With Star Wars: A New Hope‘s big 50th Anniversary in 2027, it’s inevitable we’ll be swamped with nostalgic content for the original, even as new stories are released, like Starfighter and Ahsoka season two. We already know about A New Hope returning to cinemas in its ‘original‘ form in February 2027 and we just learned about Mad Cave Comics and their upcoming A New Hope – Triple Take comic which retells the story, also scheduled for Feb 2027. But what no one had on their bingo cards was a comic event unlike any other (for Star Wars at least) before it: Star Wars/Marvel: Hope Assembles, a crossover between the Star Wars universe and Marvel comics, written by Kevin Smith with art by David Marquez, launching in January 2027. I see the potential, but considering the throes of comic woes of late, this announcement isn’t drumming up the excitement it could’ve. Head below for the details, the covers, and my consternations.
But first….didn’t we already have the perfect crossover?
Originally covered by EW.com, the official site now has a similar article (and watermark-less artwork), with the gist of the story summed up like this:
The series follows Marvel heroes as they see the events of Star Wars unfolding on Earth and before their very eyes, after a spell shatters reality. The Avengers, Spider-Man, and more will team up with heroes like Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca, while Doctor Doom will align himself with the likes of Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire.
As I’m sure someone like Doctor Strange has his want to do, a spell is casted incorrectly and somehow, the Star Wars universe, or at least the events of A New Hope, smack in the main world of Marvel’s superhero comes, 616. Kevin Smith writes, who I grew up as a fan of but haven’t quite kept up with his work in the past decade, and this choice isn’t much of a surprise and I’m sure he’ll pour his love of the medium into the story. On art is David Marquez, who has put together the gorgeous covers for the Rogue One 10th Anniversary one-shot comics, and a glance at his big connecting variant promises some very good artwork.
So why am I not excited for this event?
If you’ve been reading the Manor for awhile, we’re big here on the comics and I always put together a giant Year-in-Review article to look back at what we all got, grading what was great and pointing out what should be better, as well as providing Top 5 moments and lately, Top 3 Creative Teams. Since the crossover era of 2020 through 2024, which I had my issues with the longer they went on and kept happening, I was very enthusiastic about the direction the comics went instead, divvying up itself into different eras to find a little something for everyone. Expect…it didn’t quite work out. We got a Star Wars mainline series that left a lot to be desired with its rushed story and lack of stakes, there was a beautiful Jedi Knights series that was rather superficial in the end, Doctor Aphra’s latest exciting shenanigans were knee-capped by editorial choices and a far-too swift ending, while we did end up with a rather excellent Kylo Ren focused story. But as those series all dried up, the announcements haven’t been as numerous, ending us up with adaptations, tie-ins, and a publisher like Dark Horse drifting away in the night without a proper burial (there’s a series that was clearly cancelled that I learned about which I lament everyday as it had a writer everyone would’ve loved to see return and a collection of characters that would’ve had the excitement this announcement wanted from me and other fans). To top it off, with less content, we’ve had an even more glaring issue with diversity behind the panels and on the pages, taking us further away from progress and making it feel more and more like the conservative long-arm of the Disney law rearing its ugly head. In fact, for the first time since her introduction and truly breakout status since, Chelli Lona Aphra’s only appearance in 2026 is on the Pride Month Connecting Variant cover for a series without a single LGBTQIA+ character in it! We went from celebrating 10 years of Marvel having Star Wars comics again in 2025, which included Aphra’s relaunch, to barely recognizing what made its work so memorable and special in the first place by 2026.
As I said on Bluesky earlier, had this announcement maybe come after some successful and exciting times for Star Wars comics, not this growing dearth with only a few bright spots, I’d have had some excitement for it. After all, crossovers for different universes, even between different comic publishers, has a long, storied history in comics that I always felt could be fun for Star Wars to attempt. But instead this idea now lands with a wet thud, feeling more like a choice to go for something that will very clearly rake in sales rather than do anything new or risk-worthy…which of course they can’t guarantee will sell. Could great sales give them confidence to allow Marvel’s Star Wars arm to get back to being original, finally giving Aphra more room to shine, cover exciting new eras or expand where we need/want it most (The High Republic’s “Phase More” and/or leading up to stories post-The Rise of Skywalker)? I highly doubt it will, but for a franchise built on the value of hope, I’m going to cross my fingers. Yet regardless if it helps or not, the idea they are taking up valuable publishing space for this rather than celebrating Star Wars on its own, pulling in stories about beloved characters, bringing back new favorites, or expanding the Saga in meaningful ways, makes this feel more like a corporate mandate than a fun idea. On that alone, it’s a disappointing choice to finally do this, but given it was likely inevitable since the companies were all under one roof, was there ever a time it would truly land well? Maybe at least better, that’s for sure. And at least is sounds more inventive than the rumored LEGO crossover set.
In the end I’m sure this will be fun, though it certainly begs a lot of questions for how the heck it’s all going to work, but until we start learning about new stories and not another crossover, this can’t escape the black hole of corporate synergy.
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him and the website on Bluesky.