Lit If Dark Horse had kept the license for Star Wars Comics, how different would their output have been?

What would they have released and how different would the New Canon have become? How big would the difference have been?

I'm afraid we don't generally allow wholly speculative "What if...?" threads of this nature. See the Literature Forum rules.

 

I think it would depend greatly on how much freedom they'd be given by LFL and the story group. It is clear as day that, while most books and comics are not bad (in fact, some are amazing), it appears there is a restraint on how impactful the stories can be. Most of the "exciting" stories are reserved for movies and TV shows. And who can blame them, Star Wars is primarely a cinematic universe. Therefore, I doubt that Dark Horse or any other company would have had more creative freedom than Marvel does now. So I doubt we would have gotten a Luke Skywalker post-ROTJ series by DH any sooner than by Marvel, when and if that happens.

However, given the past track record of DH, we probably would have had more series that featured original characters. In the past we had Zayne, Quinlan, Cade, Ania, Kir Kanos, Nomi Sunrider, Dass, K'Kruhk, Kera Holt and many others as the front and center of their respective series. No Vader, Han or Leia to "support" them just to boost sales or play it safe(er). Now we only have Aphra to fill that niche. And as someone that adores Aphra, let's be honest, she's not exactly the most creative character. Basically she's an Indiana Jones/Han Solo hybrid, only somewhat evil. Her companions are evil Chewie, evil Threepio and evil R2. All that said, Doctor Aphra is one of my favourite series at the moment. But I want more original characters that don't require backup from movie characters just because. 10 years later, and we still talk about the likes of Zayne and Cade, characters that did not depend on familiarity with the movie characters at all.

Also, we might have gotten more titles that aren't named after the main characters.

But ultimately, I think that LFL and not Marvel or DH have the final say about what to publish. That's why we'll probably never get anything as ambitious as Legacy in comic form, regardless if it's Marvel, Dark Horse or some other company. Just my opinion.

 

Say what you will about him, Randy Stradley had was a major impetus for a lot of the more ambitious plots DH did back in the day. He was often on all the news outlets announcing "Oh we got this crazy new arc starting soon..." But Marvel's been more straight-laced about their decisions. Aphra is an exception, granted, but they're still sticking really close to the Big 3 and film characters. Even by the early 90s when DH first began publishing SW, they were experimenting beyond the movie realm (Tales of the Jedi).

Granted, I can see why Marvel can't take that approach right now -- they want to bolster the movies, and not do anything that might run into continuity problems down the line. It's a bit of a trade-off. But I bet if Stradley were running things, he'd totally be fired by now for saying too much on the social media he's be pushing to experiment more.

 

There's definitely a lot of room for original stories and characters. I guess that "supplemental" material is inevitable with tie-ins to movies, but I feel that we're getting those more than necessary. By bringing more original characters and small scale stories there's very little chance to contradict anything. I want to be at the edge of my seat when I'm reading a comic because I've no idea what's going to happen next. I can't get that with filler (yes, I said filler - shoot me) series like Poe Dameron or the main Star Wars series. Heck, even with Darth Maul or Han Solo for example. Both are fantastic, but ultimately we know where those characters end up, and because of that they are very unlikely candidates to blow me away like many Dark Horse series did (Lando being one exception however).

 

Not to start another iteration of this argument, but I'm not sure it's fair to call Poe, Darth Maul, or Han Solo "filler" automatically. (The main series, maybe, but even there it's sort of an emotive reaction to having seen so much Big 3 material between ANH and ESB in the old continuity). If they aren't living up to their full potential for expanding the characters or universe, that's on the writing, not the concept - as Lando demonstrates.

 

I guess I opened that can of worms by typing "filler"...

I didn't call Darth Maul and Han Solo filler, only Poe Dameron and the main SW series. I suppose I wasn't clear enough on that. But yeah, the writing is certainly the key to quality, or lack of it.

 

The world may never know.

Veiled BBL thread or yet another meaningless speculation thread?

Sent from my Moto X-Wing