Commenting On The Current State Of 'Star Wars' Comics

What's Your Favorite Comic Arc?

By Culture SlatePublished 4 years ago • 3 min read

Comics have been a staple of the Star Wars franchise since its inception. With visual storytelling being such a big part of the DNA of Star Wars, of course comic books would play a big role. Going all the way back to when Marvel first held the license in the 70s and 80s, telling wacky stories of Luke, Han and Leia. It was very much the wild west of Star Wars storytelling at the time. Several bizarre adventures continued until the 90s, when the license went to Dark Horse and went on for several decades, until 2012 with the Disney buyout when the rights went back to Marvel.

With Marvel returning to Star Wars, we have seen a bit of a reboot of the franchise once again. Along with just the canon itself, the universe of Star Wars within the comics has slowly begun to rebuild itself after a long while. New stories had to be created, new worlds, new events. So lets get a bit of a look back at 2012 when the reboot happened.

Original Trilogy Center

When the reboot happened and the license returned to Marvel, Star Wars comics were essentially starting from scratch. For the most part, they focused a lot on the continuing adventures of Luke, Han and Leia, and Vader right after A New Hope. Which is ironic given that was exactly the marvel comics first time around went off. To tell the in between stories in that two year time period. Of course the interesting thing with the new canon is that now one can incorporate more prequel elements into the story, giving a more cohesive narrative to things than there were before. Bridging the gap between the two eras.

However in this OT-centric era were the seeds of something new. The first new thing took place in the Vader comic with the introduction of the character, Doctor Aphra. An adventurer and archeologist who helps Vader with his mission, as well as look for some ancient architecture along the way. This would spin-off into her own series, showing a more historic side to the Star Wars universe. Going deeper into the lore of Star Wars with mythical artifacts and other ancient Force lore.

Expanding the Universe

As the stories expanded, certain secondary characters began to move to center stage. Like Aphra, there was Ochi of Bestoon, Ren of the Knights of Ren, and the bounty hunter Valance. New characters started taking the front and center, and began to take on a life of their own.

While Luke, Han, Leia, and especially Vader, are all very much front and center, their stories are now being occupied more and more by other plots that are not as attached to the original trilogy. This gives space for new stories to be added. It really plays to the wider story of the original trilogy. Showing that there are whole other adventures going on behind the scenes, really expanding the universe.

Not only that, but now with the High Republic publishing initiative we are getting comics set prior to the prequel era as well. Thus expanding the eras and types of stories that the comics are telling.

A Galaxy of Comics

Comics started off in a place in 2012 that was back to basics. original trilogy time period, Luke, Han, Leia and Vader. However as more time has gone on and as more has been added to the lore, we’ve seen more and more material begin to take it and expand upon it. New characters, new storylines, new adventures, the future of comics looks brighter than ever.

For the galaxy continues to expand, in this galaxy, an expanded universe of storytelling can only be a good thing.

Written by Joel Davis

Syndicated from Culture Slate

Join the Team

star wars