DrunkWooky's Star Wars Report 6/24/16

DrunkyWooky writes for www.comicsheatingup.net
I’ve been covering the Star Wars JTC action figure variants for a while here. A lot of the info in this article comes from our German friends at jedi-bibliothek.de. Skip down towards the end for the newness in this article.

Ok.
First of all, let me just brag a little and give a market report on The Force Awakens #1 movie adaptation comic.
I wasn’t going to grab this because I’ve never really enjoyed any of the Star Wars movie adaptation comics beyond Marvel’s vol. 1 classics. However, when my LCS owner offered me a copy of the 1:100 Quesada, I jumped. What a beautifully simple, well composed, and well executed cover! Here are the two characters we care most about gazing up at…possibility! Adventure! Also, the way that subtle “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Logo fades into the starscape is just exquisite. I drool. I drool a lot.

My LCS Owner sells for cover price, so:

BOOM! I got it! Five dollah, baby! Sorry for the crotch shot!
Usually, we see eBay flooded with copies of variants the Thursday after release. However, there are currently a paltry two listings active, and the bids are actually reasonable right now! With 5-7 bidders between the two of them, we can surely expect the price to shoot up in 5 or 6 days. There is also only one…ONE….sold listing. That sold for $229.00 as a part of an (almost) complete variant set (missing 1:200 Quesada sketch).
 
If you can find this thing for less than $20.00 in the wild, I think it would be worth it.
Ok, done with the recent past and on to the future!
John Tyler Christopher, the man best known for making Star Wars completists broke and action figure cover haters eye-roll, has booted up his action figure machine once again for the conclusion of Kieron Gillen’s Darth Vader series. The latest series of covers began at Darth Vader #20:

As I pointed out before, the main intrigue surrounding this cover was the fact that Inspector Thanoth has only appeared in the comics. This makes him the first Star Wars action figure cover to depict a character not in a Star Wars film. Why does that matter? Because, another VERY popular character is in that same league: Doctor Aphra (Who Thanoth claims has questionable PhD credentials).
Doctor Aphra first appeared in Darth Vader #3, and quickly became a fan favorite. That issue went to 4, maybe 5 printings? The single variant cover now commands a premium between $30 and $60 in the aftermarket. Aphra has since grown in popularity taking a supporting roll in the Vader Down cross-over and crossing over into the main Star Wars title. So, when Thanoth showed up on an action figure cover, people began speculating that Aphra would appear on a JTC cover before Gillen’s issue #25 conclusion.
With #21 we got Tulon, one of Cylo’s progeny. Not much to raise an eyebrow at there.

From jedi-bibliothek.de, the cover to Darth Vader #23 depicts BeeTee-One Triple Zero’s murderous astromech counterpart! In Darth Vader #3, Aphra recovered the Triple Zero protocol operating system from a high-security museum. BeeTee first appeared along with Triple Zero AND Aphra in Darth Vader #3.

So, now we’re cooking. We are officially in the same “circle of friends” as Aphra! In addition, BeeTee and Triple Zero received their own back-up romp in the rear pages of issue #20.
Axel Alonso, in speaking with CBR has hinted at another book taking Darth Vader’s place:
“”Darth Vader” was the other pillar of the Marvel Star Wars line, along with the main “Star Wars” book. Is the plan for another ongoing series to take that place?
Alonso: That’s the plan, yes. Stay tuned.”
Will we get an Aphra, Triple Zero, and BeeTee team-up book?
So finally, my variant cover prediction?
Issue #24 will depict Triple Zero.
Issue #25 will depict Doctor Aphra herself. Issue #25, the final issue of Darth Vader, is going to catch retailers by surprise. It’s, likely, going to have a far lower print run than #3 did. Finally, many fans will find out very late that Aphra is on the cover. Take this all with a grain of salt as action figure covers have become cover price covers in most places, but I predict Aphra’s cover to be an exception.”