Maybe he's a guy that Ashe marries, so that they can be in control of the kingdom or whatever, and because he dies, and they're all anti-femanist (sp?) or whatever, the Judges or whoever come in and take over and thus the story begins. I dunno. It's still really stupid to wait this long though just for a blurry snapshot of something most people won't even bother speculating on.
Well at least SOMETHING new has come up, that's a good sign, although yes, it is indeed fairly crap. How about an issue of a magazine giving us a lovely concrete date?