The Star Wars Comics Conundrum… SOLVED?
Word on the street is that we now know what will be happening with the “Star Wars” comics license. Though Dark Horse will continue to publish the titles it already has in the pipeline, they won’t be doing anything new that has to be approved by Lucasfilm/Disney. Any new projects will be done by Marvel and will likely be out to coincide with the new movie in 2015. The article in question also speculates on whether Marvel will incorporate comics into their current publishing operations or form a separate branch to specifically deal with the license. I’m hoping for the latter because I can easily see things either getting lost in the shuffle after the initial burst of publicity or Marvel oversaturating the market with multiple titles (see also: Dynamite’s “Green Hornet” for a good cautionary example) or even both. Personally, I don’t think it’s likely because current Marvel president Ike Perlmutter has demonstrated that he wants to spend as little on the publishing side of things as possible in order to maximize profits. Encouraging, right?
This situation does explain why we’re getting two new ongoing “Star Wars” titles now. If Dark Horse can’t get new projects greenlit, then they’ll want to keep these going on for as long as they possibly can. I’m all for getting as much Brian Wood “Star Wars” as we can, though the jury’s still out on the new “Legacy” series. Fortunately for the company, the article doesn’t make any mention about what the company has already published reverting to Marvel at any point. It could be that it just hasn’t been made public, but I certainly hope that’s not the case. Dark Horse losing a future revenue stream is one thing, but to have their entire backlist — which they have carefully maintained after acquiring the license from Marvel over two decades ago — stripped away… well, it doesn’t bear thinking about. Now that we have answers, all that’s left is the waiting to see which company will ultimately have the better “Star Wars” legacy. *rimshot*