The biggest news story about comics last week was that Disney would be moving the license to produce Star Wars comic books from Dark Horse, the license holder for over 22 years, to Marvel Comics, which is part of the Disney Empire. This was certainly big news but it was something we had all expected since Disney bought Lucasfilm.
What was more surprising and for me more exciting was that Jim Starlin will be producing new Marvel comics featuring his creations. Jim Starlin is one of my favorite creators, his work isn’t always perfect but it’s interesting and usually inventive. He’s a creator that Marvel owes a debt they can/will never be able to repay (with Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Steve Ditko, Chris Claremont, Len Wein, Steve Gerber, Bill Mantlo…).
What was particularly fun about this story was that it kept developing throughout the week.
On Monday, Marvel Comics selected Newsarama to announce that in 2014 they would be releasing a new 100 page original graphic novel writen and drawn by Jim Starlin featuring his creations Thanos and Drax and a character, my favorite, who he redefined Adam Warlock.
Later that day, Newsarama published an interview with Starlin where he mentioned that “Thanos: The Infinity Revelation†was just one of three interconnected projects he was doing for Marvel.
On Friday, Comic Book Resources published its own interview with Starlin and he specified that the three projects would all star Thanos.
That same day, Heidi MacDonald published Starlin’s response to her Annual Year End Survey where Starlin named the remaining projects. The two remaining projects, yet to be officially announced, are a four-issue story arc on “Savage Hulk†(no such title currently exists) that he will write and pencil and a 30-page story for a “Thanos Annual†that he will write.
There’s still no announcement as to when we can expect to see these comic books but the Guardians of the Galaxy movie (featuring many of Starlin’s characters and concepts) opens August 1st, so I expect these to come out before then. I also expect that Marvel will announce it’s April solicitations next week, so I expect the Infinity Revelation will be included in those and available in April.
The Savage Hulk, if that title is correct, is probably a new series like the Avenging Spider-Man and Savage Wolverine. Two titles with rotating creators telling stories that may or may not be in continuity. Starlin is a great creator to launch the title with since I’m already excited for it.