The 'Star Wars'/Marvel Crossover Idea I Can't Stop Thinking About
After over a decade of restraint, Marvel Comics will crossover with 'Star Wars' in early 2027. I'm not excited by the premise—but it has kept me thinking about its potential.
Earlier this week, Marvel Comics broke the glass on an "in case of emergency" it has held onto for over a decade now: the announcement of the first-ever official crossover between the superheroes outside your window and the galaxy far, far away of Star Wars.
Titled Hope Assembles (blech) and from the creative team of writer Kevin Smith and artist David Marquez, the five-issue miniseries launches in January and imagines what would happen if reality shattered and the events of A New Hope started happening on Earth-616. It's a thoroughly dull idea, and the covers match—an array of proverbial cardboard cutouts of Star Wars characters littered between a swathe of MCU-starring superheroes, from the Avengers to the Fantastic Four to the Guardians of the Galaxy and beyond (Wolverine and Charles Xavier are allowed to be there—X-Men '97, now streaming on Disney+!).
It feels as corporately desperate as the whole endeavor sounds. I have no doubt that Smith may manage to squeeze some interesting moments out of it (I'm kind of dying at the prospect of Luke meeting Jean Grey or any telepath/telekinetic and promptly losing his entire farmboy mind), but nothing revealed so far sounds inspiring or like a reason that this was the idea that it was worth breaking an 11-year seal on for.
But, in my disdain, it did get me thinking. Rather flippantly after the announcement was made, I posted this on Bluesky:
James Whitbrook
I suggested a few more thereafter, running on a theme of Andor and mutantkind team-ups that were similarly flippant (I'd still read Mon Mothma Meets Jumbo Carnation, though). But for as boring as the idea of mashing together Star Wars and Marvel feels, I kept coming back to Emma Frost and Dedra Meero. And I haven't been able to stop wondering about it.