EXCLUSIVE: Star Wars: Vader Down Sells Over 450,000 Copies

10/23/2015 03:44 pm EDT

Marvel Comics has seen many successes in their first year of Star Wars comics, with issues of several of their books routinely hitting six digits - and even seven in one case. Their next big release, the start of their first ever Star Wars comic book crossover event, Vader Down #1, is already a huge success a month before the issue hits stands, clocking in at more than 450,000 copies sold to retail, ComicBook.com can exclusively confirm. The issue comes from Star Wars writer Jason Aaron and artist Mike Deodato, setting up a story that will hold the line in its terrifying force choke for months. The crossover will then move into the pages of their regular monthly Darth Vader and Star Wars comics, with Aaron and Deodato handling the latter and regular Vader creative team Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca on their series, business-as-usual.

"We're thrilled that Marvel's first Star Wars event has received such strong support from retailers," David Gabriel, SVP Print, Sales & Marketing told ComicBook.com in a statement. "Plus with Star Wars fever sweeping the nation it's been great to get the book into new hands through some non-traditional channels. You'll be able to find copies of Vader Down in places like Gamestop, Hot Topic, Disney Parks and even through Scholastic," he told us.

This isn't the first time that Marvel has been able to get Star Wars into stores other than comic shops. The first issue of the flagship series in January had several hundred thousands of copies go out through "box of the month" club Lootcrate, and video game retailer Gamestop has offered special variants and posters from these two series as part of their "Power Up Rewards" program.

Star Wars: Vader Down #1 hits comic shops November 18, 2015 with several variant covers including retailer variants - but tell your shop you want it now, as final order cutoff is Monday. It then continues the following week in Darth Vader #13 and the week after that in Star Wars #13. Check out the first preview pages in the gallery below.

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