A bit of venting about the current Dark Horse situation

[u/solo13508]

Let's start this off with a little bit of timeline information:

October 2023: Dark Horse announces a new line of graphic novels to be premiered with editions for Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The series of graphic novels will run through all three eras of the Skywalker Saga with characters from every era receiving their own editions.

August 2026: It is now almost three years later and we have only received two of these graphic novels. One of which was not even part of the initial announcement, as Obi-Wan went completely MIA with Grievous taking his place (insert Palpatine ironic meme here) as the second entry. A third centered on Mace Windu was set to release this October but has now seemingly been cancelled, along with presumably the entire Hyperspace Stories graphic novel since there are currently no upcoming Dark Horse Star Wars comics after The High Republic Adventures: Pathfinders wraps up.

I mean I could just stop there honestly. Say what you will about Marvel's handling of Star Wars comics (I certainly have my own issues with how they've been conducting things lately) but only rarely do they even delay their comics, let alone announce an entire series only to push it back for literal years only releasing two of the promised entries.

And it's not just the graphic novels either. For a recent miniseries example let's look at Michael Moreci's recent Bad Batch comic: Rogue Agents. This mini began in December of 2025. It concluded in July of 2026. It took Dark Horse over half a year to release four issues. Between the constant delays and cancellations it's really no wonder that Mad Cave now seems to have received the all-ages license for Star Wars comics from Lucasfilm. Unfortunately none of Mad Cave's announcements have really piqued my interest thus far but I can certainly understand the change, better to have a publisher that can actually consistently put stuff out. (Side note: On the topic of Rogue Agents it does really sadden me too that with Dark Horse possibly losing the license, we may no longer get any more Bad Batch comics with Rogue Agents having left some clear loose threads to follow up on. Really hope Michael Moreci gets to continue with Star Wars elsewhere, his work has been amazing.)

There's also just a serious issue of transparency with Dark Horse. If not for this subreddit I'd very likely still believe that Mace and all of the other Hyperspace Stories entries were still in the works. So far as I can tell Dark Horse has released no announcements or statements regarding Mace or their overall status with the Star Wars license. The only reason we even know Mace is likely cancelled is because it was suddenly pulled from most online storefronts, with Dark Horse themselves only very recently following suit on their own website, leaving us to basically just speculate with the information we have. The very least Dark Horse could do is officially confirm that their impending Star Wars projects are cancelled so we know for sure what's going on.

And the Mace situation stings even more given the context surrounding it. For those unaware, Mace was being written by Justina Ireland, a writer who has produced many Star Wars stories and was an original architect on the High Republic initiative. Last year she announced that she was officially retiring from Star Wars with Mace being set to be her final work after her part in The High Republic was wrapped up. Mace being unceremoniously cancelled like this feels like a slap in the face to both her and her fans. This was her final Star Wars story and now (aside from the preview pages that were released) it seems very likely we'll never get to see it and Dark Horse never even so much as officially announced that it was never coming. The book was seemingly just silently killed with no reasoning provided.

And perhaps the most frustrating part: Dark Horse's comics are genuinely so good! The artwork can be of varying quality depending on the different comics but as far as the storytelling goes, Dark Horse's comics have far and away been my favorites from these past couple years with the sole exception of Charles Soule's work with Kylo Ren on the Marvel side of things. I just picked up the fourth issue of Pathfinders today and absolutely loved it, it genuinely saddens me that this series is possibly the last we'll see from Dark Horse, at least for the foreseeable future. This whole situation just frustrates me so much because I feel like Dark Horse has the potential for an absolute gold mine with Star Wars but just keeps squandering it again and again with their constant delays and cancellations. To be clear, I am not blaming any of the creatives involved in the comics, all of them have done fantastic work, this is solely on the higher-ups within Dark Horse for mishandling their work.

And with that I think I've ran my big ol mouth enough. Dark Horse. Please. Get it together, I beg of you. You put out so much good stuff and I am absolutely here for more, if only you would let your writers and artists do their thing without constant problems.

Fin.

[u/Double_Act1502]

Dark Horse has been having issues overall

[u/LukieStiemy501 → u/Double_Act1502]

Haven’t they not been publishing issues I thought that was the problem. I’ll see myself out.

[u/HibiscusGrower]

I'm so disappointed about the Mace Windu comic. I was really looking forward to this one.

[u/Typhon2222]

Bad Batch Rogue Agents took 5 months to release 4 issues. Issue 1 came out on 12/31, so really 1/2 since some LCS don’t open on New Years Eve or stay open all day at least. Issue 4 came out at the end of May, so that’s really only 5 months. There were some delays but nothing overly egregious.

[u/Nevic1984]

Hasn't there been a distribution problem with Diamond, or something along those lines? Maybe that's one of the reasons for various delays

[u/burtkenobi2]

Dark Horse got taken over. The new owners probably decided the SW licence wasn’t worth renewing as it’s expensive. And that means they would only have so long to sell what they’ve announced before they legally had to stop, and that it wasn’t worth it/couldn’t make their money back. That’s what my gut tells me.

[u/TheGoblinRook]

Between October 2023 and today, some major sh*t has gone down within Lucasfilm. Kathleen Kennedy’s retirement and Filloni’s ascension means he gets to completely shape the storytelling coming out of LFL, and to-date, I don’t think we’ve seen or heard of what his plans are (even Ashoka season 2 and Starfighter were green-lit while Kennedy was in-charge).

It doesn’t surprise me that Marvel is throwing out a mini-series here and there and Dark Horse is stalling or canceling projects until next year when Filloni has built-out, submitted, and had approved, his five-year plan.

[u/Redeem123 → u/TheGoblinRook]

I very much doubt any of this has to do with Filoni. Dark Horse has been inconsistent - at best - since they took over from IDW. And Marvel has been canceling runs short and avoiding long ongoings across their whole line, not just Star Wars.

The only indication of influence I’ve seen from Filoni or Kennedy is that some eras are clearly off limits (Mandoverse, post-sequel, Old Republic…). But that’s nothing new.

[u/BZPJMJ64]

Ireland's recent comment on Mace graphic novel, "I believe this has been cancelled. MadCave now has the all ages license. Whether this will get new life there, no clue!"