WAMPA! #5 - Boba Fett

     Hey all, I am finally getting a chance to run the next post of Wampa!  This week I am going to get a bit of help from my favorite site....www.starwars.com.  I first am going to recount what I remember reading and hearing as I was growing up following the coolest and most collected bad guy in the Star Wars Universe, next to Darth Vader that is.

     Boba Fett.  He is going to be the topic of this week's post.  I remember when I saw him for the first time in Empire, nothing was written about him.  He was very mysterious, and actually it was about 5 to 7 years before he even had any other name than Boba Fett.  He was known at one time as Jaster Mereel, but this was not his name originally.  This was the name of a former Journeyman Protector of Concord Dawn.  Jaster was associated and hailed from Mandalore, a planet in the Outer Rim Territory.

     Jaster took Boba under his tutelage after his father Jango was killed by Master Jedi Mace Windu.  Jaster watched and trained Young Boba until Jaster was killed by Vizsla of the Mandalorian Death Watch.  Years before, Boba Fett was the unaltered, pure clone of one Jango Fett, a "Mercenary-for-Hire" also form the planet Mandalore.  Jango requested that an unaltered clone be made and named Boba to carry on the Mandalorian legacy.

     The first part is history that I remember, and the latter with Boba having his own name and a father that he was cloned from was added to the canon material of the Star Wars Universe by Lucas.  While both are interesting, I still like his shadowy past more than anything.  It doesn't detract from the character in any way, IMHO.  I am going to give a brief snippet of what www.starwars.com has in their Data Bank:

    Many legends propagate as to the origins of Boba Fett perhaps by design, since the uncertainty derived from a corrupted backstory of half-truths only adds to his mysterious and deadly aura. One tale tells of Fett being a failed stormtrooper who killed his commanding officer. Another has him being the commanding officer of a fabled group of warriors from Mandalore decimated by the Jedi Knights. A third account tells of a Journeyman Protector from Concord Dawn named Jaster Mereel who adopted the mask and guise when he was convicted of treason.

    Fett has kept his early, vulnerable years private. The times he spent playing with his toys in a sparsely furnished Kamino apartment, his guardians Taun We and MU-12, the quiet moments he would share with his father catching rollerfish -- all quiet memories buried under a hard callous of vengeful thoughts and malice.

    After Jango's death, Boba picked up the pieces of his shattered life with the help of his "black book," an encoded message unit written by Jango with instructions for survival should Boba ever find he alone. After the Battle of Geonosis, Boba quietly buried his father's body and marked the grave with a simple "J.F." He sought out his father's benefactor, Darth Tyranus, who had the remainder of Jango's stipend.

    Among the first records of Fett's activities were during the early years of the Empire. Fett was hired by the gangster Sise Fromm to dispose of young speeder pilot Thall Joben and his friends. Though the Fromms were enemies of the Jabba the Hutt, Fett's sometime employer -- the hunter took the contract to square off a favor he owed Fromm.