Marvel Announces Their First Star Wars Hardcover

NewsMike Cecchini7/15/2014 at 3:12PM

Marvel Comics will begin publishing Star Wars comics again soon. They're going back to their roots.

We've known for quite some time that Marvel would be taking the reins of the Star Wars comics from Dark Horse (those faithful keepers of the four-color Jedi Holocron for over twenty years) soon enough. The official announcement came awhile back, but until now, there has been no news on what Marvel have planned for the license, or what their first move would be. Now we know...they're going back to where it all started.

Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years Volume 1 is an omnibus-sized hardcover, 880-freakin' pages, that will retail for $125.00. It reprints Marvel's Star Wars issues #1-44, plus annual #1. So, aside from those first six issues, written by Roy Thomas with art by Howard Chaykin, there are also legendary talents like Carmine Infantino, Walter Simonson, Al Williamson (whose Star Wars comics work is really second to none), and Chris Claremont.

As we all know, all previous Star Wars comics are no longer part of the official canon, so technically, Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years falls under the Star Wars: Legends banner, which this volume carries at the bottom. However, whatever new original Star Wars stories that Marvel publish will be part of the official Lucasfilm Star Wars timeline.

As for what kind of craziness you can expect from these issues, we present you this article about some of the characters they introduced. While the Marvel omnibus format is handsome, and they do look good on a shelf, they're a little unwieldy. Hopefully these issues will also be offered in digital format, whether via ComiXology or Marvel Unlimited. It would be nice to see some of the lesser known stories (especially from later in the run), collected in smaller trade paperbacks, as well.

Now, here's hoping that they don't just let the countless excellent Dark Horse comics go out of print forever.