Those waiting for Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker news will have to wait a little longer, as the publishing/comic panels were rather light on the announcements this year. Marvel officially revealed the new creative team for the Star Wars mainline comic series, IDW revealed the Return to Vader’s Castle miniseries, while a mystery project, Luminous, was teased involving 5 big name writers. Head below for the details!
NOVELS
Without any info about the “Journey to” forthcoming to the convention, a cover reveal for A Crash of Fate, a Galaxy’s Edge tie-in, some young reader books, and a few more details on Thrawn: Treason popped up over the weekend. The biggest and most intriguing reveal was something called “Project Luminous”
Something REALLY big is coming:
“The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. Until….”#StarWars #ProjectLuminous, coming 2020.@cavanscott @djolder @justinaireland @CharlesSoule @claudiagray
(More news in the future…) pic.twitter.com/yfiYrG8gyg
— Star Wars Books (@DelReyStarWars) April 15, 2019
“The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. Until…” is the most information we have about whatever Luminous turns out to be. The most important part of that quote would seem to be the “until,” as it teases some sort of event that changes the statement before it; I didn’t see that information before my guess on Twitter and now I’d say I’m far from correct. Regardless, what is this hinting at? Is it something to come from Ep. IX: The Rise of Skywalker? The tease of Palpatine’s return is full of speculation, and looking back at a line from the novel Tarkin, Palpatine’s plans were so much larger than ruling the galaxy, but instead he wanted to rule the Force itself, so maybe something along those lines happens in TROS, upending the status quo of the Force? Is it about some distant, far flung future where most the galaxy has whittled itself down, thus not many living things are around to power the Force? A fun alternative reality set story? A short letter with only five sentences, one from each writer? I could wonder until my face turned Maul red, so I’ll stop there, but there are plenty of possibilities. The project involves writing favorites Claudia Gray, Justina Ireland, Daniel José Older, Charles Soule and Cavan Scott, who spent time at Skywalker Ranch watching A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back in preparation (if that tells you anything), it will be out in 2020, and more information will be forthcoming.
The new details for Thrawn: Treason include: Krennic and Tarkin appear; not only does Eli Vanto finally come back (as revealed in the original announcement), but so too does Admiral Ar’alani of the Chiss; the Grysk from Alliances are involved, which isn’t too much of a surprise considering where the book left that particular thread regarding their infiltration of the Chiss Ascendancy; and the book won’t end as expected, so maybe it’ll include a tease of Thrawn’s fate post-Star Wars Rebels finale? Treason is out July 23.
Check out the new cover for A Crash of Fate and a few other younger reader titles on the official site’s write up.
COMICS
Already revealed thanks to some Amazon listings, Marvel finally announced Greg Pak and Phil Noto would be taking over for Kieron Gillen on the Star Wars mainline series with issue #68 in July. Greg Pak has written the Age of Rebellion, which only got started the week of Celebration, while Phil Noto has extensively worked on covers for many of the series, including Poe Dameron and Solo: A Star Wars Story adaptation, and did interiors for the Chewbacca miniseries and early Poe Dameron issues. Pak has already shown a good knack for the era and its characters so I’m ready to see where he’ll take the series, while Phil Noto is such an exceptional artist, we are truly blessed to have him on the series. Regardless of the great team, I’m still a little disappointed the series didn’t end or go into a new era, so we’ll have to wait and see how long this team is in charge. (Maybe not for long as official site has the news/solicits are here)
Marvel did announce a new series, but it’s one of the things I really, really, really hoped wouldn’t happen again: it’s about Darth Vader. Written by Robbie Thompson with art by Marc Laming, the miniseries is called Target Vader, which follows a bounty hunter and his crew as they try to hunt down Vader. The bounty hunter is Beilert Valance, first seen in canon in the Han Solo – Imperial Cadet miniseries. The character originates from the original Legend Marvel years and was a former stormtrooper, turned cyborg bounty hunter due to a combat injury, and his Legends story is briefly continued in May with a new Original Years issue. In the Imperial Cadet miniseries, Valance is a bully and overzealous about the Empire, but he’s involved with a combat injury and turned into a cyborg, reusing his origin story for canon! While yes, IDW is also making another Vader-related series that I’m actually excited for because it’s a sequel to one of my favorites from last year, ANOTHER Vader series from Marvel is getting overboard, annoying, and disappointing. He’s not the main character, but still, it feels like they are becoming more and more afraid to create something new that isn’t either a tie-in or involving a well-known, sales driving character. This might still end up enjoyable, but I’d be over the moon for 2020 to not include a single panel with Darth Vader in it.
Doctor Aphra was touched on briefly, as they revealed she would be involved with the final Galaxy’s Edge issue while her upcoming arc in May, “Unspeakable Rebel Superweapon,” would deal with her in a mentor role and growing up…a little.
The rest of the panel dealt with revealing some art and details about the upcoming Age of Resistance, more on Pak’s Age of Rebellion, and interior art/cover reveals.
Speaking of IDW, a sequel to last year’s excellent Tales from Vader’s Castle is coming this October, titled Return to Vader’s Castle, once again written by Cavan Scott. The first was such a fun series, I look forward to seeing if lightning can strike twice, while it’s a tolerable idea for a Vader inclusive series. A final cover for the upcoming return of Jaxxon in Star Wars Adventures Annual 2019 was also revealed.
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.