It’s not all The High Republic news when it comes to convention panels and the Lucasfilm publishing one never disappoints to cover a wide range of mediums and a great list of guests. For NYCC 2022, alongside some new covers and peaks inside upcoming releases, a few intriguing announcements were made: the novel Inquisitor – Rise of the Red Blade, the comic miniseries Sana Starros, and an original Star Wars Visions manga! Getting more insight to the Inquisitors sounds like great time, more Visions will always be a joy, but the bigger announcement for me was bringing Sana into the spotlight with her very own comic miniseries, written by Justina Ireland! More details below the cut!
Much like The High Republic Panel, I wasn’t at NYCC, so I have to thank the lovely fans for extra reporting beyond the official site’s round-up of the panel: Bria LaVorgna, from Tosche Station and the SW blog, plus once again Friends of the Force podcast!
7 years since she was first introduced, in a shocking moment where she claimed to be Han Solo’s wife (the clickbait that arose at that time was as ridiculous as you’d suspect), Sana Starros has grown far beyond any stunts to reveal many dimensions and a complicated past, making her an unforgettable and exciting character to see time and time again. The complex relationship with Doctor Chelli Aphra, which is an understatement considering how much she’s wanted to kill Aphra since they broke up, has brought heart and nuance to both of Aphra’s comic series and the audiobook. We’ve seen Sana’s smuggling days reveal her to be more of a Robin Hood than a selfish being. And she’s been in a novel alongside Han and Chewbacca, where it’s clear she’s better at the job than them. And now, even as she continues to star in Alyssa Wong’s Doctor Aphra series, she’s gaining her own comic miniseries by Justina Ireland, with art by Pere Pérez, out February 2023. There’s not many details at the moment, and when asked if we’d have any connection to the Starros family past, be it Avon or Ghirra during The High Republic days Ireland helped create, she sealed her lips, but by November we’ll have February 2023’s solicitations so expect more details then!
Random House Worlds né Del Rey announced Inquisitor – Rise of the Red Blade for July 18, 2023, written by Delilah S. Dawson. It’ll, “…tell the story of Iskat, a Jedi survivor of Order 66 that turns to the dark side, joining the Inquisitors with the hope of uncovering the truth about her past.” The Inquisitorious has been an important, constant threat across a lot of canon media since 2014, starting with their importance in Star Wars Rebels, Charles Soule’s Darth Vader comic, the Jedi: Fallen Order video game, and most recently in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Soule’s Vader run explored a little bit of the Inquisitor’s origins, and the panel teased you can see more of Iskat in it, but as she tries to uncover more of her past, hopefully we’ll get more about the Inquisitors, especially some of the Grand Inquisitor and his turn. Some of Dawson’s recent works have had some questionable aspects, so as excited as I am for this, I just hope those issues don’t return for this one.
A Visions original manga!!! Siglain said nothing else but I need it!!!!! Says it’s “really really special”. pic.twitter.com/TZxAQFh650
— Bria LaVorgna (@chaosbria) October 9, 2022
Flying under the radar a bit, and not even included with the Star Wars site’s official round-up of the news, was the announcement of Star Wars: Visions Original Manga, written by Eiichi Shimizu with illustrations by Tomohiro Shimoguchi. It’s listed as “coming soon,” and there’s not a ton of details about it either, but it’s awesome to continue to see the worlds of Visions expand. Ronin – A Visions Novel was an absolutely amazing novel, a one-shot Visions comic comes out on October 12, and November brings The Art of Star Wars: Visions from Dark Horse, while season two of Visions will be out in 2023!
Other parts of the panel were spent on the coming slate of comics, starting with a reminder of just how big the Revelations one-shot in November will be, which is supposed to tease what’s to come in 2023. In fact, writer Marc Guggenheim compared Revelations to the Holiday Special (maybe not the best comparison) with it introducing us to Boba Fett, Revelations will introduce us to something not yet announced in 2023. Big, special comic event? New series? Can’t wait to see what this special issue all has in store, as I’m sure you’re curious too, so enjoy these covers above in the meantime, plus this glimpse at some interiors by Salvador Larroca, which doesn’t look as trace-heavy as he’s been known to get in the past…yet.
Alyssa Wong and Ethan Sacks were also on-hand to chat about the comics, with Alyssa promising everything is totally fine for Aphra (hint: it never is) and Ethan seemingly promising Valance Nation more heart-ache ahead (just look at that cover above!), while Marc teased the penultimate issue of his Han Solo & Chewbacca comic. For Doctor Aphra (Vol. 2), Wong promising a very spooky issue with #29, a deep-dive archaeology issue featuring the murderbots…spooky sounds like least of our worries reading it! They also said the current arc was originally pitched as essentially Fast & the Furious Exes and, yes, that’s totally it and it’s delivering issue after issue!! Sacks said Valance’s career with the Empire isn’t going so hot by issue #31 (shown as issue #29 at the panel but we already have that cover and the official site labeled this new cover 31), which isn’t too much of a surprise no matter how hard the current arc is trying to say it’s all rosy in Empire-town for Valance. And Guggenheim said the penultimate issue of HS&C will feature big reveals, feature Sava Korin Pers from the Lando series, and what’s actually in the urn everyone’s so eager to get their hands on will be a surprise!
Also on display were some new looks inside the upcoming mega Star Wars: Timelines (our Feb 2023), written by Kristen Baver, Jason Fry, Clayton Sandell, Amy Richau, and Cole Horton, which they said basically took a small city to put together. As you can see above, including content from all across comics, novels, and films into one place. Also from Baver is 100 Objects (April 2023), the newest one revealed being Yoda’s own little instrument, a nice thing to feature as it’s not what we usually expect from the Jedi Master but shows the various sides to him.
Like I said, plenty of non-The High Republic goodies to enjoy…but there was still some THR content!! The High Republic – Lightsaber Collection will solely include lightsabers from Jedi of the era, because while a few were in the first lightsaber collection volume, the new types of hilts definitely deserve more attention and can easily take up their own book! It’s not out until Spring 2024 because it features lightsabers from Jedi in all three Phases of the era. And lastly, new looks at Cole Horton’s in-universe The High Republic – Chronicles of the Jedi, with pages showing Vernestra Rowh and her Padawan Imri, Bell Zettifar and Ember taking front and center, fathiers, and some ancient Jedi council members. They said it’s still out in February 2023 but I’m seeing March now online…we’ll see! And that’s a wrap!!
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.