StarWars.com has revealed that D-Squad, the all-star team of droids led by R2-D2, as seen in a memorable arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is back in a new Marvel miniseries, Star Wars: Dark Droids: D-Squad arriving this August.
In Dark Droids, this summer’s horror-fueled comics crossover event, a mysterious threat called the Scourge begins to corrupt droids, cyborgs, and mechanical beings of all kinds. The spinoff Dark Droids: D-Squad mini, written by Marc Guggenheim with art by Salva Espín and David Messina, finds Artoo reactivating his supercrew once more (with some personnel changes — the new lineup consists of R2-D2, IG-88, 4-LOM, WAC-47, BT-1, and 000) to combat this danger; in addition, issue #1 features a backup story starring Ajax Sigma, a new character that first appeared in last year’s Star Wars: Revelations #1, who’s promised to play a major role in the crossover as a whole.
Before Dark Droids: D-Squad kicks off in August, StarWars.com caught up with Guggenheim for a mission briefing.
StarWars.com: We know that in the overall Dark Droids story, something is corrupting droids across the galaxy. Where does your miniseries come in?
Marc Guggenheim: D-Squad picks up directly after the events of Dark Droids issue 2. Without spoiling that issue, suffice it to say, that the corruption that is affecting droids throughout the galaxy is made apparent to R2-D2 in a very pointed and personal way. We pick up in the aftermath of that development and with Artoo realizing that he’s going to need some help if he’s going to fight back against this menace.
StarWars.com: Fans of Star Wars: The Clone Wars will remember D-Squad from a memorable four-part arc that saw Artoo lead a team of droids. Did you revisit those episodes in preparation for this?
Marc Guggenheim: Absolutely! Rewatching those four episodes was the very first thing I did!
StarWars.com: I always loved the idea of D-Squad and I’m glad to see the concept return. How have you enjoyed writing a droid team, including some members who only speak in bleeps and boops?
Marc Guggenheim: I won’t lie: It’s a challenge to write a comic where almost all your cast speaks an untranslatable language. At the same time, though, that’s part of the fun. In the series, we have entire pages where it’s just droids speaking to each other in binary. Fortunately, we have the perfect artist in Salva Espín. I’ve remarked numerous times to the editors that I’ve never seen a better match of artist and material. In the hands of a lesser artist, the whole story would probably collapse in on itself.
StarWars.com: Dark Droids has been presented as being a horror story. Would you say the same is true of the D-Squad miniseries?
Marc Guggenheim: No, actually. D-Squad is more of a romp. It’s high adventure mixed with as much humor as I could conjure. I approached it like the first Avengers movie, but with droids instead of superheroes.
Head to StarWars.com for more preview pages and the full interview with writer Marc Guggenheim conducted by Dan Brooks.
