Star Wars (Marvel 2015)

Star Wars is a Star Wars comic book series initially written by Jason Aaron with art by John Cassaday. The Marvel Comics series, which began publishing on January 14, 2015,^[17] and features the characters Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2, takes place between the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope and Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back.^[1] The series concluded with issue 75, which was released on November 20, 2019,^[18] and was relaunched with another series of comics on January 1, 2020.^[19]

DevelopmentEdit

Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso called up Jason Aaron to ask "Star Wars?," to which Aaron replied, "I'm in." He stopped writing Amazing X-Men to accommodate Star Wars into his schedule. Aaron and Cassaday agreed they wanted to write the comic by imagining what it had been like if they wrote the sequel to the original Star Wars. They toured Skywalker Ranch and visited the Archives for research while meeting with Lucasfilm over the comics.^[1]

Aaron described the series as being a team book,^[1] but also emphasized it as being Luke's journey, explaining how he identified with the character as a boy because he had also grown up on a farm.^[20] He commented he wanted to show Han's past coming back to him in a manner without having him just confront more bounty hunters.^[1] Writing C-3PO to "just [get] that voice right" has been the hardest part of writing the comic.^[21] Aaron also promised flashback stories featuring Ben Kenobi, because "I always loved that character in the original film and we never really see much of that version, the Alec Guinness version."^[22]

Cassaday described drawing the galaxy's "junk-like" aesthetic as a "headache and an absolute pleasure all at the same time. Getting the details together has been time consuming and tedious, but once I got going, it's been great fun."^[20]

Issue 6 was the last issue with art by Cassady, and each story arc afterward featured a different artist, including Stuart Immonen, Leinil Francis Yu, and Jorge Molina. With the 26th issue, Salvador Larroca became the main series artist and has drawn every issue since. As of issue 38 Kieron Gillen took over as writer, reuniting the creative team of Star Wars: Darth Vader. Gillen approached writing Star Wars the same way he approached Darth Vader, with a focus on showing the characters' transformation from A New Hope to The Empire Strikes Back. His run began with The Ashes of Jedha, where Luke, Leia, and Han encounter Jedha in the aftermath of its destruction.^[4]

MediaEdit

Issue	Title	Publication date	Trade paperback	Hardcover	Omnibus
Book I: Skywalker Strikes			Volume 1: Skywalker Strikes October 6, 2015[23]	Volume 1[24] September 20, 2016[24]	Omnibus[25] March 12, 2019[25]
1	Skywalker Strikes	January 14, 2015[17]
2	Skywalker Strikes, Part II	February 4, 2015[17]
3	Skywalker Strikes, Part III	March 11, 2015[26]
4	Skywalker Strikes, Part IV	April 22, 2015[27]
5	Skywalker Strikes, Part V	May 20 2015[28]
6	Skywalker Strikes, Part VI	June 3, 2015[29]
7	From the Journals of Old Ben Kenobi: "The Last of His Breed"	July 29, 2015[30]	Volume 2: Showdown on the Smuggler's Moon January 26, 2016[31]
Book II: Showdown on the Smuggler's Moon
8	Showdown on the Smuggler's Moon, Part I	August 19, 2015[32]
9	Showdown on the Smuggler's Moon, Part II	September 16, 2015[33]
10	Showdown on the Smuggler's Moon, Part III	October 7, 2015[34]
11	Showdown on the Smuggler's Moon, Part IV	November 4, 2015[35]
12	Showdown on the Smuggler's Moon, Part V	November 18, 2015[36]
Book III: Vader Down			Vader Down April 19, 2016[37]	Darth Vader Volume 2[38] February 28, 2017[38]
13	Vader Down, Part III	December 2, 2015[39]
14	Vader Down, Part V	January 6, 2016[40]
Book IV: Rebel Jail			Volume 3: Rebel Jail August 16, 2016[41]	Volume 2[42] June 20, 2017[42]
A1	Star Wars Annual 1	December 9, 2015[3]
16	Rebel Jail, Part I	February 17, 2016[13]
17	Rebel Jail, Part II	March 23, 2016[43]
18	Rebel Jail, Part III	April 27, 2016[44]
19	Rebel Jail, Part IV	May 25, 2016[45]
15	From the Journals of Old Ben Kenobi	January 20, 2016[10]
20	From the Journals of Old Ben Kenobi	June 15, 2016[46]	Volume 4: The Last Flight of the Harbinger January 18, 2017[47]
Book V: The Last Flight of the Harbinger
21	The Last Flight of the Harbinger, Part I	July 20, 2016[15]
22	The Last Flight of the Harbinger, Part II	August 24, 2016[48]
23	The Last Flight of the Harbinger, Part III	September 28, 2016[49]
24	The Last Flight of the Harbinger, Part IV	October 26, 2016[50]
25	The Last Flight of the Harbinger, Part V	November 23, 2016[2]
A2	Star Wars Annual 2	November 30, 2016[2]	Volume 5: Yoda's Secret War July 18, 2017[51]	Volume 3 July 17, 2018[52]
Book VI: Yoda's Secret War
26	Yoda's Secret War, Part I	December 28, 2016[14]
27	Yoda's Secret War, Part II	January 25, 2017[53]
28	Yoda's Secret War, Part III	February 1, 2017[54]
29	Yoda's Secret War, Part IV	March 1, 2017[55]
30	Yoda's Secret War, Part V	April 5, 2017[56]
Book VIII: Out Among the Stars			Volume 6: Out Among the Stars December 5, 2017[57]
33	Rebels in the Wild	July 5 2017[58]
34	The Thirteen Crates	August 16 2017[59]
35	The Hutt Run	August 30 2017[59]
36	Revenge of the Astromech	September 13, 2017[60]
37	Imperial Pride	October 4. 2017[12]
A3	Star Wars Annual 3	September 20, 2017[60]
Book VII: The Screaming Citadel			The Screaming Citadel October 24, 2017[61]	Doctor Aphra Volume 1[62] May 31, 2018[62]
31	The Screaming Citadel, Part II	May 17, 2017[61]
32	The Screaming Citadel, Part IV	June 14 2017[63]
Book IX: The Ashes of Jedha			Volume 7: The Ashes of Jedha April 17, 2018[64]
38	The Ashes of Jedha, Part I	November 8, 2017[47]
39	The Ashes of Jedha, Part II	November 22, 2017[47]
40	The Ashes of Jedha, Part III	December 13, 2017[65]
41	The Ashes of Jedha, Part IV	January 3, 2018[66]
42	The Ashes of Jedha, Part V	January 17, 2018[66]
43	The Ashes of Jedha, Part VI	February 7, 2018[67]
Book X: Mutiny at Mon Cala			Volume 8: Mutiny at Mon Cala August 7, 2018[68]
44	Mutiny at Mon Cala, Part I	March 7, 2018[69]
45	Mutiny at Mon Cala, Part II	March 21, 2018[69]
46	Mutiny at Mon Cala, Part III	April 4, 2018[70]
47	Mutiny at Mon Cala, Part IV	May 2, 2018[62]
48	Mutiny at Mon Cala, Part V	May 23, 2018[62]
49	Mutiny at Mon Cala, Part VI	June 6, 2018[71]
A4	Star Wars Annual 4	May 23, 2018[62]	Volume 9: Hope Dies December 25, 2018[72]
Book XI: Hope Dies
50	Hope Dies, Part I	July 4, 2018[47]
51	Hope Dies, Part II	July 18, 2018[47]
52	Hope Dies, Part III	August 1, 2018[47]
53	Hope Dies, Part IV	September 5, 2018[47]
54	Hope Dies, Part V	September 19, 2018[47]
55	Hope Dies, Part VI	October 3, 2018[47]
Book XII: The Escape			Volume 10: The Escape April 9, 2019[73]
56	The Escape, Part I	November 7, 2018[8]
57	The Escape, Part II	November 21, 2018[8]
58	The Escape, Part III	December 5, 2018[74]
59	The Escape, Part IV	January 9, 2019[75]
60	The Escape, Part V	January 23, 2019[75]
61	The Escape, Part VI	February 6, 2019[76]
Book XIII: The Scourging of Shu-Torun			Volume 11: The Scourging of Shu-Torun August 20, 2019
62	The Scourging of Shu-Torun, Part I	March 6, 2019[77]
63	The Scourging of Shu-Torun, Part II	March 20, 2019[77]
64	The Scourging of Shu-Torun, Part III	April 3, 2019[78]
65	The Scourging of Shu-Torun, Part IV	May 1, 2019[79]
66	The Scourging of Shu-Torun, Part V	May 15, 2019[79]
67	The Scourging of Shu-Torun, Part VI	June 19, 2019[80]
Book XIV: Rebels and Rogues			Volume 12: Rebels and Rogues[6] November 19, 2019[6]
68	Rebels and Rogues, Part I	July 10, 2019[81]
69	Rebels and Rogues, Part II	July 24, 2019[81]
70	Rebels and Rogues, Part III	August 7, 2019[82]
71	Rebels and Rogues, Part IV	September 4, 2019[83]
72	Rebels and Rogues, Part V	October 2, 2019[84]
73	Rebels and Rogues, Part VI	October 23, 2019[85]	Volume 13 March 17, 2020[86]
74	Rebels and Rogues, Part VII	November 13, 2019[18]
75	Rebels and Rogues, Part VIII	November 20, 2019[18]

BibliographyEdit

•  SDCC 2014: Inside Marvel's New Star Wars Comics – Exclusive on StarWars.com (backup link)
• "Launch Pad"—Star Wars Insider 152
•  Lando #1 Coming in July from Marvel – Exclusive! on StarWars.com
• "Marvel Comics 2015: A Marvel Galaxy"—Star Wars Insider 158
•  Marvel's Star Wars Series Gets New Creative Team on StarWars.com
•  The Galaxy In Comics: Darkness Begins to Fall in the Landmark Star Wars #50 on StarWars.com (backup link)

Notes and referencesEdit

External linksEdit

• Truitt, Brian (2014-07-26). Marvel Comics launches new 'Star Wars' in January. USA Today. Retrieved on July 27, 2014.