Marvel Unveil Stunning 40th Anniversary Star Wars Variant Covers

It may seem hard to believe, but next year in 2017, Star Wars will turn forty years old. Yup, the biggest franchise of all time will have finally existed for four entire decades, and the gigantic impact it’s had on popular culture in that time is simply undeniable.

Marvel, who have been publishing Star Wars comics since January 2015, will release several variant covers featuring illustrations of iconic moments from A New Hope to commemorate this milestone. Revealed over on the official Star Wars website, there will be no fewer than 48 variant covers in total, with contributing artists including Kevin Wada, David Lopez, Mike Mayhew, Juan Gimenez, and Ultimate Spider-Man’s Stuart Immonen So yeah, Star Wars fans are gonna have pretty empty pockets come 2017.

The re-acquisition of the Star Wars license (they also held the comic rights to the series from 1977-87) has proved incredibly profitable for Marvel, with the first issue of the main series sold and incredible 985,976 copies in its first month alone. Aside from reprints, all of Marvel’s Star Wars publications are part of the new Canon continuity, as opposed to the now retconned Legends timeline, so expect to see them directly tie into the new movies.

star wars marvel cover8

If you want to get in on some of the action, ComiXology are currently hosting a sale on the collected editions.

Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.