Sneak Peak at Upcoming Princess Leia Comic Book Mini-Series

Marvel Entertainment will focus the reintroduction of its publishing STAR WARS titles in 2015 (they originally had the licensing rights from 1977 through 1986) with three new comic books - a Star Wars ongoing monthly series beginning in January, a Darth Vader ongoing monthly series beginning in February and a 5 issue Princess Leia mini-series beginning in March.  Here's a sneak peek courtesy of StarWars.com at the first few pages from the first issue of the upcoming PRINCESS LEIA mini-series written Mark Waid (Daredevil) with artwork by Terry Dodson (Uncanny X-Men):

 

The first issue of the mini-series begins with the medal ceremony that took place at the conclusion of the film A New Hope ( aka the original Star Wars movie).  The theme of this comic book mini-series will be on how does Leia handle being a princess for a world that no longer exists. Waid discussed the plot in an interview he did with StarWars.com about Marvel's new publications:

"So it's a five-issue story that takes her across the galaxy in search of others of her kind to try and pull them together," Waid says. "Of course, some of them are going to be suspect, because they suspect this could be some sort of weird trap by the Empire. Some of them are going to be very angry, as they rightly or wrongly blame the house of Organa for what happened. Obviously, Leia will be traveling as low profile as she possibly can. If and when the Empire gets wind of the fact that Leia is doing is this, they're going to be very interested themselves in what she's doing, what she thinks she's doing, and what information there is to be mined from these people."

PRINCESS LEIA #1 will be available to read in March, 2015.

Battlestar Galactica is going SteamPunk

Dynamite Comics is taking the Battlestar Galactica franchise steampunk in an upcoming 4 issue mini-series that is starting in August.  Steampunk is a genre of science fiction that has gained a tremendous amount of popularity over the last decade, this year's FREE COMIC BOOK DAY event included a Star Wars steampunk edition in its offerings for example, which features steam-powered machinery in an alternative history where technology didn't advance beyond that of the 19th century British Victorian/American "Wild West" time period in stories.  Other themes also include post-apocalyptic Earth where our technology has regressed back to steam power or fantasy alien worlds where steampunk is their current culture and technology level.  The mini-series will be titled "Steampunk Battlestar Galactica 1880."

This Battlestar Galactica mini-series removes the space faring element from the story and retells it with similar characters and elements taking place in a fantasy steampunk world.  Here's the new story:

After Professor Baltar's clockwork Cylonics destroy the Colonial Empire, Arch Duke Adama learns that his son Apollo is missing! It is up to Lady Athena to travel to the Sky Pirate world of the Rising Star and ask for help from the only hope she has - the disgraced Captain Starbuck and his humanoid / Daggit copilot Muffit.

Check out a sample of some of the artwork from Steampunk Battlestar Galactica 1880:

From the artwork and story description this looks to be a fun spinoff of the original Battlestar Galactica television show.  It should be really interesting to see how all the costumes and tech are steampunked in this comic book.  You can already see in the previews that they have giant and regular sized clock-work cylons and flying sailing ships battling it out.  I'm looking forward to picking up a copy of the first issue when it comes out in a few weeks and seeing all of the imaginative steampunk twists they take off of this classic science fiction space drama.