No Weeping for Me, There ARE More Worlds to Conquer

I’ll be voyaging into two more universes this fall.

Marvel announced a pair of new sci-fi projects this week that I’ll be writing: The official prequel comic for the eagerly anticipated sci-fi flick, PREDATORS: BADLANDS and the third issue of the popular STAR WARS: BOBA FETT - BLACK, WHITE & RED

Landing right after the release of the first issue of my Dark Horse min-series, AVATAR: TIPPING POINT, these books mean I have been gifted the opportunity to work within three of the biggest sci-fi franchises on this planet -- all within the span of one month. Each of those stories is part of the official mythos (canon, as we nerds call it) of their respective sagas, puzzle pieces that continue those larger stories that have captivated generations.

I often wonder what my 14-year-old self would have thought about all this as he sat in a movie theater in 1987, spilling popcorn during a jump scare when Arnold first faced off against that hunter from the stars in the original PREDATOR. It feels like I’ve been hunting for the chance to tell a story in this franchise ever since.

Arriving on November 12 --  less than a week after PREDATOR: BADLANDS invades theaters -- the prequel has been a labor of love spun out of meetings with director Dan Trachtenberg. Working with the filmmakers and editors Martin Biro and Kaeden McGahey, we to make sure the tale both stands on its own and adds an important backstory to the protagonist of the film.

And the book is going to look good. If you haven’t heard of the artist Elvin Ching, you will. Elvin, who hails from Singapore, won this year’s Marvel Art Atelier contest and the pages he’s turning in will show you why. The only reason I haven’t gushed about the Colors by Juan Ferreyra is that I haven’t seen them yet, but his track record speaks for itself. You can feast your eyes on the main cover by Cafu above. 

The story follows the young Yautja warrior, who is given a seemingly simple task by his father: Retrieve a piece of technology from a derelict spaceship that crashed millennia ago. Inside, however, a deadly threat has been lurking ever since. Now the Predator may end up becoming the prey…

Then on November 26, you can pick up STAR WARS: BOBA FETT - BLACK, WHITE & RED #3 (OF 4), which gives me another shot at the biggest badass in that galaxy far, far away for the first time since my STAR WARS: BOUNTY HUNTERS run. If you haven’t heard of this mini-series, each issue features a new creative team chronicling one of Boba’s adventures in monochrome with a few dashes of red blood. I’m following superstar writers Benjamin Percy and Saladin Ahmed, so… no pressure.

I do have a secret weapon for this issue: Spanish national treasure Juan José Ryp on the art. His style evokes the best of the classic era of HEAVY METAL magazine, the highest compliment I can give. This is a horror tale and his art is so good, it’s literally scary, in the most literal of senses.

The main cover is by E.M. Gist, one of the best in the business, and the artist behind the scariest of A HAUNTED GIRL covers (Issue 4) — a painting that my favorite band, Tool, even considered licensing for a tour poster. One of the other variants is being done by the legendary Klaus Janson. Another surreal situation that would cause my adolescent self to spontaneously combust if he knew what lay ahead.

Once editors Mark Paniccia and Mikey Basso approached me with the offer to tell a new Boba Fett story in this format, my mind immediately closed in on the black, white, and red B’omarr monks. You know, those brains in jars mounted on spider-like robotic exoskeletons, that were briefly seen skittering around Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi, and which haunted my imagination ever since.

Not just me, apparently. I sent a reference photo of a Huntsman spider infestation in my script and received the all-time best note from Lucasfilm: “New nightmare unlocked.”  

I can’t tell you much else about the story. It works better when the twists and turns come as a surprise. But the tagline gives a tease: “Fett is out for revenge against the one bounty that’s eluded him!”

I can’t wait to show you more.

NOTE: I don’t actually know who’s lettering either issue yet or I’d give them a shoutout, too.