How Marvel’s Star Wars Comics Connect A New Hope to Empire Strikes Back

Via Comicbook.com:
So, you want to become an expanded universe reader. The Expanded Universe is the term fans dubbed for the Star Wars products that existed outside the core of the films. If you’re coming to it now, you’re in luck, as it just had a reboot of sorts.

The old Expanded Universe tried to maintain itself within the larger canon story of Star Wars as best it could, but across thirty years and literally hundreds of books and thousands of comic book issues, that task was nigh-impossible. With the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm, they established a new “Story Group,” and made those old Expanded Universe stories into “Legends.” The new Story Group has the task of making everything Star Wars fit into one, cohesive, all-canon story, from the live-action films to the animated series to the comic books and novels, and even storylines that happen in video games!

But where does that leave you, the growing Star Wars fan who is looking to check out the comics and novels for the first time? Well, it leaves you in a pretty good position, actually. Marvel Comics started up new Star Wars comics in January 2015, with a gradual addition of one per month. Star Wars is the name of the flagship title, principally starring Luke Skywalker, and also featuring Han Solo, Leia, Darth Vader, and even Boba Fett. Darth Vader occurs exactly concurrently with Star Wars. This ongoing series features Vader as the protagonist, telling some identical events from his perspective, and showing what else the Sith Lord is up to as he attempts to re-establish himself after the failure of the first Death Star’s destruction. Princess Leia features a side-mission for her, and the only book not in the original trilogy era, Kanan, features the lead from the animated series Star Wars Rebels.

Here’s what we know so far about how our main characters got from Episode IV to Episode V, thanks to the stories of Marvel’s comic series.

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