Easily one of the largest franchises in the entirety of pop culture is George Lucas’ Star Wars. Since the first film premiered in 1977, the goliath Lucasfilm project has grown to include seven more films, anthology films, cartoons, books, comics, and so much more. During Marvel Comics’ original run of Star Wars comics, writer and editor extraordinaire Mary Jo Duffy played an integral role in the series. But just who was this super star?
Born on February 9, 1954, the New York native attended Wellesley College where she pursued her passion for writing. While still a young woman, she had numerous letters published in the letter columns in Marvel Comics. Thus began her long career with one of the top comic publishers. Prior to her first editor credit in The Incredible Hulk #231 and The Spectacular Spider-Man #26, the writer made an in-comic appearance as an autograph seeker in Iron Man #103. By later 1978/early 1979, Duffy was promoted to an editorial position at Marvel.
She went on to work on such titles as Conan the Barbarian, Wolverine, Francis, Brother of the Universe, and Power Man and the Iron Fist. Duffy’s run on this latter series was noted for its lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek approach, making it the longest and most successful run of the series. She also created and wrote Fallen Angels, an eight part series following Sunspot and Warlock after their exit from the New Mutants. It was during this series that Duffy introduced the complicated relationship between Siryn and Madrox.
Around this time, Duffy began working on many of the Marvel Star Wars comics. Her long run with the series began with the issue Silent Drifting. She officially became the regular writer on the title with Star Wars #70 “The Stenax Shuffle” and would remain until the end of the series with Star Wars #107 “All Together Now.” Duffy also worked on the collected volumes, Star Wars: A Long Time Ago – Dark Encounters, Star Wars: A Long Time Ago – Fool’s Bounty, Star Wars: A Long Time Ago – Wookiee World, and Star Wars: A Long Time Ago – Far, Far Away.
Throughout this time, Duffy wrote more than 30 storylines and created several recurring characters including Dani, Rik Duel, Kiro, and brought Shira Brie back as Lumiya. Outside of Marvel, Duffy also worked for DC and Image Comics. At DC, she wrote the launched and wrote the first 14 issues of the first ongoing Catwoman series in 1993. For Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Studios imprint at Image, Duffy wrote all 22 issues of the first Glory series.
While Mary Jo Duffy has been largely absent from the publishing scene for some time, the writer and editor extraordinaire left her mark on countless comic titles and is remembered as being an early pioneer of the Expanded Universe.
