STAR WARS: MARA JADE – BY THE EMPEROR’S HAND #3

Cover shows sharp corners and strong color with no visible creases or spine stress; a small area of surface texture/rubbing is visible along the right edge near the top gutter that could indicate light handling wear. The barcode area shows 'DIRECT SALES' text confirming direct edition. No tears, stains, or writing are visible on the front cover. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed, so grade is based solely on this front-cover photo.

Star Wars: Mara Jade – By the Emperor's Hand ran six issues from Dark Horse across 1998 and 1999, co-written by Timothy Zahn, who created Mara Jade in the 1991 novel Heir to the Empire, and Michael A. Stackpole of X-Wing: Rogue Squadron. Carlos Ezquerra, best known for Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog, handled interior art, with Kilian Plunkett supplying covers and James Sinclair coloring. The third chapter continues the assassin's post-Endor mission against the Black Nebula syndicate and folds in Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, Ysanne Isard, and Luke Skywalker, making it one of the more substantial Expanded Universe treatments of the character before the Legends line was set aside.

Market behavior for this run is concentrated almost entirely on the first issue and on the 1999 collected edition; middle chapters, including this one, move as ordinary late-1990s Dark Horse back issues. Print runs were healthy for the period and copies remain readily available in high grade from dealer stock, which caps raw pricing regardless of the character's following. Certified copies are the exception: the CGC census for mid-run issues of this title is thin, so a 9.8 trades less on comparables than on scarcity of slabbed examples and on Mara Jade's steady popularity with Expanded Universe collectors, a demand base that firmed when the character re-entered wider conversation through recent Star Wars screen projects.

Buyers divide cleanly. Run collectors and Legends readers pursue raw copies to complete the six-issue set and are largely indifferent to grade above VF, so low-grade and mid-grade copies function as reading and gap-filling material with little spread between them. Character specialists and registry builders account for essentially all certified demand, and because so few copies have been submitted, a 9.8 can carry a multiple over raw that the underlying issue would not otherwise justify. Sellers should expect patient timelines on slabbed material and quick, low-margin turnover on raw copies, with the first issue continuing to absorb most of the title's attention and pricing power.