Episode 7 would be a blockbuster without marvel. The comic readers are a drop in the bucket to star wars fans. If anything star wars has helped marvel in ways marvel could never help Star Wars. The comic sales are not lucasfilms and Disney's main focus. They get their money from movie sales and merchandise
It's worth noting that the book publishers (Del Rey and Bantam) and Dark Horse kept Star Wars hype going during the "dark years" where no new Star Wars stuff was being produced. Between 1983 and 1999, there were no Star Wars films--just a few Ewoks television movies and that's it. The Heir to the Empire novels revitalized fandom's faith in good extra-cinematic Star Wars material, and Dark Horse carried the torch for the comics. (Yeah, fandom is split over whether Dark Empire was any good, what with everything being green and Palpatine coming back. It happened.) Also, Del Rey and Dark Horse kept Star Wars going between and after the prequel films. From 2005 (Episode III) to 2008 (launch of the Clone Wars CGI cartoon), again, the comics and books were pretty much your lone source of new material.
(Oh, and the video games. Anyway.)
Point is, Marvel isn't "saving" Star Wars--they're just filling the same role DH did for 20 years.
I agree that the comics and books keep fans with material but when episode 1 was released and the same with VII the audience would have been there with or without books and comics. It's freaking Star Wars
Doubtful at best if Marvel helped save Star Wars. Comicbooks indeed don't have that kind of power.
Now, did Star Wars help save Marvel?
Jim Shooter says "Absofragginglutely" (or words to that effect).
http://io9.com/5840578/how-star-wars...-book-industry
Exactly there is a reason Disney bought lucasflims for the sum of 4 billion and it wasn't to make comics. Star Wars has not needed saving since 1976 when Fox didn't believe in it and Lucas made his historic rights and merchandise deal. Don't get me wrong I love marvel comics but Star Wars is in a league of its own
Marvel had nothing to do with Star Wars being "saved". Star Wars didn't need saving, it was and is a thriving property. There has been a TV show on air continuously since 2008. Dark Horse was producing 3 to 5 issues of Star Wars comics a month for almost two decades. Between 2003 and 2011, Star Wars had at least 1 video game published a year. Star Wars Roleplaying games have been in almost continuous production from 1987 to today. Between 1992 and today, Star Wars averaged something like 7 or 8 novels a year.
Seriously, Star Wars was doing just fine before Marvel.
It sold 352,847 units. No where near what Star Wars #1 did.
Unquestioningly, Star Wars was a greater boon to Marvel than vice versa. Even if, after the buzz of the film dies down a bit, Marvel can maintain the numbers Dark Horse was getting on their last Star Wars comic set in the rebellion era (40-50k), it would still be a big win for Marvel. The fact that Star Wars and Vader are both over double those numbers right now means Marvel is sitting pretty.
Last edited by RobinFan4880; 08-12-2015 at 02:50 PM.
Welcome to New History, brought to you by Disney and Marvel. Everything that came before the buyout (including the prequels, apparently) is now considered null, void, and mediocre. The media and marketing has been pushing this angle (Star Wars is finally great again!) and the people believe it, because they weren't following the EU franchise in the years up to the present.
I personally think there was nothing mediocre about Dark Horse's SW books, and I already prefer their approach to Marvel's.
Pretty positive by 100 percent the prequels are still canon along with clone wars
Off the top of my head, the products that are canon right now are...
Movies
- The Phantom Menace
- Attack of the Clones
- Revenge of the Sith
- A New Hope
- The Empire Strikes Back
- Return of the Jedi
- The Clone Wars (movie)
TV
- The Clone Wars (CGI TV series)
- Rebels
- Crystal Crisis on Utapau (A Clone Wars story arc that was not finished before the show ended)
- Bad Batch (A Clone Wars story arc that was not finished before the show ended)
Books
- A New Dawn (book)
- Tarkin (book)
- Heir to the Jedi (book)
- Lords of the Sith (book)
- Dark Disciple (book)
Comics
- Star Wars (comic)
- Darth Vader (comic)
- Leia (comic)
- Lando (comic)
- Kanan (comic)
- Darth Maul - Son of Dathomir (comic)
It did not need Marvel's help for sure but the quality of the comics is much better than the Dark Horse series in my opinion. I'm reading Star Wars, Darth Vader and Lando at the moment. It feel "real" - I really like it.
Saving is not the word I would use here. More like assisting in getting fans who didn't read the books from Del Ray and comics from Dark Horse, psyched. However while I respect Marvel's writing, I still like the way that Dark Horse dealt with the stories and the art from them. Tag and Bink should remain cannon as it's one of the funnier Star wars books out there. I really want Mara Jade to still be in cannon as she's one of the break outs and it's hard to see Luke without her.
As for Kylo Ren, he's going to have to beat out Maul, Revan and well Grand Admiral Thrawn, if he wants the top seat after Vader.