York Times Bestselling, multi-award-winning comic book writer, playwright and screenwriter.

Well known for his work with DC Comics and Marvel, Taylor is the co-creator of NEVERLANDERS from Penguin Random House, SEVEN SECRETS from Boom Studios and the Aurealis-Award-winning graphic novel series THE DEEP. Taylor is also the Head Writer and Executive Producer of The Deep animated series, four seasons of which is broadcast in over 140 countries.

He is perhaps best known for the DC Comics series, DCEASED (Shadow Awards Winner), NIGHTWING (nominated for 5 Eisner Awards), SUPERMAN: SON OF KAL-EL (GLAAD Award Nominee), INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US, SUICIDE SQUAD, EARTH 2 and BATMAN/SUPERMAN as well as Marvel's FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN, ALL NEW WOLVERINE, X-MEN: RED, DARK AGES and SUPERIOR IRON MAN. Taylor is also the writer of many Star Wars series, which include STAR WARS: INVASION and STAR WARS: BLOOD TIES (Stan Lee Excelsior Award winner). Taylor has written for Marvel, DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, IDW Publishing, Boom Studios, Wildstorm, 2000 AD and Gestalt Comics.

He can be followed on twitter @TomTaylorMade.

Reviews

[A.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started to read through this after loving the Darth Vader run by Kieron Gillen so much and only just ended up finishing it after reading through all of Charles Soule’s Darth Vader run, but I’m glad I finally got around to finishing this. This collection was by far the best portrayal of Boba Fett I’ve ever seen, just like those aforementioned Vader runs had the best portrayal of that character I’ve seen. Boba has never been as cold as he was in here, and even though these stories aren’t canon anymore since they are part of the “Legends” timeline, most of them are still mighty fun and well worth any Star Wars fan’s time. Reviews for each individual story can be found below.

Tales #7 by Beau Smith, Mike Deodato Jr., Neil Nelson, Dave McGaig and Steve Dutro ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

This was a heart-pulling story with some great art. The ending also connects to the Blood Ties stories by Tom Taylor later, which I thought was well-done. It’s pretty cool to see early Mike Deodato Jr. work too. I probably wouldn’t have remembered this nearly as well if Taylor didn’t connect it into Blood Ties later, but it’s still a solid enough Boba Fett story with some emotional moments sprinkled in at the end there.

Blood Ties by Tom Taylor, Chris Scalf and Michael Heisler☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Great story by Tom Taylor while Chris Scalf puts out some of the best Star Wars art to ever grace a comic book page along with Giuseppe Camuncoli’s Vader run. This was an amazing miniseries.

Blood Ties Boba Fett is Dead by Tom Taylor, Chris Scalf and Michael Heisler ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Again, great story by Taylor and fantastic painted art by Scalf. These two Blood Ties minis are the meat and bones of this collection, and these two alone are worth getting the book at cover price. By far and away the best Boba Fett stories I have ever read, he is at his most badass while also having just enough humanity where you can feel for the guy. Tom Taylor is the best Boba Fett writer I’ve come across and I wish he had done more with this character.

Empire #7 by John Wagner, Cam Kennedy, Chris Blythe and Steve Dutro ☆ ☆ ☆

This is the story where the quality of the book begins to wane a bit. While none of the following issues are especially bad or anything, they don’t connect to any of the other stories in here like the first three did, which does admittedly break the cohesion the book had built up to at that point. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it is noticeable. And while nothing in this story is particularly bad, it also isn’t particulary memorable. I like the ending and the Boba badassery, but I can say that about pretty much every other story in here. There was a bit too much uninteresting dialogue for my liking, as the first half with all the brother drama is such a bore. The ending is cool though.

Empire #28 by Ron Marz, Adriana Melo, Michael Atiyeh and Michael David Thomas ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

This might be the best issue of the collection outside Taylor’s Blood Ties. Obviously YMMV, but I found this to be one of the best Boba Fett stories I’ve ever read that shows a colder side to the character. The story sees Boba Fett infiltrate a crashed Imperial Star Destroyer to retrieve a mysterious bounty, while having to avoid all the booby traps and counter measures of the downed ship. After a great cold open, we get 11 mostly dialogue free pages of Boba at his absolute best, followed up by a crushing ending with a final page that just hurts. Loved this one alot.

Boba Fett #1/2 by John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra, Cary Porter and Vickie Williams ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2

Parts of this story I really enjoyed, and then others not so much. The space bugs that show up are terrifying and have some neat visuals, but I wasn’t really a fan of everything else. This feels more like a Doctor Aphra story than a Boba Fett one, and it’s like a decade before she was even created.

Boba Fett: Twin Engines of Destruction by Andy Mangels, John Nadeau, Jordi Ensign, Cary Porter, and Michael Taylor ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

This was another pretty good story mostly carried by the incredibly badass back-half. The story makes sense and the art is easy to follow, but the first half was just way too long and paced quite poorly. As mentioned before, the ending is awesome and worth the wait, but the first portion of the issue is seriously such a slog, it slowed down how fast I finished this significantly.

Boba Fett: Agent of Doom by John Ostrander, Cam Kennedy, Chris Blythe and Steve Dutro ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2

Boba accepts a low-paying job to build his reputation back up after his mishap in ROTJ. It’s cool seeing Boba take out some a shitty bad guy in the form of a former Empire general who is using materials and weaponry from the Empire days to commit ethnic cleansing around the galaxy, but the art is super rough and tanks the rest of the book frankly. I liked the ending a good deal, but besides that, I found this to be a pretty great story that is dragged down by some not-so-great art.

TLDR;

This was a proper Book of Boba Fett. If you like the character, get this book ASAP as it was just printed recently and Marvel’s trades usually go OOP pretty quickly. It’s an amazing collection of Boba Fett stories that are well worth any Star Wars fans time, even if they aren’t technically canon anymore.

[Cudahy Family Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite loathing to buy the Disney/Marvel re-releases of older Expanded Universe content, (with their yellow ‘Legends’ banner across the cover) when I looked into what issues were contained in this Boba Fett omnibus, I found it had all the ones I most wished to read that are hard to find in either single issue comic form or TPB.

Tales 7 Outbid but Never Outgunned (1997) (7 BBY): 5/5 Was originally published in Tales which qualifies the stories as non-canon but the idea of Boba Fett having a wife and child was brought into canon in later books and comics; thus bringing this story with it.

Blood Ties 1-4 (2010) (22 BBY & 2 BBY): 5/5 Begins with Jango teaching Boba how to conquer fear and then accepting a job from Count Dooku. Because of who the man turns out to be, this job crops back up into Boba’s life 20 years later. A great adventure that dives a bit deeper into the relationship between Boba and his father. Excellent art, more like paintings then drawings.

Blood Ties – Boba Fett is Dead 1-4 (2012) (1 BBY): 5/5 A sequel of sorts to both ‘Outbid but Never Outgunned’ and ‘Blood Ties’. Expands more on Boba’s backstory and his time on Concord Dawn. Same art style and a main character from ‘Blood Ties’ is back in this one.

Empire 7 - Sacrifice (2002) (0 ABY): 2/5 Take it or leave it, the story is a one-shot that Boba Fett is barely in and the art is not nice to look at. The only thing I found interesting in this comic was the ending with the character saying Boba Fett has no emotions and cares about no one; which is exactly the air he gives off but after reading the first three comics, you learn there may be more to Boba then meets the eye.

Empire 28 - Wreckage (2002) (6-7months ABY): 1/5 Not much to this one, just a side job Boba takes, with next to no speech or thought bubbles and thus it’s sparse for story.

Boba Fett ½ - Salvage (1997) (1 ABY): 2.5/5: A semi-decent read, but it is still a bit empty and there isn’t much meat to this story. Boba comes across a derelict cruiser and wishes to acquire it for salvage. The art style for this issue isn’t the greatest and the color scheme is too pastel for a Star Wars comic.

Boba Fett – Twin Engines of Destruction (1997) (5 ABY): 4/5 Pretty good story, this takes place one year after ROTJ and Boba’s escape from the Sarlacc pit. Dengar contacts Boba that a bounty hunter is posing as Fett to get higher paying jobs. Boba naturally does not take kindly to this knowledge and puts a plan into motion. You get a glimpse at Dengar’s friendship of sorts with Boba and also Dengar mentioning about Boba’s escape from the Sarlacc and how his body and armor are scarred from it.

Boba Fett – Agent of Doom (2000) (10 ABY): 4/5 This story takes place six years after ROTJ, with a slave ship meant to exterminate alien species continuing its work even after the Emperor has died. One species, who were freed from the ship by Rebels, wishes death on the two in charge of the ship. Slique wants to hire Boba Fett, as everyone says it’s an impossible job. I like that he gets Boba to accept the job (only 100 credits) by saying how people doubt Fett’s abilities since his time with the Sarlacc and his inability to take out Han Solo. He needs to prove that he’s still the best.

Overall, I give this Boba Fett compilation a 5/5 because the main reason I bought this was for the first three stories and I was not disappointed! It’s the easiest way to get ahold of ‘Tales 7 Outbid but Never Outgunned’, ‘Blood Ties 1-4’, and ‘Blood Ties – Boba Fett is Dead 1-4’ without searching high and low for them all separately and at sky-high prices.

[Fredrik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now this is the real Book of Boba Fett! 💀💀💀💀

[Reese Fulham · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 Stars, Ebook

Overall really good (although a little bit of my bias for the character might be showing). Honestly, I feel the stories are in descending order of their quality, with the first trio of stories being excellent and I deeply love and the last one being kinda mediocre (thought the final story is a bit of an outline and the rest were really good!). I recommend to any star wars or boba fett fan (way better than the book of boba fett)

[Joey Nardinelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel bad writing this without the names of all the individual stories right in front of me now, but I’m certain I’ve read a handful of these stories before as I’ve dug through other TPBs and individual comics in the past. I definitely remember the early “Bloodline” issues for their soft, clay-like art style, and the piece(s?) taken from the Tales series are things I’ve read and probably own in those collections. I’m not sure there were any major standouts here — “Salvage” and “Twin Engines of Destruction” are both pulpy fun, the latter being one of those iconic Boba Fett stories where Fett acts jealous and vindictive around his own brand while it also introduces Jodo Kast of Legends lore.

I think the three major problems here, despite the fun, are a) the art is generally not to my liking and nothing has a more contemporary crispness but of the past decade and a half of Dark Horse and Marvel high bar products (yes, I’m pretty sure “Bloodlines” is Dark Horse), b) these stories are often really short and thus aren’t doing a ton, if any, character building with Fett and c) when they do build character, Fett still feels fairly inconsistent ranging from mildly to extremely competent as a bounty hunter/warrior and often feeling like a spirit for vengeance via his code or a petty and foolish man willing to kill anyone for cash.

So why did I give this four stars? I honestly love the idea that a lot of these Legend comics are just that — the varied stories that a world tries to tell about a character as if creating an in-universe folk lore. That goes miles to explain the weirdness and the inconsistencies, and there’s something backwater about that type of storytelling which just seems incredibly fitting for the most notorious bounty hunter of a whole galaxy.

[Jamieson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collecting the stories Outbid But Never Outgunned (from Star Wars Tales (1999-2005) #7), both Blood Ties miniseries, Star Wars: Empire #7 and #28, Boba Fett #1/2, Boba Fett: Twin Engines of Destruction and Boba Fett: Agent of Doom, I found this to be a bit of a mixed bag. The highlights are the Blood Ties miniseries and the Star Wars Tales story. The others were just kinda meh with cartoony artwork that just doesn't work for me so I kinda just skimmed those. The Tales story and the second Blood Ties story (Boba Fett is Dead) feature Fett's ex-wife Sintas Vel and the Blood Ties focus on Conner Freeman, the son of a rogue Fett clone, and are the best of the bunch. The only downside is that my copy seems to be put together wrong as Blood Ties: Boba Fett is Dead has issue #1, #3, #2 and #4 in that order, and at least issue #2 (and maybe #3) have the pages in the wrong order. Otherwise, a good story. Unfortuneately, the mediocreness of the later stories in the collection bring down my rating.

[Ryan Permison · Rating 2 out of 5]

With new Star Wars content coming out each year on Disney + I was excited to learn more about Boba Fett since he has his own series. Unfortunately, some of the stories were not as good as others. The story and artwork for Blood Ties and Tales #7 were my favorites. But, the others were not very good. I know this is a collection of stories from different creative teams but not everything works here in this one.

[Elizabeth Herbolsheimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for a reading challenge. Read a Graphic Novel.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but man the artwork in this graphic novel is amazing. Seriously, I did not expect it to be this amazing.
The story is one I know being a Star Wars fan. And, I've always wanted to learn more about the bounty hunter. I will def keep this book as I enjoyed the quick stories surrounding Jango and Boba Fett and others that are genetically related to them.... the clones.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the first half of this collection, but as it continues, the art and story dwindle. Overall it is definitely worth the read for Boba Fett and Star Wars fans, but I just really wish it kept its momentum.

[Mark Edney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent collection of stories based on the life of Boba Fett. The last being the most impactful with the ethnic cleansing of a population from a former empire General.

[B.A.G. Studios · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am continually impressed by the comics around the Fett lineage. Not every single issue is a home run, but way more of them than proportional are. The titular series and its follow up, comprised within the first half of this alongside a brief and relevant issue of Tales. That half specifically I think I would give a 5 star review to. It’s just excellent. It’s engaging, it’s tons of fun, the art is gorgeous, and I just couldn’t be happier.

The rest of the material here is nice to see, it’s neat to have, but it made very little impression on me. Agent of Doom isn’t bad, but it doesn’t get enough done in my opinion, it’s too short. And I believe it was Empire #28 that has an Imperial who just straight up was a trace of Tarkin but it’s some other dude. Just some guy, just so happens to look and dress exactly like Tarkin. I do not understand that artistic choice and it completely ruined the issue for me, it’s so distracting. Otherwise I liked that issue quite a bit, it’s just ruined by that one aspect.

Lowest point is the Jodo Kast issue. I just… don’t care? Jodo Kast as a very concept is an over-complication I don’t need. I feel like I’ll stumble upon many of these as I venture through Legends. Sometimes too many wild, fantastical characters and creatures can detract from what makes others special. I’d have even bought it if Connor Freeman took up the mantle when he heard Fett died, something like that could be neat (obviously that couldn’t happen because one of those characters was invented before the other, I mean only that in hindsight, in a theoretical “second draft”, I could see some of these ideas being funneled into that character instead.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boba Fett: Blood Ties! In Which Boba Fett has to beat up a lot of people and his cousin/son Connor (it’s complicated when half of the people involved are clones; genetically he’s a son but emotionally he’s more like a very weird cousin) has an extremely confusing few months! I have to say, I am a big fan of these recent Boba Fett comics. They’re mostly “Boba Fett has a bad day for your personal amusement” and I am, indeed, amused. This one is actually a compliation of old comics, Legends continuity, probably to capitalize on The Book of Boba Fett.

Anyway, Blood Ties definitely amuses me. Most of it is about Boba Fett either hiding the existence of his family or suddenly acquiring a new family member (Connor, who’s less than thrilled about this). Then a lot of people try to kill Boba and Connor gets dragged back into things kicking and screaming, then has a brief affair with Boba Fett’s ex-wife, which is just extremely confusing for him, extremely hilarious for me, and also solves the mystery of where the fuck did Boba Fett’s daughter come from in the Bounty Hunter’s Handbook. Connor is a delight (why must you do this to him, cousin Boba).

There’s also a couple of unrelated issues. One involves Boba Fett killing someone impersonating him, while Dengar hangs around and is snarky; this one comes with the absolutely amazing revelation that Boba Fett’s name in Dengar’s contact list is “Sarlacc Food.” The other is Boba Fett killing a bunch of Nazis, one of whom has some truly bizarre hair. They’re fine, I guess, but they’re no Connor having the most confusing few months of his life.

[James W. Ware · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comic book club (my pick).

This is how you do Boba Fett: an antihero with a gun, a reputation, and a code. Boba Fett is properly efficient, effective, and deadly in these Legends stories.

The core Blood Ties mini-series are the highlight of this collection. I only wish I had more time with those characters. There are a number of disconnected tales at the end that, while enjoyable in their own right, break the thematic cohesion of this collection. That lack of coherence and the violence of Fett (while appropriate to the character, didn’t resonate with me as a reader) keep this book from 5 stars.

Still, I’m glad I read it and will absolutely revisit it again.

[Robert Noll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boba Fett is a peculiar character. He briefly appeared in "The Empire Strikes Back" with no speaking parts. Since then, he has grown into his own as a character complete with an entire movie.

This collection spans the time from him being mute to the later revelation that Boba is the son of Jango Fett. Jango is the genetic inspiration for the Empire's clone soldiers. The underlying themes are somewhat predictable (don't double-cross Fett; he always gets his man) and there really is no story arc. If you like the character you will find this book to be the sort of book you enjoy.

[Becca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love seeing Boba Fett be cool, and the book has a collection of some pretty awesome artwork. All the different art styles from different time periods give me nostalgia vibes.

Makes me think: “What must it have been like to be into Star Wars and Boba Fett and comics when these issues originally came out? What did people think of Boba Fett before such and such was released?” Things like that. I’m an OG fan but I’m pretty new to the comics so it’s all exciting and fun for me.

[Brandon Nichols · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit all over the place. Interesting to relive some of these stories from the Legends timeline, when Boba Fett was more mysterious and open to the whims of writers outside Disney's scope.

Some of the stories managed to be downright poignant, but all in all, it was a semi-random assortment. Kind of like watching disparate scenes from Clint Eastwood westerns. You get the idea without getting a full story.

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection of Fett stories, I really dislike the art style like a painterly filter over pictures- just looks so off to me. The best story is a throw away shortie about space bugs and ancient jewels. A fun read for Star Wars fans

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of Boba Fett doing Boba Fett things.

[Frank Wu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Various Boba Fett stories from diff comic books. Great stories, excellent visuals, what is not to like?

[Adam Kiewel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great collection, just like the old omnibus. The blood ties line is easily the best part though, the ones after seem to have little connection. Still good stories

[Tasso Kapetopoulos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very rarely read Star Wars however I could not turn down a Boba Fett story. Tom Taylor made a great depiction of Boba Fett by himself and made a story worth reading for any Star Wars fan.

[Brandon Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boba Fett is cool.

[Jason Holtzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good collection! A fairly quick read considering its size, the stories were fun, ranging from heavy character development for Boba from classic bounty hunter tales.

[Matthew Cullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[JW · Rating 3 out of 5]

What the Disney+ miniseries should have been.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection is more hit than miss, one of the stories is absolutely moving, and for all of them the less dialogue the better.