Brian Wood

January 16, 2014

MARVEL Adds “Star Wars” and Dark Horse’s Future: Part 2

macattack Brian Wood, Dark Horse, Jonathan Hickman, Marvel, star wars 0

A sequel to this post. Marvel Comics rarely takes on licensed products because their original characters are so lucrative. The most prominent title they had was based on the Halo videogame franchise. However, ironically enough, Marvel’s license to Halo has evidently expired as Dark Horse has begun releasing new Halo titles starting over the last few months. Marvel also took on the license to various Disney characters when BOOM! studios lost the rights to them. There is both reason for optimism and reasons for pessimism, all of which are understandable. Star Wars was the most significant title in Dark Horse’s stable, and without it Dark Horse, even with their addition of the Halo franchise and also the Doctor Who franchise, is going to take a major blow, which I will cover later in the third post on this subject. Where Marvel makes their money from is from their own original properties, whether in comic, video game, or theatrical format. That’s the primary reason why Marvel hasn’t taken on many licensed properties through the

January 6, 2014

MARVEL Adds “Star Wars” and Dark Horse’s Future: Part 1

macattack Brian Wood, Dark Horse, Del Rey, Marvel, star wars 0

This is perhaps the least-expected event of the last year regarding Star Wars since Disney acquired the franchise (along with Lucasflim in its entirety), but it has indeed happened. Marvel Comics will publish Star Wars comics starting in 2015, with Dark Horse losing the rights. This was expected ever since Disney purchased Star Wars, making this more of a melancholic affair for those who have enjoyed Dark Horse’s run with the license since the first title, Dark Empire, 25 years ago. A lot of stories have been published, all with finite lengths, with Dark Horse choosing to start another story once a current one had run its course, a contrary approach to Marvel and DC. And with the license now in the hands of Marvel, who, ironically enough, had it in the 1970s and early 1980s, the question remains how this will affect both companies. Dark Horse has released a post stating that they were prepared for this eventuality and have taken measures to offset the loss of Star Wars.