In January of 2015, the Disney-owned Marvel Comics began publishing official canon Star Wars comic books again, after Dark Horse Comics held the Lucasfilm license for many years. The new line’s main ongoing series was simply titled Star Wars, and has since published more than 70 issues set after the events of Episode IV: A New Hope— which had many fans (such as Laughing Place’s own Mike Celestino) wondering when the comic’s storyline would catch up to Episode V.
Today, Marvel announced via the Star Wars website that this central Star Wars series will end in November with issue #75, and then celebrate a grand finale and by leading in to the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back with a special one-shot publication called Star Wars: Empire Ascendant.
What’s happening:
- Marvel Comics’ main Star Wars title is ending in November with issue #75.
- The series will then wrap up with a one-shot finale called Star Wars: Empire Ascendant in December.
- Empire Ascendant will be 56 pages long, and is being written by Charles Soule, Greg Pak, Simon Spurrier, and Ethan Sacks, with art by Luke Ross, Roland Boschi, and more.
- The cover art above is by Riccardo Federici (Marvel’s Spider-Man, DC’s Batman).
- Star Wars: Empire Ascendant “finds the Rebel Alliance building up Echo Base on the ice planet of Hoth while Darth Vader tries to locate the headquarters in vain.”
- This special issue will also address the fates of Marvel Comics’ original Star Wars characters Doctor Aphra and Beilert Valence (AKA Valence the Hunter) as we enter into ESB territory.
- Star Wars #75 will also be available with several Variant covers such as the one pictured below.
Star Wars issue #75 will be released on Wednesday, November 20, and Star Wars: Empire Ascendant will become available on Wednesday, December 18 wherever comic books are sold.