Star Wars Celebration Anaheim: Marvel and the Future of Star Wars Comics.
Marvel Comics held the Star Wars license for a little over a decade before selling the license to Dark Horse Comics, but they bought it back in 2015 to usher in the new age of Star Wars canon. Today, many of Marvel’s most talented discuss the four comic series that have hit the market (Star Wars, Darth Vader, Princess Leia, and Kanan) – plus, get a look at two new announcements about future comics that you won’t want to miss.
The panel opened up with a little bit of discussion about how the first issue of Star Wars is the highest-selling comic in the past 25 years. Discussion then went on to explain how Luke’s doubts as a Jedi will drive the first arc while Han and Leia will have an adventure on their own. While Luke is learning of the ways of the Jedi, he is hunted down by Boba Fett. Issue #7 will be a self-contained story about how Obi-Wan survived on Tatooine while guarding Luke.
Darth Vader became the key focus after this, following the Sith Lord’s fall from favor with Emperor Palpatine after the Death Star’s destruction. Darth Vader challenges two Jedi and eventually meets back with the Emperor himself. Princess Leia was the next subject, explaining how she saved surviving Alderaanians from the Empire, and confirming the ending to the miniseries. Finally, Kanan was discussed, with the focus set on the character’s origin. It was announced that Greg Weisman would be writing the second arc of that series in addition to the first.
The new series were the next things to be brought up. Lando is the second miniseries that Marvel is going to work on. Set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, it deals with a caper that Lando and Lobot go on with an important ship. Shattered Empire, an event series, is going to fill in the gaps between Return Of The Jedi and The Force Awakens.
After the announcements, a Q&A session was held. The writers expressed interest in crossing the ‘murder-bots’ from the Darth Vader comic with R2-D2 and C3PO. Getting the dialogue right was also crucial to the writers. Covering ground in regards to the era between The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi is slated to happen eventually, but the writers want to be able to use Han in several stories. Other eras will also be brought into the fray as time goes on. There will not be an adaptation of The Force Awakens released before the movie is released. They also said that they have a long plan for comics, with many series being planned a year in advance. Lastly, they got to my own question – if they would be interested in telling untold stories from The Clone Wars in the comic series, to which they replied that they would do them if Lucasfilm gave them the approval and the stories fit the medium.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
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ah Shattered Empire… now -that- is a Star Wars comic I definitely want to pick up
When exactly is Shattered Empire and Aftermath coming out?
Aftermath is in September. IDK about SE
Cool. I want to see Luke being hunted by fett and shattered empire.