Marvel Comics unveils Ario Anindito’s full, five-part connecting cover for Star Wars: Crimson Reign, starring Qi’ra, Darth Vader and more.
Marvel Comics has unveiled Ario Anindito’s full, five-part connecting variant cover for the Star Wars: Crimson Reign limited series by Charles Soule and Steven Cummings.
When Marvel first announced Crimson Reign last month, it revealed Anindito’s first connecting variant, featuring Darth Vader. The full version reveals that the Dark Lord will be joined on the piece by Emperor Palpatine, an Imperial pilot, Ren and Crimson Reign‘s main character, Qi’ra, in that order.
STAR WARS: CRIMSON REIGN #1 (OF 5)
Written by CHARLES SOULE
Art by STEVEN CUMMINGS
Main Cover by LEINIL FRANCIS YU
Connecting Variant Cover by ARIO ANINDITO
Spinning out of the events of Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters, Crimson Reign is the second in a planned trilogy of series written by Soule set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Slated to launch this coming December, Crimson Reign centers on the crime boss known as Qi’ra — former love interest of Han Solo — who was portrayed by Emilia Clarke in 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story.
“While Qi’ra plays a huge part in War of the Bounty Hunters, that event is really a Boba Fett story,” Soule told IGN when Crimson Reign was announced. “I have a bigger story I’m going to tell with Qi’ra and Crimson Dawn, and it’s all connected to the reasons she kicked things off in War of the Bounty Hunters in the first place. You’ll learn more about that in the closing pages of War of the Bounty Hunters #5, out in October, and I think fans have no idea how exciting and new this story will feel.”
Star Wars fans first met Qi’ra in the opening minutes of Solo, in which she is introduced as Han’s romantic partner back when the two lived on the planet Corellia. After a timeskip, Qi’ra is re-introduced as a member of the Crimson Dawn criminal organization, which is seemingly led by Dryden Vos.
Qi’ra ultimately kills Dryden so that Han might escape his wrath, at which point the true leader of Crimson Dawn is revealed to be Maul, the one-time Sith apprentice of Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine. Qi’ra gives Maul a fake story regarding what happened, pinning the blame on Tobias Beckett. The ex-ruler of Mandalore then ignites his lightsaber and informs Qi’ra that they will be “working much more closely from now on.”
In the aforementioned IGN interview, Soule mentioned that, by the events of Crimson Reign — which, again, is set after Empire — Qi’ra is now the leader of Crimson Dawn. This would imply that she took over the organization from Maul after his death. Per Star Wars Rebels, the former Sith apprentice canonically met his demise at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine a couple years before the events of the Original Trilogy.
Written by Charles Soule and illustrated by Steven Cummings, Star Wars: Crimson Reign #1 goes on sale this December from Marvel Comics.
Source: Marvel Comics
About The Author
