‘Star Wars’ Month: Marvel Comics’ 2015 Revival Captured Lightning In A Bottle

When Star Wars was released in 1977, it was the beginning of a pop culture phenomenon. One of the big parts of that was the Marvel Comics adaptation and expansion launched alongside it. Although its status as canon was always questionable at best, it made the universe a bigger and better place.

Eventually, Marvel would lose the license to Star Wars, with Dark Horse Comics holding it for over twenty years. While the ’70s/’80s Marvel run was partially responsible for expanding and deepening Star Wars, Dark Horse aided the franchise during the years without films and, later, between eras.

Then, in October of 2012, all that changed. After Disney bought Marvel almost three years earlier, they announced the purchase of Lucasfilm, and all their IP with it. That meant Star Wars had a new master, and that the Dark Horse era was likely coming to an end — which was confirmed in early 2014.

In January of 2015, the new Marvel era started and, frankly, it was electric.

The line started with two ongoing series: Star Wars by Jason Aaron and John Cassaday and Star Wars: Darth Vader by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca. Alongside those on-goings were character-focused limited series starring Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, and more from A-list comics talent like Mark Waid, Terry Dodson, Charles Soule, Alex Maleev, Gerry Duggan, and Phil Noto.

Most importantly, these stories were firmly in canon (with only Star Wars: Kanan being partially retconned away by Star Wars: The Bad Batch). The on-goings were directly set after the events of the original Star Wars with stories of our heroes growing from a farmboy, diplomat, and criminal into leaders, heroes and Jedi. The foundation was there, and Aaron (then later Gillen) built on it to demonstrate how they grew and became who we know them to be.

Vader’s series was even more fascinating. At the end of Star Wars, Darth Vader was essentially the only survivor of the Death Star — a massive failure for the villain. Gillen took the series as a challenge to take Vader from Grand Moff Tarkin’s fallen henchman to the frightening and intimidating force of nature seen in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. He readily succeeded, highlighting Vader as an amoral and powerful fighter, a cunning strategist, and brilliant leader with an amazing series of quips and one-liners.

It was lightning in a bottle, revitalizing a well-trod era into something that felt fresh and exciting. It gave us all a healthy dose of the journey that we somewhat missed out on. And by firmly stating that this was what happened — no take backs — it made it clear to fans that this wasn’t just a bunch of “well this is cool” stories. It was what our heroes went through.

Other Star Wars comics since have been good, some even great. None have captured that feeling of seeing what would happen next. We knew the destination, but the journey was what made it all worth it.