How Should Marvel Continue To Expand Their Star Wars Universe?

[robreedwrites]

Lando is getting a mini series after the Leia one apparently.

Ah, cool.

Is it wrong of me to want Shadows of the Empire (the novel) to be reestablished as canon? That was my first foray into the EU, and it remains dear to my heart and how I view the gap between 5 and 6.

[Minerboh]

How about a bridge series that exploits the events that take place between Episode 6 and thenew one?

[resipsaloquitur]

OK, a lot of the suggestions that have come up here were already done by Dark Horse. Yeah, I know we'll fall back on "Dark Horse is dead," but it's still a little frustrating to see things like "Star Wars What If...?" or "Origin of the Jedi" when those were all done in the last decade.

I'll suggest this: doing stories about the established characters from the movies is very low-risk, because at least as far as ROTJ, we know how those characters turn out. These stories are "safe." Marvel Star Wars #1 ended with a confrontation between Luke and Vader, but despite the tension, we knew how that story would turn out. Luke would get away, and they wouldn't have their real big moment until Episode V. You can't do much with characters when you know how their story will turn out.

If Marvel wants the freedom to do good stories, they need to introduce new characters who are independent of the film cast. Here, risk can be a lot higher--they'll be free to kill those characters, or at least take chances with them that they can't with the film characters. Dark Horse (sorry, I need to go there) did this all the time be introducing EU characters who had stories running parallel to the films. For example, Quinlan Vos proved to be pretty popular--he was another Jedi with some personal problems, but was sent to spy on Dooku because his inner darkness made him a better spy than most Jedi. For three years, readers had to deal with the tension of whether Vos would also go to the dark side and where his ultimate story would end up.

The risk, of course, is that these characters won't be as interesting to a broad audience and won't sell as well as Luke and the others. Another Dark Horse series was "Agent of the Empire," a sort of James Bond spy story about an Imperial agent. It was a good story and a lot of fun, but it wasn't a big commercial draw and only lasted for two five-issue miniseries. I guess they're doing that with the upcoming Kannan series, but that has the backing of being tied to Rebels, which is the only Star Wars in town until Episode VII is released.

Fandom will have to decide if it's willing to step outside the world of the films and make something more interesting. The old EU had its following and it was successful enough, but that didn't always carry over in the comics for some reason.

[Arundel Armor Hunter]

Lando is getting a mini series after the Leia one apparently. But I reckon that a series exploring the period between ROTJ and TFA is a certainty. That and I would like them to do a series set in the Clone Wars - I know that the prequels aren't as popular as the original films but it's still a great period to have stories centred around.

Source?

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[Taral-DLOS]

I'd like an ongoing that is set between Episodes VII and VIII. Essentially, I'd like them to do the same thing they did in the 70s; a new Star Wars ongoing that starts with a six-issue adaptation of Episode VII, and then continues on into new territory. Then have a tie-in to Episode VIII and again to Episode IX.

This ongoing would focus mostly on the new characters, paying mere lip service to OT characters.

This may be a fun opportunity to re-tell some Dark Horse/Del Rey EU stories with the new status quo. I'm thinking of the early issues of IDW's current Star Trek Ongoing, where they re-told some stories from original Star Trek episodes (like The Galileo Seven, Where No Man Has Gone Before, and Operation: Annihilate) using the new ship and crew. You could do that with some general, low-impact stories derived from old EU material. Nothing so grand as a Yuuzhan Vong invasion, but maybe finding relics from the Sith Empire (of SWTOR) or meeting characters like Lumiya or Thrawn or Pellaeon.

[Arundel Armor Hunter]

I would still prefer if they would try to create original stories. Especially in in new eras.

[Darkspellmaster]

As someone stated the trouble is that Lucas film still calls the shots and they are very picky about what is told and what isn't. The Clone wars was hands off for years because of the Prequels, even when they weren't even on the table for conceptualization. Marvels best bet for expansion is to 1. Bring in old characters from the EU that are okay to bring in (Mara Jade for example and Thrawn), 2. Use these characters to show what's going on around the rest of the galaxy. Hopefully by doing so they can grow the worlds again.

Personally I'd love a Mara Jade story as she was very interesting or Vader meeting Thrawn.

[Lady Warp Spasm]

Please no MU crossovers.

Ahem, I'd like to see:

A title focusing on the new characters, Rey, Finn and Poe. And a separate title about the villains.

A title focusing on what Luke has been up to post RoTJ (if you believe the rumor mill from makingstarwars.net), there's room for a lot of blanks to be filled in.

They could do an all ages book featuring the new droid, BB-8 if they wanted to.

And why not have ongoing about Princess Leia?

Basically, anything besides continuously playing it safe.

[Arundel Armor Hunter]

As someone stated the trouble is that Lucas film still calls the shots and they are very picky about what is told and what isn't. The Clone wars was hands off for years because of the Prequels, even when they weren't even on the table for conceptualization. Marvels best bet for expansion is to 1. Bring in old characters from the EU that are okay to bring in (Mara Jade for example and Thrawn), 2. Use these characters to show what's going on around the rest of the galaxy. Hopefully by doing so they can grow the worlds again.

Personally I'd love a Mara Jade story as she was very interesting or Vader meeting Thrawn.

So why were they deleted from the canon in the first place if you just bring them back?

[JLS Comics]

Sith Lord Thanos?

Or what if the Deathstar became Battleworld

[Derek Metaltron]

Source?

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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/01/...el-on-the-way/

Technically it's more of a rumour but it seems legit and logical enough.

I think Mara Jade is sadly one of the characters likely to be expelled from canon by Marvel, otherwise even if she was dead Disney and Marvel would have to explain who she was and how she was married to Luke for some years, something Disney might not wish to be 'burdened' with. It's a crying shame since she was pretty much the first major female character developed outside Leia, but that's my feelings on the matter.

[Marvell2100]

Please no MU crossovers.

Ahem, I'd like to see:

A title focusing on the new characters, Rey, Finn and Poe. And a separate title about the villains.

A title focusing on what Luke has been up to post RoTJ (if you believe the rumor mill from makingstarwars.net), there's room for a lot of blanks to be filled in.

They could do an all ages book featuring the new droid, BB-8 if they wanted to.

And why not have ongoing about Princess Leia?

Basically, anything besides continuously playing it safe.

A Leia solo about her years prior to A New Hope would be pretty good.

[ifleninwasawizard]

The two main series, Star Wars and Darth Vader, are probably going to be set in stone for a while. The revolving door of mini's is also a sure bet.

The big question mark right now is how the Kanan series will work out. It's set about 15 years before Rebels and begins during the events of RotS. As the series moves forward into the Dark Times I think there will be a lot of creative freedom for whoever works on it (we still don't know who will write after Greg Weisman). I doubt Disney is putting any of its big properties close to the time period of the prequels. So comics and novels set in that period won't have to trod as carefully as they will in other points in the timeline.

However, if the Kanan series doesn't work out I really have no idea what they'll do with the 3rd slot for an ongoing series. I doubt they'll put anything around TFA.

[ShadowSwordmaster]

I would like to see some stuff in the Old Republic Era or some bounty hunters/smugglers.

[Marvell2100]

The next step in the evolution of the M-SWU!

The Force Awakens

Pretty exciting!