Star Wars: Vader Down Writers Say Crossover "Big and Dark and Interesting"

The first half year of Marvel Comics' all-canon run of Star Wars books has been marked by major moments. There was the first face-to-face meeting between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. There was an epic fight between Luke and Boba Fett (with Luke blinded at the time). There were lost Alderaanians found by Leia, sand people slaughtered, Order 66 carried out leaving a future Rebel alone, and the introduction of Doctor Aphra and those two wonderful, psychotic droids.

But starting in November 2015, they'll be doing something new: their first crossover.

While Star Wars and Darth Vader, the two flagship books of the line at Marvel have worked very closely together, this will be the first time that stories directly move from one to the other, starting with a special one-shot, Star Wars: Vader Down #1. In the crossover, written by regular series writers Jason Aaron and Kieron Gillen (Vader artist Sal Larocca handles art for the one-shot as well), Vader is marooned on a planet away from the Empire with nothing but his wits, the Force, and – well, let's let the writers tell you more. As the Rebel fleet collapses around this downed Sith Lord, they may see the true power of the Dark Side. After all, this story takes place between Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope and Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back; not only is Vader alive and well in Empire, he just may be more powerful than ever.

Jason, Kieron, you've worked fairly closely together so far, with mirroring scenes and threads started in one book and picked up in the other already – what about this story necessitates a full direct crossover?

Jason Aaron: Well it's just that it's a big story. It's our first opportunity to not just show how our stories are connected, but to take the casts of our two books and really slam them together. I think, for me, that's the most fun part of all this.

Kieron Gillen: Like you said, we've been working quite closely together, and coming up with all these ideas, having all these meetings. But we've been keeping things mostly to our own books. This is a good chance to pay off a lot of the things we've introduced.

You just mentioned the use of each other's characters, so Jason, which of Kieron's characters are you most excited to get your hands on, and Kieron, vice versa, and why?

JA: Well, kind of all of them! You know, Kieron has created this really exciting, interesting new group of characters. It's fun to get to write all of them, and get to introduce them to the cast of my book in as many different exciting ways as possible. So really all of them, the droids, everybody is a lot of fun.

KG: Well, in my case, I haven't actually written any of the original Star Wars characters yet, other than Luke, who I've written but not anything which isn't just a copy of someone else's scene (laughs). But Han and Leia, nothing with them, so getting my hands on those icons is kind of the big thing to me.

Awesome. And I'm sorry, Jason, but the correct answer for you was, "Doctor Aphra."

JA: (laughs) Well she was part of my answer!

KG: (laughs) Yeah, I have to say, one of the fun things is, when we first get to meet two of the characters together, they all have so much energy, you just think, "okay, what are these people going to do to each other?" I think what we've come up with is pretty cool.

What are some of those character interactions should fans most look forward to, that you two are particularly excited about?

JA: (laughs) Well, hopefully we will hit every button we can possibly hit.

KG: Yeah, just imagine all the direct lines between all the characters. I think pretty much all the characters will interact with each other during the course of the story.

JA: But certainly Kieron's droids versus my droids will be fun. (laughs) I'm not sure it'll be much of a fight, though.

KG: (laughs) I'm looking forward to hot Wookiee on Wookiee action when Chewie and Krrsantan meet.

JA: Maybe you should rephrase that.

There's your tagline: "Vader Down: Hot Wookiee on Wookiee Action." Outside of the core cast, there's also the larger Rebel fleet involved according to the description of the story, how does that change the dynamic?

JA: Well, there are certainly a lot of Rebels involved in the story, I'll say that. A lot of Rebel ships, a lot of Rebel troops. It's not so much just the Fleet; this story has a very specific setting, set on one specific planet, and all the action revolves either in orbit around that planet or on the planet itself. But certainly you'll see a larger Rebel presence in this story.

So Vader is grossly outnumbered.

KG: But that's the only way the story can work. You know, Vader needs to be grossly outnumbered: He's Darth Vader! That's the interesting thing. He has found himself in a really bad position for reasons that will become evident. But this really builds off of the things that Jason and I have been building in our stories. We always knew we wanted to come together at the end of the year, so all those through lines come to this moment.

And of course, Vader has been making plans of his own; he's prepared for this in some ways, right?

KG: Yeah, in some ways this is exactly what he wants. In some ways. But perhaps, just not like this.

What are the benefits and challenges of establishing a story, in-canon, that exists in a timeframe between two extremely well known stories?

JA: One benefit is, I think, that there's so much time between those two story-wise. There's room for a lot of stuff to happen. There are some major beats that happen "off screen" in that established story. I think Kieron and I are both really grabbing for as many of those beats as we can. There's a lot more room there than you might think.

KG: The emotional through line is a big thing – there's a definite implied level of change between the two movies [Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back]. That's interesting – to me, Darth Vader especially has a really interesting character arc, and Luke does too. You see where they are then in the first film and where they are now in the second, and that gives you a magnetic North. You know where you could go wrong; if you take the character away from where you know they're going, that's really bad, you know what I mean?

While Vader is clearly evil in your book, Kieron,, he's also clearly the protagonist of his own title – how will that play out in the crossover, where the Rebels would seem to need to be the protagonists for themselves?

KG: I think it's a back and forth, that's kind of the dance of the book. There's a balance to things, so Vader isn't purely the antagonist of the story, because you do see things with him being on the back foot, being outnumbered. There's a lot of other stuff going on, with the large cast interacting. It's much more of each of the cast getting an arc then that comes together. All of the characters are here for reasons, and they have their own motivations that we see play out.

You've talked about each of you having your own arcs to establish your books, then bringing them together here for Vader Down. How much of a bow does this put on your first major storylines; how much will it play into the future?

JA: It certainly changes things and sets things up for where we go from here.

KG: It's kind of like… well, if this crossover was a Star Wars movie, it would be The Empire Strikes Back, in that it's big and dark and enormous and interesting. But it also leaves so much open in terms of "this is where they're going next." That's how it feels to me. Of course, comparing yourself to Empire is a boatload of confidence… (laughs)

Darth Vader's resurgence as a scary villain has seen a push across all mediums, with your comics, the Lords of the Sith novel, Star Wars Rebels season 2, and the upcoming Battlefront game – why, when Star Wars is about to enter a new era, is it important to reestablish this villain of the old era?

JA: Because he's the best villain!

KG: Yeah, I've always wanted to do a villain book, and he's the all-time great villain in that iconic way. It's almost like saying "why would you want the devil to be done well in a supernatural story?" He's the prime antagonist. You want him to always be as epic as possible.

JA: And he's one of those characters who functions great as the guy, like they're using in Rebels, where he shows up and he's fearsome and intimidating and just lays waste to everything around him. That's kind of what I do with him in my book. But he's also a really fascinating and deep character, and that's what Kieron gets to do with his book; you get to see not necessarily Vader sitting around moping and whining, but what he does when he has his own agenda. He works great in both those roles.

Okay guys, one word answer from each of you to tease the crossover!

KG: (laughs) I want Jason to say Vader and I say Down.

JA: (laughs) Yeah, that works. Vader.

KG: Down.

See Why Darth Vader is the Best Villain Ever by clicking here!

Follow along with ComicBook.com's San Diego Comic Con 2015 coverage by clicking here!