If you’ve ever seen Boba Fett in that slick, all-black “gladiator” look and wondered what the deal was, it isn’t a random alt-costume or a toy-only design. It comes straight out of Marvel’s canon comic event Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters, starting with the prelude one-shot War of the Bounty Hunters Alpha #1 (the story inside it is titled “Precious Cargo”).
Why Boba Painted His Armor Black
On the trip to deliver Han to Jabba, Fett runs into a problem with the carbonite. Whatever the exact mechanics, it becomes a real risk: if Han’s slab doesn’t hold, the job collapses—Han could be ruined, and Fett shows up to Jabba with an expensive failure instead of a prize. So Fett needs the carbonite stabilized fast, and he needs Han to stay alive, because that’s what Jabba is paying for.
So Fett detours to Nar Shaddaa to get help stabilizing the carbonite. There, he meets an alien carbon-freeze specialist named Doc Ragon, who can fix the problem—but only if Fett pays first. Fett tries to negotiate, telling Doc Ragon he doesn’t have credits at the moment. He asks Ragon to fix it now, and promises that after he delivers Han to Jabba, he’ll come back and pay double.
Ragon does offer an alternative. There’s money in the Garkata arena, and there’s a specific problem he wants removed: Wyrmen Lictor, the champion. Fett doesn’t like it. Lictor isn’t just some random target—she’s protected, and Fett already has enough enemies without dragging a crime family into his day. But he also doesn’t have the luxury of walking away, not with Han’s slab failing and no one else on Nar Shaddaa able to fix it fast.
So Fett takes the deal, but he doesn’t walk into the arena looking like Boba Fett. He changes his identity and his look by repainting his armor completely black, and he even signs up to fight under the name “Jango.”
The Nar Shaddaa Job That Forced the Disguise
Fett goes through with the arena deal. He enters the Garkata fighting pit under the name “Jango,” fights his way through, and gets the credits he needs to pay Doc Ragon for the repair.
But when Fett returns to Ragon’s place with the money, the situation has already flipped. Ragon is dead, and Han Solo’s carbonite containment unit is gone. Someone hit the location while Fett was in the arena and walked off with the prize.