Dark Horse vs. Marvel

Well one of the biggest differences at this point in time is that the Marvel comics are under the control of the Lucasfilm Story Group, so the comics are constrained to a pretty narrow time frame at the moment. They have been mostly great though, with the exception of the Chewbacca and Princess Leia mini series. I hope that Marvel gets the go ahead to explore more time periods as time goes on, particularly the Old Republic era.

 

I loved a lot of the old Dark Horse stuff but I stopped reading it in the late 90's, have only got back into the marvel ones now but I'm enjoying them so far but I felt Shattered Empire was rushed.

 

Dark Horse published so much material that the quality ranges from 0/10 to 10/10. Dark Empire 1 was a good comic but didn't belong in the canon. Dark Empire 2 and Empire's End are plotless nonsense. Tales of the Jedi is a cool look at the history of the galaxy, feels like Star Wars, and layed the foundation for KOTOR. The Darth Maul miniseries is excellent. I love when Sidious says of Black Sun "the ignorant think they're the most powerful beings in the galaxy," and when one Black Sun member says to another, "The Sith do not exist. They are a story told to frighten children."

 

Well The Dark Horse built the SW Expanded Universe with excelent Comics.

Not all the Dark Horse Comics were excelent but the bulk was incredibely good, and they do pick on every single Star Wars Bit, Old Republic, Empire and Rebellium and even the Legacy, expanding the story beyond our own imagination (my favorites are the "Tales of the Jedi" and all the "Legacy", but did anyone remembers the adaptation of "The Splinters of the mind eye")

Marvel is just starting to develop their stories but their time frame is very narrow limiting the plot and the chast options, but a good call to make a "Darth Vader" ongoing and a "Lando" miniserie. So far i think there isn't much to compare with betwen the two, years and years of several comics for Dark Horse and one year and limited time frame for Marvel, so far Marvel's take is good enough to even be compared to, and that's a good thing.

One final word for the Marvel first Run on StarWars, ok the quality was really lame and little kids orientated but they had "Empire Strikes Back" adaptation wich is probably one the best SW Comics, the SW Annuals are actually pretty good ones, there's a couple of good Archie Goodwins stories in the last ones but i agree that Joe Duffy killed the Marvel SW last 50 comics, BUT the period after ESB adaptation has amazing stories (kinda SW 25 tp Sw 60) with tremendous artwork by Carmine Infantino, telling the stories of the Rebel Alliance against Darth Vader's Empire without Han Solo, out of my mind i remember: Lando's returning to Bespin and facing Lobot, the Tarkin Superweapon destruction, Lando in a junk planet battling a centipede, Luke and Leia finding the Last Jedi, Luke's X Wing landing on an ancient planet ruins and faceing everybody, and so on........

 

Star Wars: Republic was exceptional, as was Star Wars: Legacy.

I haven't seen anything that immersive published by Marvel. So far, their stories are mostly quite surface-level and overly focused on the OT years. That 4-5 year timeframe is already feeling cluttered with moments that take away from the saga, like Luke and Vader meeting multiple times. It's just not... interesting.

 

I loved Tales of the Jedi. Also went back this week and bought the omnibus editions of KOTOR and really enjoyed them.

 

Still too soon to tell IMO.

 

I agree, but Marvel has a done a good job fleshing out stories. I felt while Dark horse had amazing series', especially Star Wars: Legacy, until the end of the run, they didn't know how to really capture the epicness of the movies. They were also heavily limited by the later books, so a great series like Legacy was set 150 years after just to avoid any issues. The comics for the most part flesh out the OT, which once purged, had very little. We have to remember, that most of the EU was AFTER ROTJ, so other than Shadows, it was not too big (but the movies are amazing, so ). So while Marvel has done a huge job in fleshing out know characters, it has also introduced very intriguing characters like Kanan through the combination of different media, and are even exploring the PT with Obi-Wan & Anakin. I think it's a tie, but its really Marvel's Quality vs Dark horse's Quantity at this point. If Marvel keeps it up, Marvel has been not only amazing to Star Wars, but to its own comics and impressive work.

 

Besides the fact that Marvel has just started comparing to long run Dark Horse, there's one particular difference between both: the new canon has on-going, unlimited movie projects, not just for the saga but also for standalone films. IMO this means that the story group will save the greatest stories for the films, thought they are doing a great work expanding OT characters such as Vader.

That said, if we talk about the art, I'm a big fan of the Dark Horse Comics, ranging different styles, some of them bolt. Kam Kennedy for instance did an incredible Dark Empire.







I can't remember a single DHC that I didn't like graphically. I can't say the same for Marvel. Some comics were great, such as Kanan, Lando and Shattered Empire, but others had low quality art. This cover by Larroca, for instance, looks like a fanfic webcomic:

 

For me the marvel comics have been lacking in the art department. Comics are a medium to explore different types of artistic styles and I think Dark Horse was so good at hiring different artists. Dark Horse had such a variety of interesting styles of art and pencil work. Different lighting and designs for different stories and characters. I agree my favorite was Cam Kennedy, his art is so amazing in Dark Empire. IMO I think of the newest marvel comics, the one with the most creative and different design was the C-3PO comic. It was nice to see something different.

 

I was really upset when Dark Horse comics lost the Star Wars license. I've been collecting DH SW comics from the beginning. I discovered Dave Dorman one of my favorite SW cover artist with DH comics, so much great and creative work came out of DH comics. I've got 2 comic long boxes to attest to that... haha. I've been collecting Marvel comics for over 30 years and so far they're doing a fine job. I thought it would be crappy campy stuff but for now their on the right path. Lando, Kanan, and OB1's journal tales in the on-going SW comic are all pretty good.

 

I have been enjoying the Marvel stuff. The only thing I wish is that they would cut back some on the variant issues. There are way to many out there for a collector on a budget. Some stories are great, others leave room for improvement. The ones needing improvement I feel were a money grab by Marvel and Disney. I have high hopes for the future though.

 

I agree! And c3po is a difficult character to draw!

Indeed! Inmonen in the ongoing series is great. Such a good artist. He nails Luke Skywalker.



I was happy when he popped-up on the series, because I don't like Cassaday. I guess it's also a matter of timing. Marvel is probably pushing his artists too hard in some cases.

 

I really enjoyed Dark Horse in the heyday of when they had the license, but once they switched to the trend of releasing every arc as a separate series with months of hiatus in-between I began to get tired of them. What's more those months of hiatus in most cases didn't contribute to the quality at all, and I would say their work from this period was actually weaker. My favorite series by them are Republic, Legacy, and Dark Times, and again all of those had either the entirety of their run, or the majority of it when they were on a continuous release schedule. The Darth Vader series is the only book other than Dark Times that I feel maintained quality toward the end of the license. I would have liked to see where Legacy vol 2 was going, but the book never had time to get it's narrative started before they were trying to rush through it due to the expiration.

Marvel has had some slips in their limited series, but overall I've enjoyed the majority of what they have put out. The quality feels much more consistent to that of Dark Horse's many ups and downs.

 

Some of my favorite dark horse panels from various comics:

 

Love the dark horse, some great stories to read, then read again.

 

I've collected all the new MARVEL books up to date and they're God awful, except for Kanan.
DC did a far better job with their stories and art.

I dislike how Marvel locks its seller books "Star Wars", "Darth Vader", "Dr.Aphra" into this boring realistic drawing style.
The art is so stale, with photoshoped backgrounds and cheap blur effects.

DC books had a lot more variety in terms of style and writing. So far I'm disappointed in the comics.

 

I'm assuming you mean Dark Horse and not DC .

 

Haha, yeah. I was so much into my rant I totally confused it. Nice catch! ))