Ever since Disney bought Lucasfilm in October of 2012, comic books fans have been wondering when the Star Wars universe would be integrated into the company’s other big subsidiary, Marvel Entertainment. Well the answer is here as Marvel has announced that in 2015, the company will begin publishing exclusive Star Wars comic books and graphic novels. Here is a snippet from the press release sent out today:
While this is great news for new fans, it could spell trouble ahead for Dark Horse Comics, which is the current publisher for Star Wars comics. This shift to Marvel was inevitable after Disney purchased Lucasfilm, but the Star Wars license is a big part of Dark Horse’s current success. In response to this news, Dark Horse founder, Mike Richardson, had this to say:
The consistent money brought in from the Star Wars license helped Dark Horse experiment with more niche books over the years that wouldn’t have been possible without the money from Lucasfilm, such as Hellboy, The Massive, and Mind MGMT. With the licensing deal now gone, Dark Horse has a huge gap in its comic book line that won’t be easy to fill.
Marvel, on the other hand, is now in charge of one of the most profitable franchises in the comic book industry. No new books have been announced yet, but you can imagine that creators will be flocking to Marvel for a chance to work on anything related to Star Wars, especially with a new movie trilogy about to hit theaters. While it's great to see Star Wars in good hands, let’s just hope this loss doesn’t hurt Dark Horse’s future too much.
[via Marvel, Dark Horse Comics]
