Canon Comic Review: Doctor Aphra #22

– Spoiler Review –

Aphra’s past and present collide in exciting, hilarious, and incredibly insane ways, which is just another day for the rogue archaeologist. Doctor Aphra #22 is another in a very long list of reasons this series is Marvel’s best and how “The Catastrophe Con” arc is shaping up to be the series’ finest.

Aphra was more than sure the Force Ghost causing her misery on Accresker Jail, who sounded like her mom, totally wasn’t her mom, and she was right, because the mystery has been solved and it’s actually…an infectious saprophyte, aka fungus that lives on dead things, called Gundravian Hookspores which has been imbued with the spirit of the dead Jedi it’s consumed. I was beginning to wonder in my review of issue #21 this spirit of Aphra’s mom, Lona, was some sort of manifestation of her due to some buried Jedi artifact, but it turns out it’s actually due to a dead and buried Jedi overrun with the infectious Hookspores and somehow their spirit has become one with the Hookspores, which is protecting the body so it can’t be destroyed. It might sound strange, but for Aphra, this is par for the course and one helluva interesting find. Like always, I found myself laughing a lot this issue, but Aphra’s reasons for why the Ghost wasn’t her mom, before finding the dead Jedi/spores hiding deep in the ship, were hilarious, from the fact Lona wouldn’t have destroyed Dek-Nil (RIP DEK-NIL, YOU WILL BE MISSED!), she wasn’t a space wizard, and she wouldn’t be wearing that ugly color robe. The next time I died laughing was shortly after, when her new pal Lopset asks why they aren’t fleeing from the deadly spores and Aphra’s reasons, including slapping it for disrespecting her mom and the all important profit, are about as Aphra as things can get. The lightsaber on the dead Jedi looked like something from the Dawn of the Jedi era that was beginning to be fleshed out in Legends, as it seemed less likely to have a plasma blade and instead an actual blade, though I’m curious if Aphra will manage to get her hands on it for if she’ll be too busy with everything else going on.

Because there is a lot happening on and around Accresker Jail, including both Captain Snuggles (hahaha) aka Inspector Tolvan, and Aphra’s last ex, Sana Starros, meeting for the very first time! Their meeting defied my expectations in the best way possible, because instead of these two trying to kill one another, which they certainly did before they realize they were both at Accresker for Aphra, they’re basically more in shock and surprise than anything else. Now excuse me for a second while I go laugh about Aphra’s nickname for Tolvan, Captain Snuggles, a whole bunch more. Phew. Okay. I think I’m ready to continue. Did I mention this issue made me laugh a lot? After Sana disables Tolvan’s TIE and Tolvan shoots down Sana’s ship with a rocket launcher, the two battle on the ground, only to scream their desire to not let the other hurt Aphra and they are left confused as all hell. Lopset sums up the situation nicely: “Awkward.” Before they can have words with Aphra, she’s whisked away by one of the Jail’s droids for interrogation, leaving the two women confused and unsure of what to do next. Is Tolvan wondering why Aphra’s never mentioned Sana before, thinking Aphra might still have feelings for her? Was Sana ready to tear into Aphra as she always does, hoping she’s still single and unhappy since they’ve broken up, but secretly trying to maybe get back with her only to find out she’s not available anymore? How these two deal with one another, and Aphra, remains one of the more exciting aspects of this arc.

But Aphra’s lovers, past and present, aren’t her only worries coming her way. Tam Posla, the lawman who joined Aphra on her last mission to Tarkin’s Hivebase-1, is still out there looking for Dr. Evazan. I was still under the impression Dr. Evazan died in the Catina, but From a Certain Point of View seems to hint he survived, thus making Posla’s comment last arc about Evazan having a death sentence in 13 system make more sense, though considering some of FaCPOV might not necessarily be canon, it’s still up in the air; maybe we’ll find out in the pages of this series! Posla has Panda Baba’s arm on his new ship though, so he’s certainly been to the Cantina since their encounter with Luke and Obi-Wan. Posla has changed quite a bit since the “Remastered” arc, as he used to be against killing unless it meant saying his boyfriend Caysin Bog and also against breaking the law, but he hasn’t taken Caysin’s death too well…he’s gone to killing people and cutting himself to focus his anger on the mission of finding Evazan. While that trail has gone cold, Posla intercepts Hera Syndulla reaching out to Sana to see what’s happened due to her ship being shot down, and since Hera uses some choice words that likely describe Aphra, like “…Queen of the all the She-Devils,” he’s logged it as a possible lead on her, as he’s fairly certain Aphra was the cause of Caysin’s death (spoilers: she was). But Posla listening isn’t as important as who’s listening to him: Triple-Zero and Bee Tee! We’ve not heard from the murderbots since issue #20, where Triple-Zero was chanting Aphra’s name with his flame-throwing attachment blaring, and this issue has an even more ominous image of the murderbots sitting at the helm of a ship, the remains of organics strewn around them like dark decorations. Just add these two, with a possible Posla appearance, to Aphra’s already full plate of people she’s wronged coming to roost this arc. But for now, they are the least of her worries…

Aphra’s interrogation has been taken to the next level, as the Imperial’s promised, with them bringing in a Bor to finally uncover her secrets. It seems Bor Gullet, the creepy interrogation monster Saw Gerrera used in Rogue One on Bodhi Rook (we all remember that scene), is of the Mairan race, and the one the Imperials have is called Bor Ifriem, so they all seem to be called Bor “Something.”Anyways, when Ifriem begins to probe Aphra’s mind, the Imperial interrogator reveals some details on what the Bors can do, as it can not only extract memories and thus verify the information of the person it’s Bor-probing (Bor-ing, maybe? Ha), but it can also rewrite memories! Basically, the Bors are Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception…they just look a little different, is all. The Imperials threaten Aphra with such a technique, potentially erasing her memories of her mother or altering them to make her look like a loyal Imperial so that Aphra will want to be loyal too, and the scene is such an excellent combination of writing and art that you can feel Aphra’s pain, as well as her mind being pulled apart and her continued resistance. From images of the people she’s killed or hurt along her way, to the potential changes to Lona, and then the faces of the those she dealt with in the “And the Enormous Profit,” arc, which bring her inches from remembering Vader showing up to crash that party, there’s some excellent callbacks to older arcs while the main story here acts as a direct continuation of the most recent one, making this arc feel like it’s connecting the entire series so far. But just as Aphra is going to spill the beans about Vader’s plans to replace the Emperor, she manages to resist enough and drudge up the memory of the Hookspores, thus convincing them her secret was simply the knowledge the spores were infecting the ship.

This information has unintended consequences, as while it saves Aphra from spilling Vader’s secrets, it causes a funny, surprising, though totally shouldn’t have been surprising, reaction in the Imperials: rather than deal with the infectious, indestructible Hookspores, they’re abandoning Accresker Jail and throwing it into a Rebellion-held planet so the spores can take the rebels out. One problem: they’re leaving all the prisoners, which now includes Sana Starros and Tolvan, on it to die. As Aphra puts it so wonderfully, “Oops.”

Once writer Simon Spurrier joined Kieron Gillen for the previous arc and there was so discernible difference, instead the series seemed to get even better, I’ve been excited for Spurrier to take over full-time. While he and Gillen co-planned the arc, it’s been Spurrier putting together these issues and already “The Catastrophe Con” is shaping up to be an even better arc than “Remastered,” itself the best arc of the series to date. As always, things keep going in unexpected, but hilarious directions, making it even crazier for Aphra to get out alive, if she even does at all, while the way this one has been strengthening the connective tissue of the entire series to date, with other parts of Aphra’s past, it really feels like we’re building to a culmination of everything that’s passed so far, setting up for issue #25 to be a potential end-point to all the current storylines. It better not be the last issue though, as this series is at the top of its game with so much more potential hidden underneath. Part of what’s helped the story feel like it’s connecting across the series is the original art team, Kev Walker (pencils), Marc Deering (inks), and Java Tartaglia (colors), as the flashback images of characters from the first two arcs fit with how we originally saw them, while everything from Tolvan ejecting from her TIE to shoot a rocket at Sana’s ship, the creepy spores, and to the bizarre interrogation by a Bor, feels epic, but personal, grounded here in this moment and focused on the people within the action. I especially commend the interrogation scene, as it could’ve been a bit grody like the cover can be, but instead it retained that creepiness from the Rogue One scene while focusing more on an intriguing glimpse into how one’s mind is affected by a Bor-vasion. (Yes, I’ll probably do a lot of Bor [dash] “rest of original word.” You’ve been warned). And also, that panel of Triple-Zero and Bee Tee amongst their carnage…creepy as all hell. Kudos art team, for giving me new nightmares of the murderbots! Mainly though, I am curious if the image of Lona, with a scar running up her eye with a purple diamond, is an actual image of her or if it’s the Bor teasing the idea of making her into a “devil” in Aphra’s memories, but either way I hope we get an actual panel with her actual mom in it soon (yes, she’s dead, but that’s what flashbacks are for!).

Here are a few other things:

The above GIF, via Bixoarts, perfectly encapsulates Chelli Lona Aphra. It is life. It is everything. It’s Aphra in a GIF-nutshell. (At the link, the artist even has some Triple-Zero and Bee Tee art!)
I was beginning to wonder if the Jedi’s saber Aphra sees could be the same one players like myself have seen in the Secrets of the Empire hyper-reality experience, which was in the Empire’s possession in the game and creators have teased we’ll see the weapon again someplace else, but that takes place pre-Rogue One, so the timeline wouldn’t quite add up. Always have my eyes open for it though, just in case.
Besides The Vintage Collection Aphra, and Triple-Pack Vintage Collection of Triple-Zero, BT-1, and Aphra (exclusive to SDCC but will be on-sale at Hasbro’s online store 8/13{!!!!}), it looks like Aphra and the murderbots will be coming to Hasbro’s The Black Series in 2019!!! (via Yak Face)

Doctor Aphra #22 is everything that makes this series so good, and then some, ensuring Aphra’s life doesn’t get any easier and readers get even more entertainment.

+ Hookspore Hoopla
+ The Ex and Captain Snuggles Meeting
+ Bor-nnecting the series so far together
+ And things are only going to get crazier from here

Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.

Canon Comic Review: Doctor Aphra #22

+ Hookspore Hoopla

+ The Ex and Captain Snuggles Meeting

+ Bor-nnecting the series so far together

+ And things are only going to get crazier from here

Check out the rest of our Canon Comic Reviews here!

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