Star Wars Comes Home To Marvel Panel Highlights
By Elaine Tveit
The excitement never stops at Star Wars Celebration! Earlier this afternoon, Marvel’s executive editor, C.B. Cebulski, Marvel editor Jordan B. White, and Del Rey Publishing editor, Jennifer Heddle, held a Star Wars Comes Home To Marvel panel to discuss the new Star Wars comics and reveal some interesting hints for the future. Here are some of the highlights:
First, some news that makes me just a little excited: issue #7 of the first of the new Marvel series, simply entitled Star Wars, will be a standalone issue centered on Obi Wan Kenobi during his exile on Tatooine (FANGIRL FLAIL)! The issue will be drawn by Simone Bianchi. Though it’s not as good as, say, an entire series featuring the Jedi Master, this is definitely better than nothing.
The following issue in the Star Wars series will see the entrance of a new artist: Stuart Immonen. The current artist, John Cassaday, though leaving this first series will likely be returning to the galaxy far, far away at some point in the future.
The second arc of Kanan: The Last Padawan by Greg Weisman will also be written by Weisman. This comes as good news, as fans have been very pleased with the series (and there’s only one issue out so far!).
After the Princess Leia five-issue miniseries comes to a close in a few months, the character to be featured in the next miniseries will be none other than Lando Calrissian! Lando #1 by Charles Soule and Alex Maleev will debut in July, and according to the official announcement on the Star Wars website, the comic “finds Lando embarking on his greatest caper ever” (cover at right illustrated by Lenil Francis Yu).
"“Before Cloud City, before his glorious Death Star run,” continues Soule, “Lando Calrissian was just a man trying to make his way through an uncaring universe determined not to recognize that he was undeniably the coolest man in the galaxy. But Lando’s got a plan to change all that… and it starts with the deal of a lifetime.”"
The panel also revealed that Lobot from The Empire Strikes Back will be joining Lando in the series, that there will be a lot of new characters, and that the series itself will take place between the events of episodes IV and V.
It was confirmed that the first Journey to The Force Awakens comic series, Shattered Empire, will be created by Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto.
Also confirmed was the release of more than 500 classic Star Wars Legend comics on the Marvel Unlimited digital app. That number includes, obviously, both Marvel and Dark Horse Star Wars comics.
However, don’t expect to see a comic adaptation of The Force Awakens anytime soon. From the liveblog: “Marvel doesn’t do adaptations of their films at the time of release.”
As to any future adaptations of cancelled The Clone Wars scripts, Heddle says, “That’s always on the table.” Also, eventually, stories will be told from the interim era between Episodes V and VI.
All of these stories, whether they’re being done by Marvel or Del Rey or a totally different group, are guided by the story group. Heddle herself acts as a sort of liaison between Marvel and the Story Group, currently. So there’s not much of a chance of anything non-canon slipping through the cracks, so to speak.
Some last good news: Princess Leia was the highest-selling Star Wars comic of March! That’s may be a good omen for future features on the heroine of the original trilogy (as well as for other female characters).
So that’s it for now from Marvel. Lots of exciting new developments are taking place, and this unified canon is shaping up to be a true success! Stay tuned for more announcements as we get closer to finishing up some of the current series’ arcs!