Friday, October 11, 2019

Star Wars #1... Again


The comic “Star Wars #1” comes out in January… again. By this I mean this is the 5th comic in history to launch under the title “Star Wars #1”.

The first “Star Wars #1” was launched by Marvel in April of 1977, preceding the first Star Wars film by one month. For the first six issues, the storyline followed the script of the first Star Wars film, but stuff got weird after that- Giant green anthropomorphic space rabbits weird. Still, the comic was successful for a long time. It ran 107 issues and Marvel even published a follow-up “Star Wars #108” in the Spring of 2019.

The second “Star Wars #1” was published in 1998, in the months before “The Phantom Menace” released. By this point licensing for Star Wars comics had been transferred to Dark Horse, and even though they had been publishing Star Wars comics since 1991, Dark Horse had never launched a “main title” Star Wars line. This comic ran monthly for 83 issues until it was eventually relaunched under the title “Dark Times”.


The third “Star Wars” title was a weird one. It launched in the months after Lucas had sold his franchise to Disney and the writing was already on the wall: Disney was going to give the comic licensing rights back to Marvel (which they own). Dark Horse launched a few different titles in the months before publishing rights expired. They contracted comic veteran Brian Wood to pen “Star Wars #1” and 19 further issues. The storyline focussed on Luke, Leia, and Han’s adventures immediately following the Battle of Yavin (which is also what the same timeframe as the first “Star Wars #1” and the fourth “Star Wars #1)

The fourth “Star Wars #1” was launched shortly after the licensing rights had been transferred back to Marvel. This series tied directly into the new Disney universe canon and all previous Star Wars comics were moved to the “Legends” canonicity. Just as the first “Star Wars” comic line ran concurrent with the Original Trilogy, and the second “Star Wars” comic line ran concurrent with the Prequel Trilogy, this “Star Wars” comic line ran concurrent with the sequel trilogy. Marvel set to publish the final issue of this series on November 20th, one month before Episode IX “The Rise of Skywalker”. This series was set in the three years between “A New Hope” and “The Empire Strikes Back”

The fifth “Star Wars #1” takes place in the aftermath of “The Empire Strikes Back”, a time period not often dealt with in Star Wars lore. Although the 1970s / 1980s Star Wars comic dealt with “Empire Strikes Back” aftermath for 3 years before “Return of the Jedi” came out and the 1990s “Shadows of the Empire” media event also was set during this era. The series will be penned by Charles Soule, who has become a favorite writer of mine after having reading his various Star Wars comics and his science-fiction-politics series “Letter 44”.

Another comic announced to launch in early 2020 is “Darth Vader #1” written by Greg Pak. This is Marvel’s fifth Darth Vader series in just the last five years. Vader, to his credit, clearly has the capacity to sell comics.

With Marvel’s main “Star Wars” line coming to a close, the company is also ending “Doctor Aphra” which ran for 40 issues and continued a storyline which started with Kieron Gillen's Vader series. Chelli Lona Aphra is probably the most popular character that has ever originated in a Star Wars comic- highlighted by the fact that her series ran 40 issues.


Other long-running Star Wars titles include the Dark Horse titles “Legacy” and “Knights of the Old Republic”. Both of these comics enjoyed a 50-issue run and both also had a short follow-up mini-series which included the prefix “War”.



As we move beyond “The Rise of Skywalker” it will be interesting to keep following Marvel’s Star Wars lines. Will they continue to churn out series after series devoted to the “Classic” era? Or will we get some sequel or prequel era stuff as well?



Dark Horse Comics
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Link)

Dawn of the Jedi  Dawn of the Jedi

Tales of the Jedi Tales of the Jedi

Knights of the Old Republic Knights of the Old Republic

Star Wars: Republic Star Wars: Republic
Dark Times Dark Times
Empire & Rebellion Star Wars: Empire & Star Wars: Rebellion
Brian Wood's Star Wars Brian Wood's Star Wars
Dark Empire Dark Empire
Crimson Empire Crimson Empire
Invasion Invasion
Legacy Vol. 1 Star Wars: Legacy
Vector Star Wars: Vector
Legacy Vol. 2 Legacy Volume 2
Infinities Infinities
The Star Wars The Star Wars

Star Wars Tales Star Wars Tales

Marvel Comics

Original Marvel Comics Original Marvel Comics
Star Wars #108 Star Wars #108
Alan Moore's Star Wars Comics Alan Moore's Star Wars Comics

Han Solos Vs. Space Crocodile Han Solo vs. Crocodile in Space

Marvel's New Star Wars Line Catching Up With Comics

Age of Republic Age of Republic
Age of Rebellion Age of Rebellion
Age of Resistance Age of Resistance

Star Wars #1... Again Star Wars #1... Again
Ewoks in Comics Ewoks in Comis
Who is Doctor Aphra Who Is Doctor Aphra

The Last Jedi Expanded Universe The Last Jedi Expanded Universe
Who is Jaxxon Who Is Jaxxon

IDW Comics
Tales from Vader's Castle Tales from Vader's Castle

Return to Vader's Caslte Return to Vader's Castle


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