Pop Culture Threeway: Disney Recruits Marvel for 'Star Wars' Companion Comic Book Series!

Now that the Star Wars franchise is in the hands of people that want to expand on it more (Disney), that is exactly what they’re doing. As you already know, the new Star Wars trilogy of films will reunite Luke, Han, Leia, and the rest, but if you can’t wait to see them back in action on December 18, 2015 (I’m with you), I have some good news -- Disney has teamed up with their comic book partners at Marvel to develop a brand new Star Wars comic book series that will follow all your favorite characters, even Obi-Wan’s ghost, who is supposed to make multiple appearances.

The series will be simply called Star Wars and will show us the events that took place between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. This means we will finally see how and why the rebels are on the snowy desolate planet of Hoth at the beginning of Empire StrikesBack. We also should get a more in-depth look at Luke Skywalker’s feelings towards Darth Vadar, before he found out dear ol’ Darth is his deal ol' dad. Considering Luke’s story is originally founded in revenge, he should seem much different than we’re used to. Plus (and I could be alone on this one), I’m hoping there’s plenty of more awkward, vaguely inappropriate moments between Luke and Leia, since it’s about two films before they find out that they are fraternal twins. Let’s just hope this doesn’t get “Game of Thrones”-y on us (I have my limits). Need an example of what I’m talking about? Even if you don’t need one, I’ve got it for you:

The man behind this new series is Marvel comic book writer Jason Aaron, whose workload with Marvel stacks pretty high. He’s written numerous comics for X-Men (which he left to do Star Wars), Ghost Rider, Thor: God of Thunder, and a 2014 crossover series entitled Original Sin. Outside of Marvel, his best-known work was with Vertigo in 2012 called Scalped, which is about a Native American reservation.

Aaron has been given a gift here. This isn’t something that comes along too often. Not only does he get to create his own chapter in Star Wars history, it will be in a canon surrounding the Star Wars characters that most of the general public want to see again. Aside from some possible foreshadowing to Empire Strikes Back, Aaron is basically getting to make his own sequel to A New Hope. It’s like he’s been pushed back to 1977 and is working to try and crack what he thinks the next movie could be, assuming he would’ve picked up the story up again directly after the events of A New Hope.

Aside from Aaron, Marvel is also bringing in one of their seasoned vets to draw the comics, John Cassaday. Cassaday has won the Eisner Award (arguably the most prestigious comic book award) multiple times for his artistry, and, although he has contributed a lot of work to Marvel over the years, Cassaday is best known for his work with screenwriter, director, and more-than-occasional comic book author Joss Whedon. Cassaday teamed up with Whedon on the latter’s issues of Astonishing X-Men, which then lead to Cassady directing an episode of Whedon’s short-lived Fox series “Doll House”. He’s a mutli-talented comic book drawing powerhouse, so you know Marvel is serious about this series.

One more thing to keep in mind before you trek to your local comic book store is that this is definitely going to be canon with the franchise. It’s something that actually matters to the series, and as a fan you, will have a lot of fun reading it. The first issue of Star Wars is available starting TODAY (January 14, 2015) -- you can order it here!

(Photo via WENN)

- Kevin Donaldson, YH Staff