We Now Know What Happened To Luke's Lightsaber

One Star Wars mystery has been solved, only for another to take its place.

The second issue of Marvel Comics' Star Wars series has answered a nagging question in the minds of fans: how the heck did Luke Skywalker's lightsaber not disappear forever after tumbling into the abyss on Cloud City? The answer, while intriguing, presents yet another enigma.

As a brief refresher, Luke's original saber — the blue one — was in his right hand when that hand was severed by Darth Vader during the pair's confrontation in The Empire Strikes Back. When we last saw the weapon, it was falling toward the core of the gas giant Bespin, where Cloud City is located — and knowing what we know of that planet, it was going to be doing that for a very, very long time.

As Star Wars #2 revealed, however, fate intervened — or rather, a mysterious, hooded figure did, catching the saber before it could spend a day and a half or so plummeting to the planet's core. Check out this awesome panel:

Jesus Saiz/Marvel Comics

Okay, we don't know who in the heck that could be, or what he or she was doing in the area while Vader and Luke were having their epic confrontation. Perhaps they were just watching and placing their bet as to who was going to win, but we don't see any popcorn in that panel.

Taking a close look, however, there appears to be something of an ethereal blue glow emanating from the figure. It could just be a product of the lighting in that ventilation shaft — or, it could be that whoever this is, they're not exactly physically present.

That bluish glow may, in fact, be an indication that this figure is a Force ghost. We've seen in the Star Wars sequel trilogy that they are capable of interacting with objects, and it's not outside the realm of possibility that this particular Force ghost was moved to do so due to the importance of that particular object.

It's also worth noting that, while the face is obviously obscured, the dress bears a great deal of resemblance to your standard Jedi robes — specifically, those worn by Obi-Wan Kenobi, whose Force ghost instructed Luke to go to the Dagobah system to receive instruction from Yoda earlier in The Empire Strikes Back. He was also a guy who was endlessly encouraging Luke to follow his destiny, so we'll go out on a limb to opine that "follow your destiny" kind of sounds like something he would say.

Even if we're right about this, and we think we are, it still fails to address the question of just how in the heck Maz Kanata came into possession of the lightsaber so that she could pass it on to Rey during the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It's a question that Marvel's Star Wars series will probably answer sooner rather than later, though — and this mystery Jedi/maybe-Force-ghost probably won't remain hidden from Luke for much longer.

Marvel's Star Wars #3 goes on sale on February 26, 2020.