SDCC: Marvel Launches "Star Wars" Comics With Aaron, Cassaday, Waid and More

[Shadowras]

I may give the main series a try.

[Danvidar]

Will probably give the Vader book a try.

[Lady Warp Spasm]

Disappointing. I was hoping Gillen gets Dr. Strange, not some Star Wars book.

Ah well, nice Leia boots in the Cassaday art.

Exactly. That's great news for Gillen, but big time bummer.

I'll pass on all of these, I would have tried the first if Aaron wasn't writing.

[Iggy Langridge]

I am going to be really interested in seeing how this sells for Marvel.

The Dark Horse stuff was widely recognized as some of the best stuff done
with the characters and setting.

This doesn't look to be doing anything that they weren't doing the last time Marvel had the rights.

Well, ICv2 had THE STAR WARS #1 at about 78,000 last September, and I believe Randy Stradley said that was the highest selling Star Wars comic ever at Dark Horse. Brian Wood's STAR WARS did well, too. All of the other Star Wars titles sold in the 20k and lower range throughout the history at Dark Horse.

So THE STAR WARS is the high-water mark at Dark Horse. I'm going to assume Jason Aaron and John Cassaday's STAR WARS will do better than 78,000. I'm guessing it'll do at least 100,000 (and I'll come back to this post when the January 2015 numbers come out). And then it'll of course drop, like all comics do. In all though I don't think any of the new Marvel Star Wars comics will sell as low as Dark Horse's Star Wars comics did, and that's simply because Marvel will cancel it before it gets that low.

And as for what Marvel did last time with Star Wars...

It was good for the industry, wasn't it?: How Star Wars Saved Marvel and the Comic Book Industry

[Likewater]

Well, ICv2 had THE STAR WARS #1 at about 78,000 last September, and I believe Randy Stradley said that was the highest selling Star Wars comic ever at Dark Horse. Brian Wood's STAR WARS did well, too. All of the other Star Wars titles sold in the 20k and lower range throughout the history at Dark Horse.

So THE STAR WARS is the high-water mark at Dark Horse. I'm going to assume Jason Aaron and John Cassaday's STAR WARS will do better than 78,000. I'm guessing it'll do at least 100,000 (and I'll come back to this post when the January 2015 numbers come out). And then it'll of course drop, like all comics do. In all though I don't think any of the new Marvel Star Wars comics will sell as low as Dark Horse's Star Wars comics did, and that's simply because Marvel will cancel it before it gets that low.

And as for what Marvel did last time with Star Wars...

It was good for the industry, wasn't it?: How Star Wars Saved Marvel and the Comic Book Industry

Yeah, Dark Horse actually expanded the Expanded Universe, Marvel expands very little it mostly retreads, from 2005 to now has been a constant nostalgia party.how many incarnations of the O5 X-men, how many bring backs of 70s characters, how many writers trading the same ground with overly established characters. Yes its a new continuity, good luck differentiating it from the old continuity.

Luke Skywalker has a Daughter? as a Hard core fan I say I don't care.

My Question is "Is Luke Skywalkers daughter a reskinned version of Ben Skywalker?" if so you have the same problems.

The Star Wars expanded universe was suffering from sever stagnancy problems especially the novel, The Comic Books kept it fresh by not Following the O3. They Followed the Jedi's progenitors 30,000 yeard Before the battle of Yavin on Tython. They followed the adventure of a No-name Jedi and a Motley crew in Dark times.

That was Darkhorse MO, is basically Peter David everything. They took risks on No names, on Dark ages and ancient past, Future empires a great grand children.

time has moved on, I have moved on from the O3. Anyone else here from theforce.net forums?

[Iggy Langridge]

Yeah, Dark Horse did niche Star Wars and Marvel is going to do mainstream Star Wars.

I'd rather read mainstream Star Wars, but to each his own.

[Stormcrow]

Pretty solid creative teams, really excited to read all of these. I was never interested in the "Expanded Universe" Dark Horse stuff, only recently I enjoyed Briand Wood's book but it lost me after a while, so this is a welcome change for me.

Kinda bummed that the Princess Leia series will be a mini, but it's interesting that it'll be the first of upcoming limited series.

[Zero Hunter]

Why though? You know nothing is ever really going happen in the mainstream books. It is like mainstream super heroes in that nothing ever really changes. In the "niche" books you never knew what was going to happen and that is what made them fun and a hell of a lot more interesting.

That said thing is so few people gave the Dark Horse books a chance because they are not Marvel or DC, and it is sad because they missed out on some truly great books because they would just not venture outside their comfort zones. Of coarse that is the crying shame of 90% of comic fans in that most wouldn't try something new if you gave it too them for free.

[Iggy Langridge]

Why though? You know nothing is ever really going happen in the mainstream books. It is like mainstream super heroes in that nothing ever really changes. In the "niche" books you never knew what was going to happen and that is what made them fun and a hell of a lot more interesting.

That said thing is so few people gave the Dark Horse books a chance because they are not Marvel or DC, and it is sad because they missed out on some truly great books because they would just not venture outside their comfort zones. Of coarse that is the crying shame of 90% of comic fans in that most wouldn't try something new if you gave it too them for free.

It's simple (for me), I simply wasn't interested in reading about great, great grandchildren or whatever. Or what happened thousands of years in the past before "A New Hope." I'm not that interested in niche Star Wars.

I'm a movie purist and not an EU fan, so none of the novels and Dark Horse comics (aside from J.W. Rinzler's THE STAR WARS) were of interest to me because none of it counted, so it was all an easy pass.

Basically what I want in Star Wars comics is to mark time between the movies (and have nice art). So pretty much what Marvel is going to give us. And I leave it to the movies for the "real" Star Wars, for lack of a better description. And since Disney is going to give us plenty of movies I'm more than content with the Marvel Star Wars comics playing it safe between the movies.

That being said, since everything is now canon, anything Marvel does going forward is fine by me. And yes, I am playing favorites with Marvel and that's because their Star Wars comics are the Star Wars comics I grew up with.

As far as comfort zones go: yeah, I don't read any Marvel or DC comics. I have a list of seven or eight current and upcoming creator-owned science fiction comics from Image that I read and where I have no idea what's going to happen, and so those are/will be fun and interesting, so I'm good on that count.

[Hypestyle]

... so where can you pitch your own mini-series or one-shot?

... what about all the years of Dark Horse TPBs? Do they just vanish?

[StoneGold]

... so where can you pitch your own mini-series or one-shot?

... what about all the years of Dark Horse TPBs? Do they just vanish?

You can't. But then, you never really could.

And yes, probably.

[StoneGold]

So the most interesting thing here, not so much the books, or the teams themselves, so much as just how Marvel Comics the teams are. This doesn't have the usual feel of licensed books. Any of these teams could be the next creative team on Avengers, or Fantastic Four, or whatever.

[Iggy Langridge]

Here's to hoping that when they get to post-Episode VII stuff that they'll continue to use top talent.

(...still amazed at who they got for STAR WARS and the other series...)

[a moment closer]

I'm excited by the talent put on these titles but it's not enough for me to buy. Like many, I'm over the O3 and want comics focused on the EU I've been reading about in the novels. Give me a book during "The Clone Wars" era or during the "Dark Nest Trilogy" or some other time period that would be interesting to flesh out. I will wait to see if Marvel puts out some different stuff after EpVII makes it to theaters. Obviously, if a title is great I will buy the tpb but I doubt that will be true of this first line-up from Marvel.

[RobinFan4880]

The problem with the books and comics that follow the core group of 6 heroes is that a) we already know where they end up and b) because the movies have long since been finished, we know nothing that happens to those characters will ever truly matter in the slightest. The comics/books are just a means to sell nostalgia to you. That is their entire purpose in being.

I am all for nostalgia but the market should be large enough to support both it AND niche books. This was true of Dark Horse and, eventually, it will be true of Marvel's line. Right now, Disney needs to establish the new official canon, so they are going to use and abuse Marvel create massive swathes of the canon that exists betwixt the films. If the Story Group were smart, they would use these foundational comics to seed the universe with lots of characters who will pop up in the post-RotJ era, be they for the movies or the books and comics.

People often view the more niche Star Wars comics as failures because they did not sell like mainstream comics but, as Robert Kirkman pointed out in a CBR video, indy comics do not need to sell as much as the Big Two. If you are selling between 15 and 20k a month, then you are going to be doing fine, especially once your factor in trade sales. Virtually every fan of the Star Wars comics I know did not buy them in floppy form but rather waited for the trades. With the exception of Star Wars: Legacy II, I was the same way. Trades are the superior medium for reading longer form stories, which almost all of the DH comics were. Amazing Spider-Man may have sold 500-600 thousand issues but how many of those were really being purchased? My local comic shop has so many left over that they are selling them for half-off now. To me, that implies that ASM was wildly over sold. Compare that with DH Star Wars comics where only an issue or two are left for the back catalog and it is easy to see which numbers are more realistic and indicative of the true number of people interested in the comics.

I'm excited by the talent put on these titles but it's not enough for me to buy. Like many, I'm over the O3 and want comics focused on the EU I've been reading about in the novels. Give me a book during "The Clone Wars" era or during the "Dark Nest Trilogy" or some other time period that would be interesting to flesh out. I will wait to see if Marvel puts out some different stuff after EpVII makes it to theaters. Obviously, if a title is great I will buy the tpb but I doubt that will be true of this first line-up from Marvel.

All EU canon has been wiped clean. The only pieces of Star Wars that are canon now are the six films, the Clone Wars TV show, Star Wars: Rebels and any comic or novel released from September onwards, starting with the release of A New Dawn (a prequel to Rebels).