Marvel explores the legacy of the Jedi in two new comics next year

A pair of ongoing series will debut in February and March.

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.”

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Marvel returns to the original ‘Planet of the Apes’ era in January

‘Beware the Planet of the Apes’ by Marc Guggenheim and Álvaro López is set before the original film.

Marc Guggenheim and Álvaro López will return to the setting of the original Planet of the Apes films for a new series featuring Cornelius, Zira, Nova and more. The four-issue Beware the Planet of the Apes will launch in January and serve as a prequel to the films.

“I’ve been entertained and intrigued by Planet of the Apes ever since I got a Mego Doctor Zaius doll as a birthday present, and my local television station ran the original pentalogy every afternoon for a week in the summertime,” Guggenheim said. “In many ways, Apes is one of the OG franchises, filled with mystery, fascinating characters, and some truly off-the-wall surprises.”

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Marvel announces ‘Deadpool: Seven Slaughters’ one-shot anthology

Plus more news from San Diego on new Marvel work by Greg Capullo and Rob Liefeld.

In San Diego this week, Marvel announced an upcoming one-shot featuring the Merc with a Mouth. Deadpool: Seven Slaughters will feature seven stories by seven different creative teams — and a cover by Greg Capullo, who will do his first work for Marvel in decades.

The anthology will include a story written and drawn by Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld, with additional stories by Cullen Bunn, Cody Ziglar, Marc Guggenheim, Justina Ireland, Gail Simone, Greg Land, Whilce Portacio, David Baldeón, Phillip Sevy and more.

Here’s a look at Capullo’s cover:

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A new D-Squad assembles for the ‘Dark Droids’ Star Wars event

Marc Guggenheim, Salva Espín and David Messina will pit R2D2 and a squad of droids against the Scourge.

Marvel’s upcoming Dark Droids crossover event will resurrect a concept from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series — the D-Squad. Marc Guggenheim, Salva Espín and David Messina will enlist a group of droids to help R2D2 battle the Scourge, the virus spreading through the galaxy’s droid population that’s making them turn homicidal.

While Dark Droids has been billed as a horror story set in the Star Wars universe, Guggenheim says the D-Squad miniseries will have a different tone.

“It’s high adventure mixed with as much humor as I could conjure. I approached it like the first Avengers movie, but with droids instead of superheroes,” he told StarWars.com.

The original D-Squad was a group of astromech droids, which is the type of droid R2D2 is. This time around the squad will feature several different types of droids, including two bounty hunters.

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Marvel will revisit ‘Days of Future Past’ in a new miniseries

Marc Guggenheim and Manuel García will tell the story leading up to the monumental issues by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.

The back story leading up to one of the greatest story arcs in the history of X-Men comics will be revealed in a new miniseries by Marc Guggenheim and Manuel Garcia.

“Days of Future Past” appeared in Uncanny X-Men #141-142 and still resonates with many X-Men fans today. Those two issues helped set the tone for the series for many years after it, as Chris Claremont and John Byrne shared the consequences of where the prejudice and hate against mutants could ultimately lead. It also helped solidify the idea that Magneto could be an ally to the X-Men and introduced Rachel Summers, who would find her way back to the past to join the current day X-Men. And how many variant covers owe their lives to Byrne’s cover for issue #141?

X-Men: Days of Future Past – Doomsday will tell the story of the events leading up to the future state where mutants were kept in concentration camps and a small group of scrappy X-Men fought back — and lost.

“Growing up, I never thought I’d get the chance to write the X-Men as many times as I have. I particularly never thought I’d be able to play around in the amazing timeline that Chris Claremont and John Byrne brought to life in ‘Days of Future Past,'” Guggenheim told Marvel.com. “I still have the most vivid memory of visiting the stationery store where I used to buy my comics and seeing Uncanny X-Men #141 on the rack. That iconic cover blew my nine year-old mind.”

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IDW explores what happened after ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ in a new miniseries

Marc Guggenheim and Oleg Chudakov pit Captain Kirk and crew against their doppelgängers.

IDW continues to explore new and established frontiers in their Star Trek comics line, and their latest announcement points to more of the latter — Star Trek: The Motion Picture–Echos will follow the original crew in the immediate aftermath of the first Star Trek film.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit theaters way back in 1979, and its place in history stands as being the first Star Trek film and immediately proceeding the much more loved Wrath of Khan. I honestly couldn’t even tell you what the story was about, but it sounds like writer Marc Guggenheim and artist Oleg Chudakov thankfully have a better memory than I do.

“Despite watching the occasional fragment of a Star Trek episode here and there with my father, my true introduction was going to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture with my grandparents—I was entranced. I’m thrilled that IDW and Paramount Global have allowed me to revisit that time period, which was so impactful to me and my love of Star Trek,” Guggenheim said. “Almost all Trek stories are told from the point of view of the Enterprise crew, but I was interested in telling a story from the perspective of an outsider as a means of recapturing how it felt for me when I first saw Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

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Slugfest | Get ready for ‘The Gimmick’

Check out news and announcements featuring the X-Men, Captain Marvel, The Last Barbarians, Harrower, The Archies in India and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you from comics creators, publishers and more. Hit the links for more information.

Ahoy Comics has announced a new project by writer Joanne Starer (Sirens of the City; Away From Here) and artist Elena Gogou (Quests Aside) — The Gimmick, which is “how I imagine the Coen brothers would tell a story about the wrestling business,” Starer said.

Colorist Andy Troy, letterer Rob Steen and editor Tom Peyer round out the creative team.

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Guggenheim + Chaykin re-team for ‘Too Dead To Die’

The original graphic novel will return to the world of Simon Cross, a faux comic published in the 1980s.

Marc Guggenheim and Howard Chaykin, who previously worked together on Marvel’s Blade and Wolverine titles almost two decades ago, will reunite for Too Dead To Die, a new graphic novel coming from Image Comics.

Guggenheim said the story of a 1980s spy set in the world of today is an idea he’s been planning for years.

Too Dead To Die is one of those ideas I’ve been thinking about for years before the COVID quarantine gave me the opportunity to actually write it,” Guggenheim said. “I started off writing ‘on spec’ without any particular artist in mind. But 10 pages in, I realized that all the images I was seeing in my head were illustrated by Howard, whom I had the good fortune to collaborate with on Blade and Wolverine. I was writing with Howard in mind without realizing it. Fortunately, Howard was amenable to coming aboard and I love how he’s brought Simon’s story to life. It’s very exciting to be getting Too Dead To Die out into the world after all this time.”

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Starring in own miniseries, Yoda is

The 10-issue series will chronicle key moments in the Jedi master’s life..

Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim has brought news that Lucasfilm and Marvel plans to publish a 10-issue series about the life of Yoda.

The comic will be told in three arcs by writers Cavan Scott, Jody Houser and Marc Guggenheim and artists Nico Leon, Luke Ross and Alessandro Miracolo. It’ll be set moments before Yoda’s first appearance in Empire Strikes Back, as the ancient Jedi master reflects on key moments in his life before he meets Luke Skywalker.

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Mail Call | Shang-Chi’s mutant sister debuts in ‘Shang-Chi’ #3

Like fireworks lighting up the night sky comes a barrage of news, previews and announcements from Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, Mad Cave Studios and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.

Gene Luen Yang and Dike Ruan’s run on Marvel’s Shang-Chi has focused both on family and legacy, and in the third issue Marvel’s Master of Kung Fu finds out he has yet another sibling — and she’s a mutant.

Zhilan is a mutant warrior with a dazzling power: she can turn music into solidified energy. According to Marvel.com, she was exiled by Shang-Chi’s evil father years ago, and now Shang-Chi is seeking her out — as is the Krakoa mutant nation, which will lead to a confrontation with Wolverine.

Check out the variant cover by Michael Cho, along with some preview pages by Ruan, below:

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Dynamite launches new ‘Swords of the Swashbucklers’ series

Marc Guggenheim to write the new series, which starts in December.

After successfully funding a collection of the original Swords of the Swashbucklers series published by Marvel’s Epic Comics line in the 1980s, Dynamite Entertainment has announced an ongoing series featuring new stories about the space-faring pirates.

Swords of the Swashbucklers by Bill Mantlo and Jackson Guice began life as a graphic novel from Marvel back in 1984, followed by a 12-issue series. It’s about a teenage girl whose parents are kidnapped by an alien empire, so she joins up with a crew of space pirates to try and save them.

The new series will be written by Marc Guggenheim, current writer of X-Men Gold for Marvel. “Swords of the Swashbucklers has long been a favorite of mine and it remains one of the great high concepts in all of comics, which is unsurprising when you consider that Bill Mantlo and Butch Guice were the creative forces behind it. I’m humbled to continue their work and looking forward to introducing this remarkable comic to a whole new audience,” he said in a press release.

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