Your Favorite Co-Opted Star Wars Characters

Luke. Leia. Han. Chewie. 3PO. R2. Vader. Stormtroopers. Padme. Everyone who’s a fan has a favorite character. You or someone you know may have even named their son or daughter or a pet after their favorite Star Wars character. Han, in our experience, is a popular choice for pets.

These well-loved Star Wars characters – especially the ladies! – are popular for cosplay comic book variants published by independent publishers. Zenescope is perhaps the first and most prolific such publisher. Zenescope variants feature the lovely ladies of Star Wars across a wide variety of titles. These cosplay covers are often controversial. Typically limited to only hundreds of copies for events such as large comic, anime and hobby conventions – NYCC and SDCC come immediately to mind – these cosplay variants are frequently risque, or even nude, in nature.

Other publishers, such as Archie Comics, also produce Star Wars-inspired covers. While Zenescope relies on sex appeal for their Star Wars cosplay variants, Archie Comics relies on their popular long-standing Archie Universe characters drawn in the Archie signature style: Archie, Veronica, Betty, Jughead and Sabrina seem to be the most frequent subjects for cosplay. Archie’s cosplay covers offer unusual juxtaposition (some might say situational irony) — Archie characters cast as warriors in an intergalactic space opera with lightsabers, blasters and space ships.

One thing is for sure: You’ve never seen your favorite Star Wars characters — or the Star Wars Universe! — like this before!