While the festivities for this year’s San Diego Comic-Con haven’t officially kicked off, news is already starting to roll out of the con. According to Comics Beat, fans of the original ‘Battlestar Galactica’ have reason to rejoice as fan favorite character Lieutenant Starbuck will be making a comeback this year when he stars in an all-new comic book mini-series from Dynamite.

Spinning out of the classic 1970s sci-fi television show, ‘Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck’ will be a four-issue limited series written by New York Times bestselling author Tony Lee, who is no stranger to taking on comics of licensed properties as he has written comics for ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ in addition to working with other big name heroes like Superboy, Spider-Man, and The X-Men. The new book will delve into the previously unknown past of the Viper-flying scoundrel brought to life by Dirk Benedict.

In the press release announcing the new book, Lee talked about the sort of things fans can expect from this new Starbuck story:

“When Dynamite came to me with a suggestion to do a Starbuck story, I jumped at the opportunity.  Bar the fact that he was an amnesiac child after the attack on Umbra, we don’t know much about Starbuck’s history, mainly because we only had thirteen episodes (and a flashback Galactica 1980 special) to learn about him.  I wanted to fill in these gaps.  I wanted to see the Starbuck that existed before the show.  How did he meet Apollo?  Why does Adama treat him like a surrogate son?  Who taught him to smoke and gamble and womanize?  What shaped the man we know, and more importantly, why did the Cylons attack Umbra that fateful day?  That right there was when I knew the story I wanted to tell.”

This news of the Starbuck origin series comes only months after the launch of Dynamite’s ongoing ‘Battlestar Galactica’ series written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, the team who created the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ series that the upcoming Marvel Studios film is based on.

Currently, there’s no word on who will be the artist on the book or when we’ll be able to pick it up in our local comic shops, but there’s a good chance that we’ll find out more information as news continues to come out of this year’s Comic-Con.

What do you think, BSG fans? Are you excited to learn more about Lt. Starbuck in this upcoming series? Share your thoughts in the comments below.