Marvel takes back Star Wars license from Dark Horse

So I just heard this news and I'm not sure how to feel. I respect Marvel as a company but I feel uneasy about this. Dark Horse's greatest strength in handling Star Wars was respecting the continuity when making these comics in a fashion Marvel did not do at all when it owned the license. I know Marvel is not the same company it wasin the 1980s but it still seems to not factor any sort of continuity into it's series with a billion different avenger teams and fuck knows how many Earths.

Maybe I am just bummed this is killing Star Wars Legacy.

Think Marvel will do only film tie ins or will they do the sorts of interesting stuff Dark Horse did?

Sorry. I cant change it from my phone but this ought to be on offtopic

Marvel's on a rampage taking back all this stuff. First the games, now this.

It's a little unsettling. Star Wars has been like a little local pub for me that's stayed pretty much the same for better and for worse for decades. Now it's under new management and maybe the lager will be even better but what if they trendy the place up and stop selling the good pretzels? That is the metaphor of a madman but I think it illustrates my point

You know what this means...Jedi in Marvel Heroes!

Marvel has the scope and capital to take risks with the franchise that Dark Horse never could. Whether they will or not, I really doubt.

Probably going to have series with strong ties to the new movies.

ooooh man. I mean it makes utter sense on why. But ooooooh...thats ...oooh. i cant even say it just smarts.

Lego Yoda Chronicles: Attack of the Jedi: The Comic. Make Mine Marvel.

I don't think Star Wars is worth taking seriously anymore so I can't say I care much one way or another. Star Wars is so filled with substandard or crap fiction (fuck even it's core fiction cough prequel trilogy cough) that nostalgia is the last thread making me care at all about the franchise.

At least Dark Horse did some really good stuff with the license.

Havent followed the comics since the late 90's, but I remember this being pretty badass...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_Jedi:_Dark_Lords_of_the_Sith

I read every new novel that came out until they released the prequels. Haven't read a single piece of extended universe after half of the rules of the universe were nullified by those 'movies'.

Anyone who didn't see this coming didn't think about it very much. Dark Horse's licensing contract was up and it only makes business sense when you own a comic book publisher to have them put the books out. They can still get the same talent to work on books and even have newer talent to work on them too. Far too early to claim this is good or bad until stuff starts coming out.

Side question: How big is the fanbase for the Star Wars comics, either by Dark Horse or Marvel?

I was always the type of geek to delve as much as I could into anything officially licensed for my fandoms. Novels, comics, video games, I was interested in reading up on it even if I couldn't afford it. But I know some people either:

• Don't know/care there's a comic or novel series at all
• Have this weird thing where they refuse to identify their fandom as geeky, i.e. "The Star Wars movies aren't geeky, but comic books are, and I'm not some stupid geek, so I won't read the comic books."
• Have this "Only the films can be canon," mentality.

I never understood that. Can someone explain why?

See above.

You can't really blame Marvel for the iffy continuity of the old comics. Those were the wild west days of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. It was later on when Lucasfilm oversaw EU continuity as a whole. If you fear the breaking of the continuity the sequel movies and the EU associated with that are what's to fear, not whatever silly thing Marvel did with the franchise 30 years ago.

That being said, I was reading Star Wars comics in the Days of Dark Horse. They did some great things, and I hope loosing Star Wars doesn't hit them too hard. Some of my favorite things Dark Horse did with Star Wars operated outside of continuity. The Tales books collected a variety of short stories that varied in tone and art style that weren't always beholden to established canon. I heard they were adapting an early draft of the original Star Wars movie too, I wonder if that ever came out.

http://www.comicvine.com/the-star-wars/4050-67024/

Looks like the only got it halfway done, I guess this must have been a surprise if Darkhorse still had stuff in active development.

Was it really marvel or was it more Disney who wanted the license to be back at a publisher they own? Disney owns both the Lucasfilm franchise and Marvel so this makes sense.

This is the big bummer for me. Marvel's recent success is that it's managed to get the general public interested in continuity. The way they've woven together their movies seems to have enchanted people who'd otherwise not care, not just the comic fans. So I'd imagine tweaking and limiting the comic EU to fit in with the coming movies will be a huge priority. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but I don't think it's too speculative to assume that maximum creativity and quality is their primary goal.

It's a shame really, Dark Horse has a good history with handling it. They generally have done a better job with licensed properties than DC or Marvel.

This. Disney owns Marvel and Disney owns LucasFilm. Why on Earth would they consider farming out Star Wars comics when they have a respected and well known comic house? Besides, Disney has been working to get back all the licenses from these two creative houses under one roof for a while. Disney has no interest in making AAA video games in-house, but comics are another thing and Marvel has a good track record with the medium.

This. Such a foregone conclusion it's almost past discussion. Was just a matter of time.

Who wins: A Jedi w/ Lightsaber OR Wolverine

I am happy to hear that Marvel got Star Wars back.

so hold on is this anything to do with JJ abrams directing the new movies? i would like to hear that hes not part of it any more

Sad news. I remember fondly all the older expanded universe comics that Dark Horse published. They did some great stuff with the license and they always treated it with respect.

@tarsier said:

Disney owns their own comic publisher. No point in having a third party publish books that they can make themselves.

hmmmmmmmmm

don't know how to feel, a lot of the Marvel Now books are kick ass. Just Star Wars Legacy is excellent, there were a few awesome Dark Horse books like Star Wars Underworld. Jabba has a bet with other hutts to get something so then several famious mercs go to find it. It's wonderful, cartoonie art from the artist of short lived Fox animated series Cyber 9

But Carlos Meglia had a short run in comics less then 5 years then he died, this was my favorite look for star wars. Later Humberto Ramoes would emulate his style.

It was only a matter of time before The Mouse decided to lock this license away in the same tower it keeps Marvel vs Capcom and Steamboat Willie.

indeed!

@crithon: Yes! Star Wars Underworld is the best thing ever!

Batman.

@kevin_cogneto said:

You can't fool me, that's Bucky O'Hare.