Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Coming to a galaxy near you
‘Star Wars’ hits the pages of Marvel again
WHEN Disney acquired both the Star Wars and Marvel universes in recent years, setting off a disturbance in the Force for fans and rivals, many questions lingered, with an important one being: what happens to the comic books?
The answer came when Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Axel Alonso called writer Jason Aaron ( Thor) and said two words: “Star. Wars.”
Aaron, not needing to search within himself to know his answer to be true, immediately signed on. “I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that,’” Aaron said. “Axel didn’t have to talk me into it.” And with that brief conversation, Star Wars made a historic return to the pages of Marvel Comics.
How historic? The first issue of Star Wars (written by Aaron and drawn by John Cassaday), which went on sale this month, has surpassed a million copies sold through retailers, comic shops and other outlets, according to Marvel.
That is rarely seen in comicbook sales these days. Even Aaron was shocked. “It’s pretty crazy. I knew coming in it was going to be big. I never imagined it would be that big.
“If nothing else, it made me think, ‘Wow, I need to go back and read that issue again, just to make sure it’s good, because if it’s a million copies, I’ll be seeing this thing for the rest of my life.”
He also sees the favourable factors within the marketplace. “We’re all really happy with what we’ve put together. The fact that it’s sold a million copies speaks to a few things: it’s a good year to be doing Star Wars. And it’s good for us that we’re the first thing out of the gate. We’re the first big new Star Wars project of 2015.
“The hype and excitement have already been building.”
Aaron said that the first issue of Star Wars takes place within “a matter of days or just a couple of weeks,” after a moment in history no fan of the franchise can forget: the destruction of the Death Star.
“The rebels have just scored this huge victory,” Aaron said. “They’ve blown up this massive weapon of the Empire and they’re doing everything they can to try to press their advantage. They’re still this kind of scruffy, ragtag band of rebels, so this is the biggest thing that they’ve ever done, and they don’t want whatever advantage they get from that to slip away.
“We pick up with our main group of characters on a mission together trying to make more trouble for the Empire.”
The legends are all there in Star Wars’ first issue – they just don’t know they’re legends yet. Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, R2-D2, C-3PO and a young fella named Luke Skywalker, determined to take down the man who “killed his father,” Darth Vader.
Aaron says that anyone picking up Star Wars No 1 will probably already be familiar with the history of the characters. But with this story, he says, readers will be there when the characters are discovering well-known secrets for the first time. “I figured I’d assume everybody knows at least who these characters are. I don’t think it’s a big assumption to think, coming into this, that you’ve probably seen at least the original Star Wars. And what’s great is that that’s really all you need to have seen coming into this.
“If you know who Luke’s father is, all the better, but nobody in the book knows that yet.”
And then there was one object of Star Wars lore that Aaron was determined to let see some action before the end of issue No 1: lightsabres.
“I wanted to make sure we got the lightsabres in (the story) right away,” Aaron said of the iconic weapon wielded by Jedis and the Sith. “One of the things as we talked to the ( LucasFilm) story group, they pointed out that ‘Luke’s only had (a lightsabre) for a couple of weeks at this point.’ It’s not going to be his first impulse to grab for the lightsabre – he’s barely trained to use that thing.
“I wanted to make sure, right out of the gate, that we were grabbing for all the biggest moments that we possibly could,” Aaron said. “So I definitely wanted to have lightsabres popping off in that first issue. So we get a few different lightsabre scenes, and a big cliffhanger where you know you’ll be getting more of it next issue.”
Star Wars’ first issue is just the beginning of Marvel Comics adventures with these characters. February will mark the debut of Darth Vader, by writer Kieron Gillen and artist Salvador Larroca. Aaron says that he and Gillen plotted together during the Star Wars/ Marvel preproduction phase, and that fans will see a connection between the Star Wars and Darth Vader titles.
“We all sat in a room together and planned this,” Aaron said. “We’ve passed scripts and issues back and forth.
“Especially here in the early part of these books.”
“I think all of this makes for the perfect jumping-on point for people who have been reading Star Wars comics their whole lives and people who have never read a single one,” Aaron said. “I think we’re going to have a diverse readership of all sorts of Star Wars fans.” – Washington Post