Lit The Future of Dark Horse Comics

For what it's worth, back in Marvel Star Wars days, a lot of fans in the letter columns actually requested that Luke and co. meet up with Marvel super heroes, and they were very adamant that that would not happen, that Star Wars would be kept faithful to the universe Lucas created. If it goes back to them, will that stay? Who the hell knows.

 

Well, back in those days Lucas was obviously still very hands on, interested in his "vision", but... quite what his "vision" means these days beyond $$$ is anyone's guess.

 

Having thought it over, one thing is clear. The notion of Marvel taking over is a double-edged sword in every respect:

The pros:

1. You might get more SW books per month
2. You might get some top name writers and artists on them

The cons:

1. You'll probably have to pay $3.99, probably for 20 story pages
2. Didn't like Vector? Too bad, there'll probably be more events.
3. TPBs - likely to go up in price, down in number of issues collected, be released as hardcover first too.
4. Innovation - won't be in demand so say probably ought to say goodbye to ever having things like:

• Dawn of the Jed
• Tales of the Jedi
• Crimson Empire
• X-Wing
• Knights of the Old Republic
• Legacy
• Knight Errant
• Agent for the Empire
• Republic

Too harsh? No, I don't think so. Marvel are the most ruthless comic company operating, they will not blink before axing a title if it is not deemed successful enough. While the sales titans of Avengers, X-Men and Spiderman mean there will always be mid-lower tier titles that are innovative and quirky, everyone who follows them knows it is inevitable that the title will be axed but follows it in spite of that. I don't think there is any equivalent amount of space for any quirky SW title to flourish, it'll be strictly mainstream offering that has guaranteed sales.

How do I know this? 10+ years of buying Marvel comics.

 

If that pros and cons list is accurate, the cons seem to far outweigh the pros.

 

It does reflect that over the last 2 years I've become steadily more cheesed off with Marvel, AvX being the zenith of that.

That said, I've 4 shelves of deluxe oversized hardcover collections, plus 2 shelves of regular TPBS, from Marvel, probably the single largest amount of material from 1 publisher in my collection!

When they're on form they can put out some very good work indeed but with that goes a certain conservatism and lack of actual innovation - they are masters at convincing you the illusion of change is actual change, when it isn't.

 

How was Marvel back in the days when they were doing "Marvel Star Wars" comics? Was there a bit more innovation and imagination back then?

I found those comics pretty entertaining now I've gotten round to reading them.

 

Different time, different Marvel - their original run would have been Marvel as run by Jim Shooter. I'm strictly going by the Marvel I've known for the last decade.

 

I'll actually be curious to see how the numbers stack up for mainstream offerings, as they didn't work for the Clone Wars when Dark Horse did it, and that was even with the initial surge in interest from TCW. I know the ST will obviously bring in the masses... but the masses don't seem as interested in mainstream Star Wars in quite the same way that they'll eat up the constant retelling of the life and romances of Peter Parker. Even TOR I think has had a double-edged sword with using the mainstream imagery to get attention, only for even the mainstream fans to roll their eyes at Revan's role in the storyline itself.

Look at TCW: when the viewing numbers started to dwindle, they started to try more and more quirky things to pull people back in that would have sounded absurd had Lucas thought of putting them in the original film. It's clear people want lightsabers and stormtroopers, but they don't seem quite as interested in the same story over and over -- whereas Legacy was such a success because it perfectly combined cliché images with totally unexpected characters.

 

Don't under-estimate the power of the Marvel marketing machine Zorr!

 

I wonder what DH's eventual loss of the license will mean to the customers who bought Star Wars digital comics for iPad and such.

I'm going to be ticked if, at some point in the future, I can no longer read the digital comics I paid for(and certainly won't buy any more).

 

Just because Marvel handles X-Men and Avengers a certain way doesn't mean that's the entirely of their business model. They seem perfectly willing to give Icon titles a lot of creative and marketing freedom; there's no reason to assume they wouldn't pay a theoretical SW imprint the same respect. Not saying that they definitely would, but we just don't know either way.

 

If you're looking for a more positive option Coop, I'd look to how Marvel have done the King books - Dark Tower / Stand - there they put top creative teams and the results were very good indeed, they also resisted the temptation to do too many titles, or too much development.

I wouldn't see Icon as the example as that's a creator-owned line and SW isn't going to ever be that, Icon also works by the creators taking the risk, not Marvel.

 

Funny enough, I've actually been considering looking into the Dark Tower books, having finished the book series not too long ago (though haven't read Wind through the Keyhole).

 

The only part of yesterdays big annoucement that makes me sad is that it does potentially mean bad news for Dark Horse. I would be very sad to see that company suffer as a result of this decision. I credit the good folks at Dark Horse with producing some of the FINEST pieces of the Expanded Universe.

I will always hold Dark Horse in the highest esteme, regardless of what happens to Star Wars.

--adm. Nick

 

You know, on the topic of Dark Horse's SW comics, thinking this over more, it makes me wonder if the whole "soft continuity reset" approach the Brian Wood Star Wars title is taking was somehow influenced by knowledge of this approaching development.

 

I'm still going to follow EU no matter what happens, but I really hope DH is able to finish the omnibus program. That being complete would be one positive of a switch to Marvel.

 

If only Disney would leave the DarkHorse deal alone, and save us all the trouble.

 

THIS! I just started collecting the Omnibuses, I have about 6 of the 25 so far, I really hope they can finish it out. Its so much easier to be able to get everything in these rather than tracking down individual releases.

 

If the Star Wars license reverts to Marvel, will we finally learn the answer to that great debated nerd question, can lightsabers cut through adamantium?

 

True adamantium? Or the low-grade adamantium? Or the flexible but lesser cousin carbonadum? Or the unique vibranium/adamantium alloy used in Captain America's shield?

 

I wish people would just stop it with all this ''REBOOT/ ALTERNATE UNIVERSE'' speculation crap

 

KotOR answered that for me a long time ago.

 

I will be deeply disappointed if Disney drops Dark Horse. Marvel already did SW. DH does it better (and I like the Marvel series). I hope DH gets the green light soon to go on handling the series.

 

They won't. Marvel publishing is being stretched too thin under current management and they don't even have enough people working on their current titles. SW won't get the VIP treatment like it does at DH.

 

Good point, and to me, that speaks more to them not wanting it in the first place.