May the Spidey Sense Be with You
By Dan Brown I knew this day would come. The Marvel and Star Wars universes are finally converging. January will see the release of Hope Assembles, a five-part comic series in which the good guys and bad guys from each franchise team up. You’ll be able to see Wolverine, for example, joining forces with Han Solo and Chewbacca. Darth Vader gets a new ally in the form of Doctor Doom. Luke Skywalker and Captain America fight side-by-side. This is the first time this has happened. Naturally, fans are losing their heads. Some are calling the crossover awesome, some absurd, some an act of desperation. After it was announced last week, one internet pundit called the exercise “mashing the action figures together” for its own sake, not because the creative team has a story to tell. In other words, it’s the kind of thing a child would do while playing in his bedroom, not something that a serious comic publisher would actually attempt. Details about the plot are scarce at this point. Kevin Smith is writing the series, with David Marquez providing the art. What is known is the Star Wars cast of characters from 1977 will be drawn to Earth-616, the main Marvel Universe, by means of “a reality-shattering spell.” In keeping with crossover tradition, the tale will take place outside the regular continuity of both worlds. While alternative universes have been a staple of Marvel Comics for decades, they’re not a Star Wars thing. The event is part of parent company Disney’s plans to mark the 50th anniversary of the release of Star Wars next year. And it’s impossible to ignore the wider context. On the comic side, Marvel has lost its market-leading position to DC’s Absolute line of titles. The last Star Wars movie, the Mandalorian and Grogu, was a dud at the box office. Disney needs for these underperforming subsidiaries to generate some magic. The announcement last week billed Hope Assembles as Smith’s love letter to Star Wars. “Lifelong lovers of both Star Wars and Marvel have a lot to look forward to as we finally bring the characters together in ways fans have been dreaming about for decades!” Marvel Editor-in-Chief Stephen Wacker enthused. Does Smith have a story he’s been burning to tell, or is this just a case of squeezing merch from two different properties into the same box? And don’t forget, big-event crossovers featuring heroes from different universes have a checkered history. When Superman boxed Muhammad Ali in the 1970s, for example, the catch was that the Man of Steel was prevented from using his superpowers while fighting the champion pugilist. That kind of hokey plot device has been at the heart of a lot of these teamups. But let’s suppose Hope Assembles moves lots of units. Where does Disney go from there? Is this series the preliminary first step leading down the road to a combined animated series, or even a live-action motion picture? No one knows for sure. All I can tell you is, I feel a disturbance in the Force. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group book club.
