Marvel will explore the legacy of the Jedi Order in two new Star Wars comics coming early next year — Star Wars: Legacy of Vader and Star Wars: Jedi Knights.
Written by Charles Soule with artwork by Luke Ross, the ongoing Legacy of Vader is set after the film Star Wars: The Last Jedi and shows Kylo Ren’s quest to learn more about his grandfather, Darth Vader. The leader of the First Order will sets a course for everywhere from Mustafar to Tattooine to confront his own inner turmoil.
“When fans talk to me about my Star Wars work, two of my Marvel comic runs come up more than almost anything else: my 2017 run on Darth Vader with Giuseppe Camuncoli and my 2019 series The Rise of Kylo Ren,” Soule told StarWars.com. “I think both of those worked so well in part because they were set in parts of the Star Wars timeline full of unanswered questions about characters the audience really loves.”
Here are more details on the series form Marvel:
After slaying his master, Supreme Leader Snoke, Kylo Ren is now the leader of the First Order, but recent events including his murder of his father, defeat at the hands of Luke Skywalker, and a surprising connection with the mysterious Rey force him to reckon with what it truly means to be Vader’s heir.
As he pursues his dark mission to bring order to the galaxy, Kylo’s madness takes him down a deadly path to discover the truth about his grandfather’s life. From Mustafar to Tattooine, these are the thrilling adventures that enabled Kylo to confront his inner turmoil and meet his destiny!
“Kylo is truly lost at this particular moment. In a very short span of time, he’s faced two of his most significant mentors in combat (one of whom is his uncle), killed his own father, almost killed his mother, stolen control of a galaxy-level military that he has no idea how he’ll use, and of course, found a deep connection with another Force-user named Rey,” Soule said. “All of that is swirling around in his emotional matrix, making him deeply unstable, angry, frustrated… dangerous. He’s looking for any form of guidance he can get — even if he won’t admit it — and so he turns to just about the only thing he’s got left, the legacy of his grandfather, the Sith Lord Darth Vader.”
Derrick Chew provides the main cover, shown above, and here’s a variant by Annie Wu:
And you can take a look at some interior artwork by Ross below:
Star Wars: Legacy of Vader #1 will arrive in stores Feb. 5, and will be followed a month later by another new ongoing title — Star Wars: Jedi Knights. This one was announced last weekend during the New York Comic Con and is by another regular Star Wars comics writer, Marc Guggenheim, and former X-Men Red artist Madibek Musabekov.
Each issue will be a self-contained story set before the events of the prequels, showing the Jedi Order we saw in Phantom Menace in full effect:
Taking place before The Phantom Menace, STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHTS stars the Jedi Order as fans came to know it during the Prequel Trilogy including legendary characters like Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Count Dooku, Mace Windu, and many more. In addition to featuring iconic and fan-favorite Jedi duo, the series will introduce all new Jedi characters that served the Republic during this pivotal era.
Each issue will spotlight a different Jedi duo on a different mission throughout the galaxy, but an overarching threat binds them together. Who is the mysterious new villain targeting Qui-Gon Jinn for death and how will it force the Jedi Order to evolve for a new age?
One thing noted at the panel where this was announced is that it’ll bring the debut of Atha Prime to Star Wars continuity. Prime was a character proposed by Kenner to Lucasfilm as part of The Epic Continues, an effort to keep Star Wars alive (and keep those toys coming) after Return of the Jedi. Prime would have had his origins in the Clone Wars, having been exiled to the Outer Rim by the Emperor, but would return after the death of the Emperor to wage war on both the Rebel Alliance and the remnants of the Empire. Although the toy line was rejected and Prime was never canonized, part of his backstory seemed to make its way into the Star Wars: Dark Empire miniseries from Dark Horse and other stories, as part of the Expanded Universe.
“Marc and Madibek deliver a blockbuster first issue with a cliffhanger that kicks off one action-packed issue after another featuring your favorite knights,” Editor Mark Paniccia said. “You’ve literally never seen so much lightsaber action in a comic book!”
Rahzzah did the cover art for the first issue, which will also come with the first two Lightsaber Foil Variant Covers by Taurin Clarke:
The first issue will arrive next March.