Lit What differences do you expect between Dark Horse and Marvel?

Well, it was a good run, but the future is once more clouded by the dark side of the force.

Marvel is a different beast, obviously, to what it was with the old comics. But honestly, I've not kept up with any of the Marvel comics in a long time, so I have no idea what to expect from writers to just how far those writers are allowed to push. So, when the license swaps... what do you think will be the 'limit'?

Will the skimpy slave outfits be visible? Will slaves come up as plot points? Will be see the deaths of sentient beings on-page? How clearly? 'Can they' show terribly grim scenes like the last stand of the Padawans of Jabbiim? Regenerating bounty hunters holding Jedi under lava? The visual effect of an engineered plague on gungans? Torture of characters? Sith gimp masks? Drug addicts in the bowls of slums? Implications of underage sex? Near and implied rape? Cannibalism (though as in sentient eating sentient, as this is SW)? Cannibalism of a child?

These are all areas that under Dark Horse the comics were allowed to delve into, no matter how subtle they were, and often not at all. The latter example is in Dark Times; a noble devoured the child of one of the side characters, and has supposedly done so many times before. It's not sugar coated.

I know Marvel has had its darkness. A lot of its characters aren't exactly modest or discerning with who they share a bed with, I recall plenty of blood and death in the older Wolverine comics, and skimpy superhero outfits are practically a trope of comics. But Dark Horse got dark at points. I'm just pondering whether Disney will reign Marvel in if they even do want to approach things the same way.

While I myself haven't enjoyed all of Dark Horses stories in the SW universe (I like an element of hope if there is to be darkness, as the films had, but sometimes that was lacking like Jabbiim.) but over all they have delivered some of the strongest and most striking stories in the entire EU, and that they pulled no punches allowed me to enjoy them as an adult, and not just a man-child reliving his days of making lightsaber noises in the back garden. Some of their fare was right up there with some of the more mature shows on TV.

The Clone Wars TV show itself wasn't bad though, in that regard, so it may just have been an approach of the Lucas corp that may stay in effect. We had beheadings, clear and obvious shots of lightsabers cleaving through bodies (even if no none-cyber limbs flew), slave outfits, and so forth. And this was on cartoon network.

Opinions? What are we due for, looking at Marvels modern releases? I'm moderately hopeful that not a great deal will change, but we'll have to see.

A side worry I have is art quality. Marvel (and DC) have such a vast array of writers, some on several projects at once, that i'm worried we will never again get anything as stunning as the early volumes of Dark Times and KOTOR.

 

I'm not at all worried about "darkness" (frankly I think people stress it way too much in Star Wars anyway). What I am concerned about is the likelihood of much less ambitious stories.

 

Like you, I've no idea what Marvel's comics are actually like.

That aside, whether the licence had stayed with Dark Horse or switched to Marvel, I expect the content for the near future would have been predominantly the same thing: direct sequel tie-ins. They're going to want to push the new era and new characters big time, so to a large extent I doubt the change in publisher would have made much difference for the next two or three (at least) years anyway.

We might have been able to get some better endings to DOTJ and Legacy Vol 2, etc, rather than things being rushed, but aside from that? I wasn't expecting anything that adventurous even under Dark Horse.

 

Different logos. I'm pretty confident on that one.

 

Quantity.

 

Crossovers, a ridiculous amount of crossovers. I'm sure there will be an abundance of Brian Michael Bendis as well.

Hopefully nothing will change and the comic stories will continue to be the best of the NU just as they were usually the best of the EU. Knowing Marvel, I fear of double shipping and other garbage.

 

It's very hard to say.

Marvel have been, in terms of number of titles and shipping frequency, quite conservative o the licenced properties of Oz and Dark Tower, so if that is applied to SW, there may not be the amount of material people expect.

On the other hand, if they applied their current superhero operating model to SW, you could expect:

• Double-shipping on books - all at $3.99
• A group of SW titles
• A regular event story tying the group together once a year at a minimum
• Frequent status quo shake-ups

One element common to both strands is this: Marvel have a talent for assembling very good creative teams:

• Dark Tower: Started with Peter David, Jae Lee, Richard Isanove
• Oz: Creative combo of Eric Shanower and Skottie Young

I would expect them to assemble some very good teams that would be very well-suited to the properties, who they'd be at this point is anyone's guess though.

As to trades, buy those reasonably quickly as Marvel's trade policy is far more erratic than DHC, but they may issue SW in OHC collections too - those, if done right, would be hard to turn down.

 

I'm not sure, but maybe that's what worries me.

 

I expect the worst: crossovers with the ridiculous Marvel U, superfluous stories with no consequences, pointless stuff done for shock-value, what-ifs, ripoffs of beloved characters, a lot of one-shots related to the movies, very little delving into other eras, etc; and foremost, work done as hired guns, without the "spark" and enthusiasm DH put into it .


So, expectations so low, they will probably surprise me with the first competent thing they put out.

 

We won't get galaxy shaping/daring comics like KOTOR, Legacy, TOTJ, DE, DOTJ will we? Sigh. Going to miss that kind of stuff.

 

I don't think darkness should be cut from SW but the tone of how it's handled should be. I also hope it's not dark all the time.

 

Wonder how different the art will be?

 

Probably very good whoever is on board for it.

There's quite a bit of ill-founded panic in this thread.

 

Is anyone in the world excited about DH losing the license? They have done an A+ job or an A at worst. I hate this Disney takeover.

 

I want this to be a What If ? title.

 

Well, I think the quantity part is spot on anyways.

 

That's like the coolest thing I've ever seen.

 

the creative teams will definitely have some "names" in the Marvel comic stable, at least off the jump.

Peter David writes a lot, a lot, A LOT of Marvel's license stuff. And sci-fi stuff. I think that's actually likely. He said he had a bad experience with Lucasfilm in the past but new regime, he's a Marvel guy, that I can see happening. and I will be very, very happy if that happens.

Point 1 issues. Those are annoying.

THINGS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!! written in the solicits a lot.

TPB are going to come out over a year after the final issue of the arc finishes. Marvel goes to regular size HC's (or "prestige edition HC's") for first prints on, like, everything. Gotta deal with that one.

If they let Patton Oswalt write a one-shot based on his pitch, I'd buy 3 copies.

 

I'm pretty scared of the art they're probably gonna force unto Star Wars. I still recall those mostly awful, only stylized drawings (?) of the first TPBs of the Dark Tower. It nearly ruined the story for me (and I'm one of those who read the books nearly right from the beginning. yes, it's been quite a long ride to get to the end

 

OH HECK YES

 

An ultimate universe probably. Honestly I'm more of a DC guy myself and don't read marvel because I feel like every title is in a constant crossover or event so I can't jump in so as long as that doesn't happy with star wars I'll be happy.

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Darkness aint an issue. The Big 2 is all about being grim, dark and gritty these days

 

I want to be optimistic because last few years of Marvel superhero stuff are the best in almost a decade since I've started reading comics. Huge amounts of variety of styles, talent and artwork. I even like Bendis' All-New X-Men (it being a very decompressed teenage romcom), which is not something I'd expect myself to say in 2012. Do I want likes of Fraction, Hickman, Aaron, Rucka, Peter David or even Ales Kot (my current favorite among rising stars) doing to Star Wars what they do to MU? I very much do.

But on the other hand what does Marvel do with other Disney licenses? Well, there's that Disney Kingdoms stuff about... some things I don't recognize. Boom Studios before losing license published new comics (and rather good ones) based on Darkwing Duck, Duck Tales, Rescue Rangers, Pixar properties. Where's all that stuff? Cynic in me says we'll get huge launch with some big name and in 6-12 month there will be one or two books monthly written by Christopher Yost (no disrespect to Mr. Yost intended).

But I'm an optimist. Always was and always will be =)