By Ken
Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm are teaming up for a historic first with Star Wars/Marvel: Hope Assembles, a five-issue limited series launching in January 2027 as part of the 50th-anniversary celebration of Star Wars: A New Hope. Written by longtime comic-book fan and filmmaker Kevin Smith with artwork by David Marquez, the story will officially bring the Star Wars galaxy into Marvel’s primary Earth-616 universe. After a mysterious spell fractures reality, Marvel heroes begin witnessing the events of Star Wars unfold around them, setting the stage for Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca and other familiar faces to encounter heroes including Spider-Man and the Avengers.
The crossover will also bring together some of pop culture’s most famous villains. Doctor Doom is expected to align himself with Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire, forcing the heroes of both universes into an unlikely alliance. The project is especially significant because, although Marvel has published Star Wars comics since 1977, this marks the first official story in which Marvel superheroes and Star Wars characters directly cross over. Running from January through May 2027, Hope Assembles is being positioned as both a celebration of five decades of Marvel’s connection to Star Wars and a massive “what if?”-style event bringing together two of the biggest fictional universes ever created.
As a huge fan of both franchises, I myself am looking forward to reading this massive crossover! Now are hard core fans of both franchises skeptical that this 5-issue run will be any good? Of course! But I have faith in Kevin Smith and am a fan of most of his work. It will be interesting to see how some of these heroes and villains with big egos try to find a way to co-exist. Vader and Doom, Luke Skywalker and Spider-Man, Han Solo and Chewie with the Guardians of the Galaxy is a must team up! I’m going into this not expecting something overly serious, but at the same time I don’t think it’ll be something completely ridiculous either. So come January 2027, True Believers Unite! – KEN
Chad