The following contains spoilers from Hyperspace Stories #1, on sale now from Dark Horse Comics.
Currently, most of the Star Wars comics are set in between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. In the past year, there have been two large-scale crossovers between all the main series, and a number of important things have happened, including: Luke finding a secret lightsaber, the capture of a carbonite-frozen Han Solo and the reappearance of the Ascendant Cult. Most of that was spurred on by the resurgence of Crimson Dawn, and they're not done causing trouble yet.
There were a few exceptions to that time period, though, Star Wars: Obi-Wan and Star Wars: Han Solo and Chewbacca -- which are both set before A New Hope -- have given readers all kinds of cool stories, while not changing established canon. Following in that model, Star Wars has just kicked off a brand-new series called Hyperspace Stores. Fans could not be more excited because that series marks the franchise's return to Dark Horse Comics.
When Star Wars first started, Marvel Comics owned the rights for comics from the galaxy far, far away. Then, in 1991, Dark Horse took over and kicked things off with what would become the iconic Dark Empire series. From there, Dark Horse would go on to publish titles like Tales of The Jedi, X-Wing: Rogue Squadron and Knights of the Old Republic. However, when Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, Marvel took back the publishing rights for Star Wars comics and initiated a complete reboot in 2015.
Now, to fans' delight, Dark Horse is being added back into the mix. Marvel Comics will still head-up the main, in-canon stories, but Dark Horse will publish an all-ages line. Hyperspace Stories is the first of that line, and issue #1 (by Amanda Deibert, Lucas Marangon, Tyler Smith, Jimmy Betancourt and Lucas Marangon) started things off by emphasizing a seldom-acknowledged truth about the Jedi.
The issue opened with Padme going on a diplomatic mission to meet a Republic senator and his daughter. The senator had a valuable item in his possession that he wanted to exchange as part of a potential alliance with another planet. The whole thing was a trap, however, and General Grievous soon crashed the party. So, Obi-Wan and Anakin were tasked with rescuing everyone. The thing is, it didn't go like a normal Star Wars story.
For one, Obi-Wan nearly died trying to save the senator's daughter. Later, the senator (who was a large Wookiee) also saved his daughter by throwing himself at General Grievous. They both went out of the ship's shields and drifted off into space. Of course, Grievous ended up surviving, but the senator didn't. So, his daughter had to watch him float off and die in space.
Thus, in a dark turn of events, the Jedi didn't accomplish their mission. Sure, they saved Padme and the senator's daughter, but they also helped orphan the child. Normally, Star Wars tries to pain the Jedi in a heroic light. So, seeing them fail in the very first issue of a new series was kind of surprising. It just goes to show that the Jedi serve the Light Side of the Force, but they are far from omnipotent superheros. Hopefully, Dark Horse can continue that theme and show a more grounded version of the Jedi.