Two men in iron masks walk into a comic. Neither has much of a complexion left, both have serious views about capes, and each is quite certain the galaxy would run better if the other would only kneel. On Thursday, Marvel unveiled two new variant covers for Star Wars | Marvel: Hope Assembles #1, the first official crossover between the Marvel Universe and the galaxy far, far away, and the one getting the attention is Matteo Lolli’s foil variant: Darth Vader, lightsaber blazing, nose to grille with Doctor Doom, whose gauntlets are crackling with green sorcery. The second new cover, Cory Smith’s A New Hope variant, drops Wolverine, the Hulk and Black Widow into the Death Star’s trash compactor, which must be the first time the Avengers have been introduced to a dianoga.
The series is written by Kevin Smith, drawn by David Marquez and timed for Star Wars‘ fiftieth birthday. The pitch is that a reality-breaking spell lets Marvel’s heroes watch the events of A New Hope play out on Earth-616. Before long the Avengers and Spider-Man are fighting alongside Luke, Leia, Han and Chewbacca, while Doctor Doom, never one to miss a chance at an empire, throws in his lot with Vader. Smith has said that reading Marvel’s Star Wars comics as a boy in the early 1980s left him wishing Spider-Man or Doom would turn up in Luke’s adventures. Forty-odd years later, he’s been handed the keys to both toy boxes.
Collectors’ wallets should brace themselves. Issue one already carries an Alex Ross Alliance variant pairing Spider-Man with Luke Skywalker, a Kaare Andrews Battle variant that got to Vader versus Doom first at New York Comic Con, a Dan Jurgens Retro variant, and Rafael Albuquerque’s Crossover cover, which hands Vader the Infinity Gauntlet. Handing the power to wipe out half of all life to a man who stood by and watched Alderaan go pop feels like a safeguarding failure on somebody’s part.
The Vader versus Doom match-up is the one fans have been sketching in school exercise books for decades, and on paper it’s tougher on Vader than it looks. Doom rules a country, refers to himself in the third person and once stole the power of a god. Vader, for all his menace, spends much of A New Hope taking orders from Grand Moff Tarkin. Doom would find that frankly embarrassing. Vader would point out that Doom has never once used the Force to strangle an underperforming admiral. Both would be right.
There’s a neat bit of history here, too. Marvel published its first Star Wars comic in April 1977, weeks before the film reached cinemas, when nobody knew whether the space western with the walking carpet would be a hit. Fifty years on, the two universes belong to the same corporation and are finally allowed to share a page. One point of housekeeping: the series was announced in August as a five-issue run, but Marvel’s latest listings bill issue one as “#1 (of 6)”, so it may have grown in the telling. Issue one goes on sale on 13 January 2027. Expect queues, and quite a lot of heavy breathing.
If you want to bag a copy, UK readers can add the series to a pull list at Ace Comics. In the US, Stadium Comics is taking pre-orders for the Lolli foil cover, and for completists with deep pockets it also offers a pack of eight of the issue one covers. Your local comic shop will, of course, be delighted to order it in too.
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