At the end of Star Wars: A New Hope, the medal ceremony on Yavin IV celebrated the valor of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca during the Rebellion's battle against the Empire's Death Star. Yet for some reason, we never saw Chewie rewarded with a medal of his own, which sparked decades of debate since the supposed slight. As it turns out, he was in fact rewarded a medal, he just doesn't seem to keen on wearing it.
According to a review of the new issue of Chewbacca's comic series, provided by io9, our dear Wookiee friend was awarded a medal after the Battle of Yavin. A medal he consciously doesn't wear, and actually gives away in the middle of the latest issue of his comic exploits. Apparently, the decorative reward doesn't match the bad-assed nature of Han Solo's first mate, so he has no problem parting with it in order to make someone smile. That someone is Chewie's latest partner in crime, a child by the name of Zarro.
With the gap between Return Of The Jedi and The Force Awakens spanning 30 untold years, it's up to various degrees of tie-in media to fill the gaps. So far, the Marvel Comics end of the universe seems to be the most fulfilling, as they've covered various goings on in that galaxy far, far away in such titles as Shattered Empire and the C-3PO one-off. Not content with filling in the "future" of the original trilogy's universe, it's nice to see that titles like Darth Vader have picked up the slack – giving us some more background into just what made his reign of terror so bad-assed.
To finally see proof that Chewbacca wasn't cheated out of the rightful glory that the Star Wars universe deserved to give him is well worth the decades long wait. With A New Hope celebrating its 40 year milestone in 2017, it's about time that Chewie was confirmed not to have been skipped over in the moments following one of his greatest triumphs. Though it does make a lot of sense that he wouldn't be boasting his riches all over the galaxy, as he's always seemed to be a level headed fellow when it comes to fortune and glory. Except, of course, when it comes to Holochess.
With the Star Wars galaxy growing by leaps and bounds, there's undoubtedly going to be some choice reveals and surprises ahead for our heroes and their backstories. Surprisingly enough, it looks like that despite the discarding of the Expanded Universe canon, there's enough angles to cover that haven't been covered before. Chewbacca's backstory is one of those angles that could use some filling in, and if this is any indication, it'll be interesting to see how the comics will undo the damage that is the Star Wars Holiday Special.
