Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Avengers: Age of Ultron combined made 2015 one of Disney’s most successful year ever in box office history. But if you thought this was the first time Star Wars and Marvel Comics have collaborated, then you are wrong. As a matter of fact, there was a time whenStar Wars came to Marvel Comics rescue and if it wasn’t for the former the latter might not even exist today. Star Wars was a derided adaptation of an unknown sci-fi film.With this piece of history in mind, let us have a look this collaboration paved the way for Marvel Comics’ four decades of supremacy.
1. Just What Is This Star Wars thing?
With Marvel reigning supreme and its biggest rival nowhere near matching its box office successes, it’s hard to believe now that Marvel Comics was on the verge of bankruptcy in the mid-1970s. It was in this dire strait due various factors such as rising paper prices, declining reader interest in played-out superhero clichés, and the biggest culprit of them all, an antiquated distribution system. Due to the final factor, the condition was so bad at that point, Marvel was struggling to sell even half of the comics they were printing. Marvel was in desperate need of a game-changer, something that will put them back on the chart. That unexpectedly arrived in the form of an offer –which was to adapt the upcoming George Lucas sci-fi epic Star Wars.
There was just one little problem: Marvel had no clue what Star Wars actually was.
2. Marvel Shoots its Saviour
After a lot of time was put into its development, Lucas finally began filming Star Wars in 1976.And it was an utter chaos and a complete mess from the start. Right from the day it got green lighted, Star Wars ran into problem after another such as cost overruns and studio interference.
Lucas was at a point in his career where he needed Star Wars to be a mega hit, or he’d have to kiss it goodbye. As a co-owner of a comic book store, he was well aware of the power of geek fandom. He knew fully well they could make or break his movie. One of his big promotional ideas was directed at winning them over –he set out to galvanize the fanboy community with a Star Wars comic book to generate hype.
Next thing you know, he went to Marvel publisher Stan Lee with his proposal—and Stan said ‘NO.’ Bam!
