Editor Jordan White Talks The Connectivity Of Marvel's STAR WARS Comics
The first series in Marvel's new Star Wars comic book line kicks off in January, with miniseries starring Darth Vader and Princess Leia launching soon after. Jordan White is overseeing the upcoming titles, and discussed familiar and fresh faces, connectivity and crossovers.
Marvel editor Jordan White has been tasked with overseeing the Star Wars universe in the comic book landscape, after Disney acquired the rights to Lucasfilm and all subsidiaries. Infamously, the massive 'Expanded Universe' was officially deemed canonically irrelevant, with a new Star Wars story group at Lucasfilm establishing that future comics, books and shows are "100% canon". This January, Jason Aaron (Original Sin) and John Cassaday (Uncanny Avengers, Astonishing X-Men) launch Star Wars #1, set between Episodes IV and V, with Princess Leia and Darth Vader miniseries arriving in following months. White explains that the series are all connected, but at the same time, can remain standalone. "The idea is definitely that the [Vader and Leia] miniseries are in the same world and continuity as the main series," he says. "We very deliberately set Star Wars, Darth Vader, and Princess Leia in the same time period. In much the same way that all the various Avengers books will reflect a shared continuity while still being able to be read on their own, we want to create a little 'core' of Marvel Star Wars comics that you can read any one of, but will add up to more if you read the group."
The books will see a mix of familar faces (as evidenced by the inclusion of top-teir characters on the covers and variants for Star Wars #1) and unexpected appearances. "I don't want to say too much," cautions White, "but when the solicits for Darth Vader #1 hit, you'll see a handful of characters you might not have expected to see in the opening scene of the Dark Lord's book." We'll also witness the debuts of new creations, with Jason Aaron and Kieron Gillen (the mind behind the Vader title) pitching "new characters that are super awesome. I think there are more new characters being created in Darth Vader, in that we need to create more people for Darth to be interacting with/fighting with than just the stars of Jason's series. So far, we've had lots of latitude in that department—they love when we add to the world just as much as we love adding to it." Though they are still a little while away, are you planning on reading these new Star Wars comics? And who, or what, would you like to see explored in them?