San Diego Comic-Con News:  At Marvel’s "Cup of Joe" panel, Joe Quesada introduced Marvel Comics’ first three Star Wars comic book series of the Twenty-First Century.  Marvel originally had the Star Wars comic license, when the first Star Wars trilogy became a huge hit, but the license has been in Dark Horse’s hands for years until the announcement last January that, in a bit of corporate synergy, Marvel Comics had once again acquired the rights to Star Wars comics, something that had been expected since Disney, which owns Marvel, acquired Lucasfilm (see "Marvel Gets 'Star Wars'").
 
The new Marvel Star Wars comic book series include Star Wars by Jason Aaron and John Cassaday, Star Wars: Darth Vader by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larocca, which are ongoing series, and Star Wars: Princess Leia by Mark Waid and Terry Dodson, which is a five issue limited series.  The flagship Star Wars book will launch in January of 2015 with another new series debuting each month through March.
 
All three of Marvel’s new Star Wars comics are set in the timeframe between the end of the first film in the original Star Wars trilogy, A New Hope and the second, The Emperor Strikes Back, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, the new comics will explore what happened as the Empire responded to the destruction of the Death Star.

In January Marvel announced that it will also begin releasing hardcover collections of its original Star Wars comics from the 1970s and 1980s (see “Marvel Kicks Off 'Star Wars' Program”).