There are plenty of Star Wars comic book series, both large and small, to choose from in the post-Disney age of the franchise. With Marvel back at the helm since 2015, the galaxy far, far away has been thoroughly explored, with comics in several eras from across the Star Wars timeline. Now, Marvel's main Star Wars series is finally leaving original Star Wars movies behind and moving into the early days of the New Republic.
Does this mean Marvel's core Star Wars series will serve as a prequel of sorts to The Force Awakens? Not quite, as there's a 30-year gap between Return of the Jedi and the first of the sequel movies, which is a noticeably bigger space to play with than the over-explored era of the Empire's reign. Plenty of novels and even a handful of short comic book series have already added to it.
However, even with The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and the other Star Wars TV shows led by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni fleshing out the early years of the hopeful New Republic, there's a lot of potential in the three decades that lead up to the rise of the First Order, starting with the years prior to Din Djarin and Grogu's adventures.
In fact, Marvel.com has revealed this new chapter of interlinked Star Wars comics will begin this October with Star Wars: The Battle of Jakku – Insurgency Rising, an ambitious four-issue limited series written by Alex Segura (Star Wars: Poe Dameron – Free Fall) and drawn by Leonard Kirk (Alpha Flight), Stefano Raffaele (Hawkeye), and Jethro Morales (Star Wars: The High Republic – Shadows of Starlight).
The covers were drawn by veteran Phil Noto, and you can check out all four of them below:
Jakku was first introduced in The Force Awakens as the planet where Rey had been left behind by her parents, with wreckage of an old war reminding the new heroes of past battles. Chuck Wendig's Aftermath trilogy of novels wrapped up with a story that was concerned with what went down on Jakku when the Empire finally fell as a galaxy-wide faction. Then, Star Wars Battlefront II (2017) also spent some time on the planet during the Empire's last day.
Now, Marvel's three limited series, the first of which is the one we're discussing now, will expand on this pivotal moment of Star Wars canon while following "core characters" like Luke and Leia and teasing what the main Star Wars series will look like afterwards. Expect new villains too!
Of course, the future (and present) of Marvel's abundant Star Wars output goes beyond its main series, and we've also learned that a major panel at this weekend's San Diego Comic-Con will be full of exciting reveals and extended looks at upcoming Star Wars publishing releases, and not just from Marvel. For now, StarWars.com is teasing The Prequel Trilogy Graphic Novel, new High Republic Adventures installments, a brand-new Star Wars Encyclopedia, and more.
