Having just wrapped up Qi’ra’s big return trilogy in comics, the Marvel Star Wars comics panel at Celebration Europe set its sights on the future, diving into issues coming out in the next few months and revealed the next big crossover: Dark Droids! Even before things get crazy with the crossover, there looks to be a lot to enjoy, while the Aphra series gets even weirder and intriguing with the return of Shaak Ti (?!?!) and something called Starweird, while Older writing about Max Rebo sounds fitting and I can’t wait. As for Dark Droids, let’s just say what they showed and talked about put me at ease about another crossover event. Head below for covers, previews, and more!
On the panel today were Marvel Editor in Chief C.B. Cebulski, Matt Martin, Marc Guggenheim, Ethan Sacks, Cavan Scott, Charles Soule and Alyssa Wong. Big thanks to Star Wars Books & Comics and Youtini for the livetweets today!
The panel started with The High Republic #8 – Phase II previews, where we see Oliviah Zeveron clutching to life. Expect the Nameless to be featuring heavily in the final issues of the series.
Having just kicked off with Jabba’s Palace one-shot, the Return of the Jedi 40th Anniversary one-shots got some love at the convention too. We saw more interiors to Alyssa Wong’s Ewok issue, looking spooky as hell, while the cover The Rebellion and Max Rebo were revealed, the latter out in July and the former in August, written by Daniel José Older with art by Paul Fry.
The Yoda maxiseries, which is nearing the end of its second arc by Jody Houser, got some previews for Marc Guggenheim’s time on the series, as well as covers for the final few issues by Phil Noto (loving the Dooku/Obi-Wan hanging over Yoda on #10’s cover). While we have solicits for most of the issues, it was revealed #9 will show who the Force Ghost Yoda’s been talking to is, while issue #10, the final one, will see Cavan Scott return and send Yoda into the Dagobah cave to face his failures (and there might be some High Republic references). I believe I’ve said the series is 12 issues in the past but I was mistaken, it’s only 10.
We got some looks at the upcoming third issue of the already quite excellent Sana Starros miniseries. They promised it won’t be the last we’ll see of her…..so hopefully it’s another miniseries or her return to the Star Wars or Aphra comics!
Some interiors for the upcoming Vader: Black, White, & Red miniseires were shared too, alongside the cover for the final issue. It was said each issue has three stories at 10 pages each. Peach Momoko’s work looks so surreal for the first issue!
Things take a really interesting turn with Wong’s Doctor Aphra series, but when is it not the unexpected with Aphra?! She has a bit of a mini-crossover with Vader through his 34th issue, which we got a cover for, and well, I don’t know how else to say this other than: Shaak Ti lives?!?! Can’t keep a good Jedi down if she’s never officially killed off on-screen (Force Unleashed isn’t canon anymore so that helps too)! I can’t wait to see what that all entails! And even weirder still is…Starweird?! I had to look up Starweird and it was something mentioned in a sourcebook and later in the MMORPG The Old Republic, but they are creepy beings, who can use the Force, and they sort of haunt spacers, so they are like space ghosts (one graces one of the covers above). Sounds right up Aphra’s ally and I am stoked to see how it’s implemented.
And finally, after all the hints and teases, the next big crossover event was revealed: Dark Droids!
“A mysterious new threat called the Scourge corrupts droids, cyborgs, and everything in-between, spreading chaos throughout the galaxy. Ajax Sigma, who first appeared in last year’s Star Wars: Revelations #1, will play a role in the saga — though his true intentions remain unknown.”
Starting this August, written by Charles Soule with art by Luke Ross, Dark Droids is the main miniseries, though it’ll spill out into the events of Doctor Aphra (Vol. 2), Star Wars (Vol. 2), Darth Vader (Vol. 3), and Bounty Hunters. For Star Wars (Vol. 2), we saw Lobot is even affected; in Doctor Aphra (Vol. 2) we return to Domina Tagge while Aphra will being going through some horror thanks to all the tech going crazy; Bounty Hunters will make Valance Nation tremble as he’s been affected too, while they teased it’ll star a villain from the old Marvel comics, and Boba’s sharing secrets about Jango Fett (?!); while Darth Vader (Vol. 3) is a “horror movie” according to Alyssa, as it explores how the droids view him a bit (while the cover features Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon). I’ve had my apprehensions about this crossover and haven’t been shy about it, but what little they’ve teased here is helping ease it a bit, as it feels a bit more personal to these characters than a big plot taking over the era, something the Qi’ra Trilogy sort of suffered from because not even she got as much focus as she deserved in her big story. We’ll see how it all feels once August rolls around and I’m curious if they’ll start talking more about an end for this era of comics after this gets closer to its end, but for now I feel revitalized for what Marvel’s got in store. Even if this still feels unnecessary/way too packed in this era.
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.