When it was announced that Marvel would be taking over the publication of the Star Wars comic books, you had to assume they were going to put some of their top talents on the book. And if you didn’t assume that, you assumed wrong, because Marvel has announced their plans for the first set of Star Wars books, and it includes some of their top writers and artists.

Starting in January 2015, Marvel will launch three new comic books, all taking place just after the end of Star Wars: A New Hope. The line of comics starts in January with Star Wars by writer Jason Aaron (Thor, Original Sin) with art by John Cassaday (Uncanny Avengers). This series will follow all of the main characters in an all-new series of adventures set just after the Battle of Yavin.

Check out the covers for the first three issues below and let us know if you’re excited for this new era of Star Wars comics.

Yeah, I’m a little behind again, but one small week and one big week combine together so nicely. Lots of good books over the last few weeks, including a return of a favorite series, and an interesting new series. Here we go…

PULL LIST 08-06 & 08-13-08 Criminal #4 Buffy the Vampire Slayer #17 Final Crisis #3 Invincible Iron Man #4 Ultimate Origins #3 Secret Invasion #5 Secret Invasion: X-men #1 Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #2 Batman #679 Chuck #3 Zorro #6 Welcome to Hoxford #1 Atomic Robo: The Dogs of War #1

Criminal #4
Starting out this week, we get one of my favorite series, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip‘s Criminal. This issue starts a new arc, dealing with Jacob, who it turns out we met before in one of the previous stories. He’s the creator of a comic strip that has shown up in the book before, but he also has a past as a counterfeiter. His life kind of sucks; he has crippled legs, he suffers from insomnia, he’s very isolated, but all that changes when he’s pulled into a violent exchange. This is a set up issue for the rest of the arc, so there’s not a lot of action here, but Brubaker brings his usual skill to the story. It’s hard to talk about this series when everything is so consistently good. I would like to highlight the coloring by Val Staples in this issue. The use of color in this issue is very effective in showing the characters emotions, and I thought it was really well done. If you’ve been looking for a good time to check out this series, give this issue a shot. If you like good crime drama, this is the book for you. —5 out of 5