What's Next For Rachel and the Starjammers after War of Kings?

War of Kings is almost over, so it's time to look to the future. Within the next few months, hopefully there will be news on what's next for Rachel and the rest of the X-Men stuck in space.

Hopefully it means she'll be returning home, since there’s been considerable speculation that she will be headed to X-Force. But so far there hadn't been any concrete news, but here is a recap of what’s known so far.


Will there be a Starjammers mini-series or ongoing series spinning out of War of Kings?

I doubt it, but it probably one of the only viable options for Marvel.

According to cosmic writers and editors at Marvel, following War of Kings there are "stories" in the works and "talks" about mini-series, but nothing solid.

Cosmic Marvel editor Bill Rosemann told IGN that, "As has happened before, new stories will grow out of War of Kings...." and Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning added, "Each 'event' so far has a character or characters that have emerged to their own titles, Nova and Guardians respectively, War of Kings has given us an even larger cast of classic Marvel characters to explore and develop. Given the chance, we are more than happy to continue to do this in whatever format is available."

Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada said in Cup o' Joe on CBR: "There are talks of other titles – there definitely are – and of giving certain characters that haven't had a title of their own, a shot at perhaps at least a mini series and maybe more. But once again, a little too soon to announce that. But there have been talks."

At the Cup o’ Joe Panel at the San Diego ComicCon on July 25th, Quesada was asked about plans for DarkHawk following War of Kings, and he responded that there are plans, but it is too early to talk about them. He said within 6 weeks there would be cosmic news.


Last fall, Marvel's CB Cebulski told fans at the Dublin Comic Con that the plan was for there to be Inhumans and Darkhawk series spinning out of War of Kings, but it all depended on sales and what fans wanted.

An Inhumans series would make the most sense, and the entire event seems like a launching pad for the Inhumans. However, the question is whether Marvel sees enough sales potential with either of them.

In terms of Darkhawk, it is highly unlikely that a Darkhawk series will be spinning out of War of Kings since sales of his two mini-series have been dreadful. The War of Kings Darkhawk mini-series and War of Kings Ascension (featuring Darkhawk) have sold less than Nova and GotG, and near the cancellation level for any on-going series. (War of Kings Ascension #3 only sold 23,680 copies, according to ICv2 and the War of Kings: Darkhawk mini-series sales averaged 24,645 according to Publishers Weekly.) So, any plans for Darkhawk would be as a member of an existing ongoing.

While X-Men: Kingbreaker didn't sell all that well for an X-book, it did outsell current cosmic Marvel books Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy despite the 3.99 price tag. It averaged sales of 33,216 copies an issue according to Publishers Weekly. But would Marvel want another X-book, especially a low selling one?

It seems the intent was to launch new series out of War of Kings with little respected characters like the Inhumans and Darkhawk and reinvigorate them the way DnA have done Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy - which launched out of Annihilation.

Then, would they really want to launch another X-books which X-fans would want as part of the X-verse, not part of Cosmic Marvel?

Joe Quesada did mentioned in Cup o’ Joe on CBR that there will be new X-books launching in November. That likely includes the new Dark X-Men book, and possibly other previously announced books such as the delayed Sex & Violence mini-series.



Return to the X-books?

There’s been no direct news about Rachel returning to X-books, other than speculation.

At HeroesCon in June, Fraction said that Alex and Lorna would not be in Uncanny:
Might Havok and Polaris return to the X-Men? Fraction said that while he doesn’t have any specific designs for them, others might.

That doesn't exclude Rachel, but it suggests that Uncanny won't provide some sort of conclusion to the Vulcan storyline that left the three in space in the first place.


What's Next?

Hopefully there should be an announcement in the next month about post-War of Kings plans, but it remains to be seen if that will include anything related to the X-Men.

There wasn’t any news out of the huge San Diego Comic Con, which was to be expected since that seemed a little early. It’s also in the middle of convention season where Marvel needs to spread out their announcements over several months.

The last issue of War of Kings comes out August 5, 2009, which is right before the Chicago Comic Con (fka Wizard World Chicago).

That’s the first convention where an announcement about "what’s next for the Starjammers" could come, since Marvel wouldn’t want to spoil the outcome of the last War of Kings issue to its release.

Chicago Comic Con is August 6-9, so that's after War of Kings #6, but before Guardians of the Galaxy #17 in late August and the War of Kings: Who Will Rule epilogue which comes out September 2nd. So, the announcement might not be until after that.

Fan Expo Canada is August 28-30th in Toronto and Marvel will have a large presence there. So, if there isn’t any news in Chicago, it might come in Toronto.

If any Rachel fans are in attendance at those conventions, make sure to ask about any plans for Rachel, Alex and Lorna. Hopefully we can get some answers about what’s next for them sooner rather than later.

It's been a long wait for them to return to X-books, and hopefully we’re in the homestretch now.