Marvel has found great success with their Star Wars comics over the past couple of years, with various characters from the mythos receiving their own titles to fill in the gaps in their respective histories, which are now the official canon since Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm and the removal of the Expanded Universe.
For the most part, though, Marvel has been focusing on events between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, and one of the biggest new characters to be introduced is Doctor Aphra. An ally to Darth Vader at one point, she’s now embarking on her own adventures, but in May’s Star Wars: The Screaming Citadel, she’ll cross paths with Luke Skywalker to kick off a new event.
Things start in a one-shot by Kieron Gillen before the story moves into Jason Aaron’s Star Wars and Gillen’s Doctor Aphra. Apparently, the writers are hoping to take the franchise into “gothic-horror” territory, and that’s something which should ensure that this particular tale is unlike any other.
Not too many plot details have been revealed just yet, but Aaron had this to say about what we should expect from the crossover event.
“It starts with Aphra and Luke together, which is a pairing we didn’t really see at all in Vader Down, and that really drives this story. That’s probably been the most fun part for me, so far — reading what Kieron did with those two characters together and then carrying on from that. It starts with them venturing into a very dark and scary situation on a faraway alien planet and winding up in the clutches of a sinister alien queen. There’s symbiotes involved. There are Aphra’s two murderous droids and best-friend Wookiee, and then, of course, the cast of my book. Han and Leia and Sana Starros come running into the fray, as well, and there are several new villains who are at play.”
The only downside to these stories is that while they’re fun, they’re not going to have a major impact on the Star Wars canon due to the fact that Marvel has set them in a certain time period. So, we know that Luke won’t die and that Aphra isn’t going to become a member of the Millennium Falcon’s crew, but ultimately, that doesn’t really matter as these tales have so far been pretty great. Still, it would be nice for the comics to start focusing on the new trilogy or the events leading up to them, but we’ll just have to be patient.
Expect more details on this Star Wars story to be revealed over the next couple of months and make sure to check out some of the covers in the gallery above in the meantime.