– Spoiler Review –
Doctor Aphra #30 is the penultimate issue of “Worst Among Equals,” and it’s full of surprising revelations for Aphra and her murder-happy companion, Triple-Zero, as they face some hard truths about one another.
Way back in “Remastered,” when the page had been flipped and Triple-Zero, with BeeTee, were now the masters over Aphra, the outspoken murderbot tasked Chelli Aphra with locating his missing memories. While she hijacked the memories and encrypted them, thus never allowing him to enjoy all his violent delights, their current travails have given them new perspectives on one another without either one having blackmail over the other, and in issue #30, Aphra finally gives Trip his memories she stole. The megalomaniac behind their current situation, Dr. Evazan, looks on in awe as he sees plenty of other scientists and madmen like him using Triple-Zero to answer the question of where evil comes from, but Trip has a far different reaction. I’m sure the memories of all his murderous artistry was comforting, but his very first memory, of his creation, hits him hard at the core: he was a fluke. Aphra points out this isn’t so different from organics, who stumble through life trying to make sense of why, and hopes he can see the comparison to meatbags as a chance to finally start finding empathy within. But Triple-Zero is ever so dramatic, as much with his kills as his verboseness, and can’t handle the reveal, calling the life of organics disgusting, basically below his stature, and decides to go for walk, ready to let the proximity bombs linking him and the good doctor do what they were made to do: blow him up.
Aphra can’t stop him because her legs are asleep, caused by her choosing to save Triple-Zero rather than save herself. After they crashed last issue, thanks to Imperial PR bombarding the ship Winloss and Nokk captured Aphra and Trip on, Aphra awakes to find Imperial PR making her an offer to save herself, just as long as she publicly denounces traitorous acts over Evazan’s public broadcast to help ensure the people of Milvayne stay compliant. Instead of saving herself, she chooses to save Trip, setting off a seismic pulse she rigged in his chassis when she operated on him last issue, hence her legs being out of commission. Aphra actually has a history of saving others, though it’s usually in the interests of helping her save herself (like erasing Tolvan’s memory or sending Sana away in an escape pod), but this act leaves her in a bind though helps the murderbot. Could she finally have washed away her selflessness? Is she thinking more about others than herself? Triple-Zero reveals, despite her betrayal about creating that charge in his head, he has tortured the PR officer for his codes to reveal evidence of Tolvan alive and well, and with the Rebellion*, as a way to thank her for choosing him, though he says it’s to improve the effectiveness of their partnership. Aphra, a little piece of her “sad excuse of a heart” melted at Tolvan’s continued existence, sees Trip’s ‘kindness’ as a solidification of his thought, earlier this arc, they are compatible lifeforms and agrees he’s right. With their newfound fondness established, she decrypts Trip’s memories, hiding in the corpse of Beetee next to them, thus leading to his existential crisis.
But remember how I asked if she’s truly thinking more about than herself? Something has been building in my mind regarding her choice of words, and actions, while the broadcast of Evazan’s spreads to the planet of Milvayne. Last issue she makes a big speech about trusting one another which elicits a lot of “aws” from the crowd watching, and this issue she specifically asks if Trip is still broadcasting before she cries over Tolvan, waxes poetic about Triple-Zero and her being meant for one another, and says Tolvan being a turncoat means there’s life after the Empire; It’s almost like she’s playing things up for the audience, trying to get them to interfere in their affairs. Whether it’s all for show or part truth, part show, remains to be seen, but her actions under the camera have certainly had an effect on the planet’s populace, causing them to start seeing the errors of their ways about trusting the Empire, and if an overly lawful Imperial planet can be turned, then evil isn’t something you’re born with, so has Aphra been doing an experiment of her own this whole time? Remember, Triple-Zero and Aphra are in their current predicament because Evazan wants to study where evil in a person comes from, and in a way Aphra’s been running a giant experiment with the populace, within Evazan’s own experiment on them, to prove to both him and Trip evil is learned, but can be rejected. But not only has her ‘performance’ been to cause chaos within the planet, potentially as a way to answer Evazan’s experiment for him, it has also managed to help save her life, as it causes Winloss and Nokk to pity her, figuring what drama they’ve been watching has shown them killing her would be a favor and they don’t want to do her any favors.
The appearance of Winloss and Nokk hid a little surprise I didn’t catch until my second read-through: Winloss steals something from Aphra with his extra spider-rig of metallic arms! In the married couple’s first appearance in Doctor Aphra Annual #2, he pulls a similar trick, using his extra hands to steal the artifact Aphra used them to help extract, and here it looks like he took the datacard that had Triple-Zero’s memories on it. But to what end? Hoping it has code on it so they can reverse engineer where Evazan’s broadcast is and take him out themselves, as I’m pretty sure he fits the “monsters they’ll kill” bill even more than Aphra? Use it to slice into Triple-Zero somehow and make him theirs? I find the first guess FAR more likely, but we’ll find out next month for sure in the end of “Worst Among Equals.”
I always feel like being the letterer, Joe Caramagna, for Aphra must be fun because frequently there are funny title cards to write up like one that says, “Triple Zero: Someone’s Going to Pay for This.” The art continues to excel with Emilio Laiso (art) and Rachelle Rosenberg (colors), though this was a quieter issue as Aphra and Trip were basically in one spot, but the panel of Trip gaining his memories was a real stand-out, a cutout of his head, with images of his memories flashing across his neurons, all in red; the seismic pulse was a cool effect, almost as neat as the image/sound combo of Jango Fett’s seismic charges in Attack of the Clones; and of course Aphra really dredging up the waterworks, as once again we don’t quite know if it’s for show or there’s some truth to it.
Here are a few other things:
- Minus the PR officer in the beginning, there were no more appearances from the PR division nor its enigmatic boss lady, but because I feel like she has plenty of potential for the future of the series, I’m sure she’ll be important to next month’s finale. By the way, I’m still betting on my theory that she’s Aphra’s mom somehow/someway, which I introduced in my review of the previous issue.
- *If you’ve been reading the solicitations for the upcoming comics, the recent June 2019 ones seem to hint something I’ve been hoping for awhile now will come true: Aphra going to search for Tolvan after this arc ends! Her seeing Tolvan alive and well with the Rebellion, and the next arc dealing with Aphra getting entangled with the Rebellion again, certainly seems to back up that assumption! Can’t wait to see where their story goes next!!
- Spurrier recently spoke to Marvel about Triple-Zero’s greatest moments and I’m even more certain my theories about him not surviving this arc will come true.
Doctor Aphra #30 brings Triple-Zero’s life full circle, reveals what Aphra might have been up to this whole time, and deals with the connection between the two, as disturbing and strange as it might; so in short, the usual variety of insanity, humor, and awesomeness of the series!
+ Is Aphra playing it up for the cameras, sincere, or a little bit of both?
+ Triple-Zero learning the true of his creation
+ What is Winloss up to stealing that item?!?
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
Doctor Aphra
Aphra (#1-6) | And the Enormous Profit (#9-13) | Remastered (#14-19) / Arc Review | The Catastrophe Con (#20-25) / Arc Review | Worst Among Equals: #26 | #27 | #28 | #29 | Annual: #1 | #2
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