Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
The apparent replacement for the Chuck Wendig Shadow of Vader series has been announced: Vader: Dark Visions. Marvel fired Wendig in October for being “too vulgar, too political” on Twitter and canceled the book last month.
The new limited new series is written by Dennis Hopeless with art from Paolo Villanelli and Brian Level. The first issue is due in March.
Continue reading “Shadow of Vader replacement series announced”
Only a week after announcing a new project at NYCC, Marvel has fired writer Chuck Wendig, the author first revealed on Twitter. Shadow of Vader #1-3 will go ahead as planned, but he’s off the last two issues, as well as another Star Wars comic that hasn’t been announced yet.
The firing was over his Twitter feed, Wendig says (and verified by sources within Marvel, per Vulture.) “I was too vulgar, too political,” he tells them.
Neither trait is particularly new for Wendig’s Twitter feed – he’s always been vulgar, and political, and unapologetic, particularly when butting heads with the more obstinate parts of fandom. What has changed in the past week or so is that he’s attracted the attention of some of Twitter’s more high-profile right-wing personalities, resulting in a fresh wave of trolling. That puts this more in the range of a situation like James Gunn’s – and the implications are that this is yet another example of Marvel (though the comic side and the movie side are very much removed from each other) caving to right-wing pressure. Granted, Wendig has been getting the short end of the troll stick since Aftermath – something he brings up for context – but the higher-profile attacks have brought a much more relentless wave.
The firing is 100% Marvel – neither Lucasfilm nor Del Rey were involved, something Wendig affirmed in a follow-up tweet thread. Love or hate Wendig or his work, this is still a disturbing trend.
There were only a handful of Star Wars fiction reveals at NYCC this afternoon, but they’re pretty sizable ones! We get the final cover for Claudia Gray’s Master & Apprentice. The art is by Alice X. Zhang. We also have a brand-new book announcement: Alphabet Squadron, by Alexander M. Freed, will feature “Rebel pilots hunting down Imperials,” apparently set post-ROTJ. Master & Apprentice is due in April, and StarWars.com says that Alphabet Squadron is due in June.
Continue reading “NYCC: Cover for Gray’s Master & Apprentice, new Freed novel on tap”
Coming to the Star Wars comics line in January… A one-shot about Benecio Del Toro’s DJ. Today’s Star Wars Show revealed that the issue will be about DJ leading into The Last Jedi. (There’s also a Chuck Wendig interview.)
→ An interview with Lucasfilm publishing’s creative director Michael Siglain sheds some light behind the scenes of producing Star Wars books.
→ From A Certain Point of View authors Meg Cabot, Nnedi Okorafor and Mallory Ortberg discuss their stories. Jason Fry has posted the notes for his story, ‘Duty Roster.’
The special New York Comic Con panel about the Star Wars 40th Anniversary anthology features several of the book’s 40-something writers, including moderator Pablo Hidalgo, Claudia Gray, Delilah Dawson, Jason Fry, E.K. Johnston and more.
The general publishing panel video is also out, and added to the original news post.
Because this week brings Force Friday and the first wave of The Last Jedi tie-ins, we have three release days this week instead of the usual two – as well as a lot of product. There’s a lot going on, basically.
Continue reading “Star Wars out this week: Force Friday fiction, Rebels S3 Blu-ray”
Del Rey will be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of A New Hope with From a Certain Point of View, a new anthology that will feature 40 stories from the viewpoints of the movie’s minor characters.
Coming in October in an oversized hardcover, the anthology will feature more than 40 authors, including both established Star Wars writers (Chuck Wendig, John Jackson Miller, Gary Whitta) and those new to the franchise (Meg Cabot, Ken Liu, Nnedi Okorafor.) All the authors are donating their proceeds to the charity First Book.
The book will be out in October and is available for preorder now.
The mass market paperback edition of Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath: Life Debt drops Tuesday. I gave it a B back when the hardcover came out.
Rogue One is out in digital now; next Tuesday brings the Blu-ray and DVD versions, plus a new Star Wars Visual Encyclopedia.
Del Rey has announced their Celebration Orlando activities, and they’ll have three panels. The biggest, which will feature what’s “in the works for 2017 and beyond” is Saturday at 1:00 p.m. and will have authors Chuck Wendig, Christie Golden, Timothy Zahn, and Delilah S. Dawson, plus Del Rey’s Elizabeth Schaefer. There’s also five University talks with various authors and a whole boatload of signings.
Their exclusives are a Thrawn pin – which you get when you buy the Celebration edition of Zahn’s new book – and a tote bag which is free with #25 in purchases from any of the Penguin Random House booths. (AKA Del Rey, Random House Audio and DK.)
Empire’s End finishes off the Aftermath trilogy with a satisfying conclusion for some, and even more questions for others! In other words, it’s a Star Wars novel in the year 2017.
I’ve found myself cooling a bit on the trilogy as time goes on. Not enough that I won’t still recommend it, but simply as a function of the timing involved. When Aftermath was released, we were months away from The Force Awakens, and in the fever-pitch of anticipation. Anything was a possible hint! Life Debt came out months after, and we had a better idea of what to expect. And now, Empire’s End, when we’re just barely starting to ramp up to The Last Jedi. And I’m finding my old intertrilogy/original character apathy begin to creep in, a little.
Which is not to say Empire’s End is a bad read, mind.
A continued lack of spoilers beneath the cut. Continue reading “Review: Empire’s End (mostly) crushes the empire, finishes off Aftermath trilogy”