Suvudu Universe

The future of Star Wars just got even more mysterious…

StarWars.com has announced:

“Dark Horse Comics published exceptional Star Wars comics for over 20 years, and we will always be grateful for their enormous contributions to the mythos, and the terrific partnership that we had,” said Carol Roeder, director of Lucasfilm franchise publishing, Disney Publishing Worldwide. “In 2015, the cosmic adventures of Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewbacca will make the lightspeed jump back to Marvel, to begin a new age of adventures within the Star Wars universe.”

This was one of the first things everyone wondered about when Disney bought Lucasfilm. Many people in the comic industry I talked to over the last year thought it was likely Star Wars would stick with Dark Horse because they produce comics at a cheaper cost overall, which means higher profits. Clearly they have bigger plans for 2015 with the start of new Star Wars films that probably mean huge profits and they would rather keep it all in-house.

Dark Horses’ Star Wars by Brian Wood:

To answer all, the Star Wars book I'm writing ends with #20. I'm assuming it'll all get collected. (1/2)

— Brian Wood (@brianwood) January 3, 2014

I love Marvel, but DH put 22 years into developing and nurturing SW, and this sucks for them, ESP the staff who handles the franchise there.

— Brian Wood (@brianwood) January 3, 2014

Loved working on STAR WARS LEGACY for @DarkHorseComics with @gabrielhardman! Our run will end with #18, after two more arcs.

— Corinna Bechko (@CorinnaBechko) January 3, 2014

Looking at how things went with Dark Horse‘ comics in the aftermath of the Disney purchase, perhaps we should have seen this coming. They published The Star Wars, a comic outside of the main continuity. Star Wars by Brian Wood as a comic series was fostering an era that had no real impact on the larger Star Wars mythos, they were just good old-fashioned fun, but far from risky or daring.

I feel really bad for Dark Horse and their great staff as they did a really great job making Star Wars comics since I was 11 years old in 1991. It is kind of exciting to take Star Wars in a new direction. At the end of the day, it makes me wonder if all Star Wars publishing is reverting back to Disney and is this, for the EU fans, a sort of “purge” of the old continuity? Star Wars  fans have discussed this since Star Wars  entered the Disney family in 2012. That’s a pretty big hint everything is going to do a lot of shifting before 2015.

I expect this means we will get “prequel” stories to the sequel trilogy in 2015 leading up to the sequel trilogy adaptations starting.

I hope most fans, while sad for Dark Horse, can look at it as a chance for something fresh, a new beginning. After Star Wars left Marvel, it was a chance for a new era in stories and freshness. Hopefully with Star Wars returning to Marvel, a similar thing happens again as new people take it on.

I can’t help but be really bummed and really excited.

I would like to congratulate Dark Horse on an excellent twenty plus years of writing and publishing great Star Wars stories. I’m going to miss their take on that universe. I think it is nice went on out top, so to speak with two highly successful Star Wars comics as opposed to going out on a whimper.

Does this mean the old Marvel Star Wars books are back in continuity? Jaxxon? I’m kidding, of course. Or am I? I honestly wouldn’t be upset about that. Those 107 issues are my Star Wars  as much as anything. I remember older kids giving me their old issues of Marvel’s Star Wars comics. Then later in 1989, I traded my Nintendo Powerglove for a complete set of Marvel Star Wars comics.

Head over to StarWars.com and read the full announcement. Marvel’s announcement can be read here.