Welcome to another edition of Comics Relief kids; in today’s column, we’ll be covering the latest in nostalgia inducing teases from Marvel and DC, get introduced to the “first daughter” of superheroes, and celebrate a long overdue credit for the most influential comic book artist of all time. But let’s begin with the a beloved somewhat remembered return of a character to a galaxy far, far away….

Marvel Brings Back A Long Lost Part Of Its Past In January’s Variant Cover For Star Wars #1

Before there was Jar Jar Binks…there was Jaxxon. Who is Jaxxon you might ask? In one of  the earliest Star Wars comics from Marvel, only the second one to go past A New Hope in terms of storyline, Jaxxon is introduced as a giant, green, blaster slingin’ anthropomorphic bunny rabbit, modeled after Bugs Bunny. Once the Marvel Star Wars series ended, Jaxxon was sent to continuity limbo, a symbol of some of the crazier ideas Marvel had while holding the Star Wars license.

But now Star Wars is back at Marvel, and to celebrate, they’re releasing artist John Tyler Christopher’s STAR WARS #1 Party Variant – featuring none other than the return of Jaxxon. This version will only available at Star Wars #1 Launch Parties when the issue comes out in January. According to Marvel’s David Gabriel. “Star Wars has always been an important part of Marvel’s history and we knew we wanted to honor that legacy with a callback to the original Marvel Comics Star Wars series. We think old and new fans alike will be just as excited as we are to see Jaxxon, even if it’s only for this fun variant cover.” So I guess no big green bunnies in the actual comics then. But Marvel made a talking raccoon work, maybe an outer space bunny isn’t out of the question? Maybe best not to give them any ideas.

Scott Snyder’s Wytches is a Huge Hit for Image

Writer Scott Snyder is currently enjoying being in that moment… the moment in his career where everything he touches turns to gold. The latest success from the Batman writer is his Image Comics horror series with artist Jock called Wytches, which was released last month, and has now passed the 90,000 mark in combined orders. Image has confirmed that the issue has reached 92,131 copies between its first two printings, with the first printing netting 81,083 in initial retailer orders. Not to mention, the day the book went on sale, it got optioned for a movie adaptation. The success of Wytches, along with The Walking Dead, proves that with the right property/creator combo, a creator-owned book can compete with all the capes and cowls. [Comic Book Resources]

Latest (Last?) Marvel 2015 Teases

For the past three weeks, Marvel has been teasing the return of just about every major event comic series in 2015, with maybe the exception of Atlantis Attacks (because no one liked Atlantis Attacks. Ok, no one but me even remembers Atlantis Attacks.) Now it seems we have reached the end of the teases, with two notable entries. The first features the X-Men, circa 1992. A lot of people are calling this the “Jim Lee” team, but truthfully, this is the line-up from the animated series from Fox Kids, which introduced an entire generation of kids to the concept of the X-Men. It seems likely this is less a tie in to Secret War, and maybe more a new series set in the continuity of the show, similar to DC’s Batman ’66. 

It’s the other entry that has mouths flapping; it simply says “Everything Ends” and fades to white, leading many to speculate that after Secret Wars, Marvel is pulling a DC and rebooting the whole line. Now, I personally don’t buy this, as Marvel has never been hampered by their continuity the way that DC has, but it sure is a good way of getting people talking, isn’t it?

BOOM! Studios Turns Ten, Launches Variant Cover Celebration

Boom! Studios is set to turn ten in 2015, and the anniversary is set to be marked by a series of special variant covers. Every new launch From BOOM! in the following year will have a special variant “10 Years” style cover. According to the press release, “Every launching issue in 2015 will include a uniquely designed “10 Years” incentive variant cover featuring work by one of 16 of the industry’s best cover artists. Each artist (or artist team) will provide all the covers to all of the newest titles coming out from BOOM!” We’re talking artists like Trevor Hairsine, Joe Quinones and Ramón Pérez , so this is something to look forward to for comics fans everywhere. [Comics Beat]

Marvel Gives Stan Lee AND Jack Kirby Creator Credits, At Long Last

It’s fair to say that this has been a long, long time coming, but starting with last week’s batch of comics from Marvel, the publisher added creator credits to Stan “The Man” Lee and Jack “King” Kirby.  The appearance of this new credit comes only a few weeks after Marvel and the family of the late Jack Kirby reached a settlement on a lawsuit that lasted five years, right before the Supreme Court was set to announce whether it would hear the case. Although the details of the settlement haven’t been released, finally giving Jack Kirby a creator credit in the comics seems to almost certainly be a part of that settlement-the timing can’t be a coincidence.

The Jack Kirby credit appeared last week in All-New X-Men #33,  Deadpool & Captain America #1, Fantastic Four #12, Inhuman #7, and Wolverine and the X-Men #11, listing him as a co-creator alongside Joe Simon (for Captain America) and Stan Lee (for the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Inhumans). [Comics Alliance]

Mister Miracle Artist’s Edition Coming Soon From IDW

Speaking of Kirby, IDW’s latest “Artist Edition” hardcover announced for next year is none other than Kirby’s work for DC with his Mister Miracle series from the seventies. The idea behind these Artist Editions that IDW are putting out is that they reprint the art of some of the well known comics of all time using high resolution scans of the original penciled and inked pages, with the desired effect being something that reads as what it’s like to read the original art, which is often much larger than the published comics. Other Artist Editions have included Thor from Walt Simonson and Frank Miller’s Daredevil (why DC and Marvel aren’t putting these out themselves is a mystery). [Comics Alliance]

Image Comics Teases Luminary

It’s not just Marvel and DC sending out the teases these days; Image Comics is teasing out a new series called Luminary, featuring the daughter of the President of the United States as a superhero. Because why not? Not much is known about this series yet, although I know I’m dying to find out if it’s Sasha or Maliya flying out of the White House in that promo pic. [Bleeding Cool]

Say Hello To Kidthulhu

It’s a sign of popularity and true penetration into the mass consciousness to get a “baby’ version of yourself. Ask the Muppets, Scooby-Doo, the Flintstones, the Marvel heroes, you name it. So it’s actually an honor that H.P. Lovecraft’s ancient one, Cthulhu, is set to get a kid version of himself in the upcoming comic Kidthulhu, from creators Martin Brandt and Charles C. Dowd.

According to the comic’s site, “For centuries mankind has heard the call of a being they called Cthulhu. Biding time they waited till the star aligned to reveal the city of R’lyeh and the location of the dread dreamer. Imagine their surprise when it turns out they’ve been pronouncing his name wrong all along. Kidthulhu is a story of child hi-jinks, adventure, and weird worlds staring your favorite star born Kidthulhu, his pet shoggoth Shog, and his best friend Capi the Albino Goat of the Woods with 999 Siblings.” You can support the creation of this book by going to its Kickstarter page here and making a donation. [Ravenwarren.com]

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Which of these new projects has you most excited? Let us know in the comments below.

Images: Marvel, Image Comics, Raven Warren Studios