Marvel's classic Star Wars comics almost included the Death Star II before the release of Return of the Jedi, but used another superweapon instead.
Marvel’s Legends-era Star Wars comics bridged the gap between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, but one storyline nearly spoiled the Second Death Star before its cinematic debut. The Empire dissolved its senate and restructured its political system around the Death Star in A New Hope, only for the battle station to be destroyed shortly afterward. Naturally, the Empire began work on another superweapon to replace the first, hoping to rule the galaxy through fear rather than the pretense of politics, and Marvel’s Star Wars series showed an interim step towards the second station after nearly debuting the Death Star II prematurely.
Beginning in 1977 as a comic adaptation of Star Wars, Marvel’s classic comics were among the first Legends-era stories, creating new adventures for the Rebellion’s heroes, starting with its seventh issue. Although the Star Wars trilogy was still in progress when the comics were made, their creative teams had an astoundingly thorough understanding of the characters and universe that George Lucas had created in his films, seamlessly continuing the character development of the Rebel Alliance’s heroes between films and creating a coherent narrative that exists in multiple mediums.
The Marvel Comics writers may have understood the trajectories of the characters and narratives of the Star Wars trilogy a little too well, however. A proposed storyline written by David Michelinie with art by Walter Simonson set after The Empire Strikes Back was initially set to feature a Second Death Star. According to an interview with Simonson that appeared on StarWars.com, Lucasfilm, without specifying why, vetoed the idea but allowed a stripped-down version of the Death Star, which Marvel named the Tarkin, to be used in Star Wars issues 51 and 52. Both in-universe and from a meta-perspective, the Tarkin served as an interim step between Death Star models, and Lucasfilm preventing Marvel from using a Second Death Star revealed to them that the third movie in the trilogy would include the Death Star II.
While a gargantuan battle station, the Tarkin was much smaller than the Death Star models, since it was reduced to its barest essentials, making it a flying superlaser without the same capacity for Imperial military contingents. The Tarkin was commissioned by Emperor Palpatine as a test for both the Second Death Star and his Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyers, which he’d keep in orbit of Byss as part of his secret portion of the Empire known as the “Dark Empire.” The Tarkin, like the Death Star II, lacked the thermal exhaust port weakness of the first Death Star and was protected by an experimental shield generator.
Lucasfilm’s veto of a Second Death Star in Marvel’s comics proves that, at a time when the Star Wars Expanded Universe was in its earliest days, its continuity was still taken extremely seriously. While another Death Star would have clashed with the continuity of Return of the Jedi, what was essentially a “Death Star 1.5” made sense in-universe. The classic Marvel Star Wars comics were considered official canon at the time of their publication, and preventing them from spoiling the Second Death Star’s cinematic appearance was required.
