Marvel Comics recently announced their upcoming collection, dedicated to spotlighting Black characters in “Star Wars” as part of their celebrations for Black History Month.
Announced in partnership with Lucasfilm, the comic book company will simultaneously honor both Black History Month and the 10th anniversary of Marvel Comics’ newest “Star Wars” series with four new covers.
All created by Black graphic artists, each cover will feature a character originating from earlier Star Wars media, such as the original Star Wars media, to newer shows and games like Star Wars: The Acolyte and Star War Outlaws.
Along with rebel Lando Calrissian, leader Mother Aniseya and twin sisters Osha & Mae from “Star Wars: The Acolyte” will feature on covers for the collection. Bounty hunter Vail from the first open-world Star Wars game, “Star Wars Outlaws,” will also be part of the project.
The artists involved in the project include Karen S. Darboe, Mateus Manhanini, Ernanda Souza and Ken Lashley.
“The collection represents a wide range of Star Wars media, including recent projects like Star Wars: The Acolyte and Star Wars Outlaws, with some characters making their first-ever comic book appearance,” said Marvel in a press release. “The covers also coincide with the 10th anniversary of the return of Star Wars storytelling to Marvel Comics.”
Throughout Star Wars history, there have been a number of notable Black characters. Multiple actors, however, have been subjects of racism from the fandom, with actor Amandla Stenberg most recently releasing a song to address the racism they received as lead of The Acolyte.
“Happy Juneteenth and to those who are flooding me with intolerable racism—since it took me 72 hours on my laptop to make this song and video, u got 72 hours to respond. and I expect choreo,” wrote Stenberg on Instagram alongside her track “discourse.”
To celebrate #BlackHistoryMonth, #MarvelComics and @starwars unite to spotlight Black characters from the galaxy far, far away in a new series of variant covers, coming in February. Learn more now: https://t.co/cC9ENQ2AzG pic.twitter.com/VIrrjh9L9r
— Marvel Comics (@MarvelComicsHQ) December 6, 2024
After his co-star Kelly Marie Tran received racist backlash for her character, actor John Boyega, who played Finn in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” was also subjected to racist abuse, particularly after saying that he felt that his character was sidelined.
“You get yourself involved in projects, and you’re not necessarily going to like everything,” Boyega said per a GQ interview. “[But] what I would say to Disney is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up.”
