Canon Comic Review: Doctor Aphra #25

– Spoiler Review –

Doctor Aphra hits the landmark 25th issue of her own series, nearly two years after surviving her time working for Darth Vader, and I dare say Aphra‘s 25th is the single best issue of comics since that series’ 25th, as it’s packed with an impressive amount of payoffs, closure, and one helluva surprise which sets the stage for more misadventures of the fan-favorite rogue archaeologist with an all new status quo.

As humorous of a character Chelli Lona Aphra and her comic series have proven to be, her and her series have been covering deeper, more psychological issues than one would imagine, but both are far better for it. If the previous arc, “Remastered,” was all about Triple-Zero trying to show Aphra how similar the two were, as much as she likes to think otherwise, then “The Catastrophe Con” has been an exploration of how true Aphra’s rebuttal of Triple-Zero’s assertions were from the finale of “Remastered.” In issue #19, horrified by Triple-Zero’s claim but also realizing how right he might be due to her actions, she admits she is selfish but says at least she regrets her actions, unlike him. By the end of “The Catastrophe Con” with issue #25, a truly jam-packed, surprising, and absolutely excellent issue of comics, we have an answer for exploring how true her claim really is: it is….from a certain point of view. Despite her ability to regret her actions, she continues to make choices that take away from other people’s choices, a definition of evil from her mother (Lona), causing her to pile on the regret in an effort to survive. Regretting something definitely makes one less evil than one who doesn’t, but if you keep doing it, is regret enough? Aphra runs the gamut of emotional reactions this issue, and arc, and finding her in an even tougher spot by issue’s end proves having regrets doesn’t really make her a better person. And it’s all finally caught up to her, as her latest predicament, which will fuel the upcoming arc “Worst Among Equals,” might be her worst yet…and it doesn’t even involve Darth Vader! But before we get into that, and the surprising twist reveal that had me rereading the arc the moment I finished this issue, let’s see what else brings Aphra to her new predicament.

Oh Inspector Magna Tolvan, you poor, disastrous woman you. After the previous issues let Sana Starros make peace with Aphra and their volatile past, issue #25 allows Tolvan to make her own decision regarding her future with or without Aphra. Or does she really make the decision? At the very least, we can be certain Tolvan decides loving Aphra, despite all her flaws, has been a detriment to her own life, and as much and as strong as her love for Aphra is, she feels it’s not worth it anymore. I’ve been rooting for Tolvan and Aphra for the longest time now, but this organic and nuanced romance, even with its less than happy ending, made for a really strong aspect to the series, while giving its LGBTQ+ relationship a natural (to some extent) ending based on the characters involved, resulting in the same attention and subtlety most stories give heterosexual romance plots. Having Tolvan make the sacrifice of her memories to ensure Vader believes the trail of his plans to overthrow the Emperor have gone cold can be seen as a great way to show that one should end a toxic relationship, no matter how much they love someone because sticking with it can only make it worse, case in point Tolvan knows Aphra’s love doesn’t extend beyond using someone else’s ability to care for her to her advantage, but Tolvan goes a step further than most, she does something to get out and attempt to help the other person. However, Tolvan making this decision is partially part of Aphra’s plan/due to her manipulations after mentioning using the Bor to erase her own mind, which robs Tolvan of the explicit choice of how she gets out of their relationship, but Tolvan at least already knew she needed out. This all boils down to Aphra’s mother’s advice again, as taking away Tolvan’s choice in the matter of how she gets out makes the deed evil, to some extent, but it’s clear from Aphra’s waterfalling tears and anger at being interrupted from watching Tolvan’s confession, Aphra does care for the Inspector, maybe even more than she realized. The biggest reason for the tears is due to how Aphra doesn’t respect Tolvan’s consented extent to have her memories messed with by the Bor, instead going much further: understanding Vader as well as she does, Aphra decides to alter Tolvan’s memories to make her believe she killed Aphra, jilted lover style. In a way, it’s accurate, as Tolvan making the choice to have Aphra erased from her brain is another way to kill her, and while Aphra’s choice goes beyond her girlfriend’s wishes, making her think there’s no more Aphra allows her to get that separation and closure from Aphra, adding a level of kindness to Aphra’s choice she might not even realize. Nearly put into Imperial custody, Tolvan is found by Sana and the Rebellion presence fleeing the planet, Tiferep, targeted by the Imperials to slam Accresker Jail into, leaving her story in the hands of the rebels, which is a plotline I’m very intrigued to see going forward, as her altered memories of Aphra being dead by her hands could help get Hera off Aphra’s back, though I’d be most interested to see Sana’s reaction to the “news.”

When Tolvan made the call to Darth Vader a few issues back, the hair rose up on the back of my neck, and with the previous issue showing his arrival to Accresker Jail, I was preparing for the worst, believing he’d be the biggest part of this issue, but somehow Vader isn’t (which isn’t a bad thing), though he’s still quite significant. For starters, I love how the issue showed his path of death and destruction through the jail in a detached manner, like an approaching doomsday clock ticking away in the background, nearing its final seconds, while the focus stayed on the main players of the story; the scenes managed to feel like they intimated his Rogue One appearance in tone, but did so in a different, inventive way. Along his way to Tolvan and Aphra, he encounters Beetee-One, the astromech of the murderbots pair, and, in the first of a few surprises this issue, Vader destroys the droid with impunity; rest your murderous soul, Beetee! I had thought the murderbots would pose a potential threat to Vader, but this proved they probably wouldn’t be much of a bother to him. By the time Vader locates his prey, only Tolvan is around (Aphra watches remotely) to answer his questions and he’s pissed when he finds out, according to the altered memories, Tolvan says she basically called him to save herself after killing Aphra. Sure, Vader’s always pissed, but this really grinds his mechanic gears, and while her death seemed all but certain, Tolvan’s closeness to Aphra means he wants to keep her around to learn any more details, hence why she was almost in Imperial custody until Rebellion intervention. Vader senses the hookspores and deals with them without much effort as well, eliminating them from existence, making that two causalities at Vader’s hands this issue. Totally done with all this shit, like Vader is wont to do, he decides to get the hell off the jail and resume its destruction, logging Aphra’s status as dead while watching the pluming explosion of the impact of Accresker with the planet. Finally having the specter of Vader off her back is a big moment, as while he could always find out she’s not dead somehow, he seems to consider the matter closed and beneath his concerns now, and Aphra’s survival won’t boil down to if Vader knows about her anymore, which is a nice change of pace and also might help her stop using him as an excuse to push people away.

But the other decked out in black problem from her past, murderbot Triple-Zero, knows she’s still alive and finally catches up with her. His first appearance this issue is him peering out from behind Tam Posla, foolishly returning with Lopset to Accresker to arrest Aphra for her “double cross,” whom Triple-Zero promptly and viciously murders with glee, while Lopset flees. Triple-Zero finds the hypocrisy in Aphra’s claim to him from issue #19, sarcastically pointing out how much regret she must have to deal with as she willingly continues to make dubious choices like him, but her choice to alter Tolvan’s memories is scandalous enough that Triple-Zero decides to spare her life so he can instead torture her for locking away his memories. He once again has a point, as her lonely life is one she deserves because she continues to make decisions which alienate others from her, and in her grief over what she’s done to Tolvan, he grabs her, taking her away to escape and torture her another day. But then Lopset reappears, giving Triple-Zero the bad news about his little buddy, but when an unbelieving Trip inquires Lopset to repeat the news, Lopset knocks the droid out…and Aphra right after, spiriting them away on a ship just before Accresker slams into the planet. That’s all well and good, right? Wrong, oh so terribly, deliciously wrong.

How wrong is it? Remember I mentioned a twist reveal caused me to reread the arc immediately? Well, it turns out Lopset actually isn’t Lopset…he’s Doctor Cornelius Evazan! Lopset is Evazan, Evazan is Lopset! WHAT!? Mr. “I have the death sentence on 12 systems” is not only alive, something last year’s From a Certain Point of View revealed, but he’s been hiding in plain sight this whole time. Evazan was masked thanks to a pluripleq, which is basically a bioengineered jelly fish which he wore on his face and alters his appearance, so not only was “Lopset’s” ability to “shape-shift” into criminals, including Evazan himself, a big hint, there are plenty of other little ones hidden within this arc, like Posla’s mentioning of Evazan’s hit of the labs on Thannt in issue #22, making writer Simon Spurrier about as mad of a genius as Evazan himself. I can only imagine what Tam Posla would’ve done once he realized he actually did have the real Evazan, and that Aphra didn’t trick him an issue earlier, but mainly he’d probably still be alive. Evazan, from his decraniated projects seen with Caysin Bog last arc and even glimpsed in Solo: A Star Wars Story, lives up to his mad scientist name, devising the terrible new situation both Aphra and Triple-Zero find themselves in: taking out his proximity bomb from his time on Accresker, he’s placed it in Triple-Zero, rigging it to blow if they try to tamper with it, if either of them dies, or if they stray more than 20 meters from one another. But Evazan doesn’t do this because he hates either Aphra or Triple-Zero, he does it for sadistic research about if people are born with evil or pick it up, inspired by, you guessed it, once again, Aphra’s mother’s sage words about how evil is a measure of how much your choices take away the choices of other people’s. In a way, it’s almost like Evazan is testing himself a bit against that definition of evil, as his choice to bind them together takes away plenty of their own choices, but how many does it truly take away/can they survive? He believed he was writing the book of evil for the galaxy, but after having met Aphra, he’s rethought his place and wants to know if he’s as evil as she is…and he’s certain she and Triple-Zero really do deserve one another. After 25 issues, it makes sense to change the status quo of the series, as Vader couldn’t always be the big bad hovering over Aphra’s life since it could get old, fast, while her facing the murderbots…well, murderbot now…can’t always be her main antagonists because that could also get old fast, though not as fast since Triple-Zero is such a fascinating droid. And since Aphra traffics in parts of the galaxy with all different types of nefarious beings, there’s an expansive cast of exciting new personalities to put her up against that aren’t clad in all black.

Simon Spurrier was handed the reigns of Doctor Aphra after co-writing the previous arc and I have to say, like I seem to say after every arc but I always mean it, “The Catastrophe Con” is the best arc of Aphra yet, as it was so deftly plotted and written, all the mynocks coming to roost made for an absolutely amazing issue of comics that could only happen if the preceding issues were full of expertly hidden hints and teases of what’s to come. I’m glad he’s taken over and I can’t wait to see where he takes my favorite character next. My favorite of the two art teams who work on Aphra, Kev Walker (pencils), Marc Deering (inks), and Java Tartaglia (colors) were a blast to behold his final issue, from Vader combing his way through the throngs to get to his targets or his battle with the hookspores, dialing up Triple-Zero’s creep factor to 1100, the big reveal of Evazan, Aphra’s shocked faces aplenty, and that amazing page of her screaming and wielding the ancient lightsaber she screwed so many people over to get but didn’t work, this team knocked it out of the park for their final issue of this arc and I’m damn sad to see them go. Steadfastly though, we have Joe Caramagna to thank for lettering duties, and I’m sure he has fun with the cheeky time/location headers.

Here are a few other things:

When Sana mentions Vader is on Accresker to Hera Syndulla, she demands they do not engage, citing a lack of desire for another Vrogas Vas on their hands; this is in reference to the first crossover of the Marvel comics era, where Star Wars and the first Darth Vader series joined to make the Vader Down event, where Vader is brought down by Luke above Vrogas Vas, but he decimates the Rebellion army there in a chilling show of his power. Cool to not only see that referenced, but to know Hera, of Star Wars Rebels fame, knows about that ghost (see what I did there?) story too.
If you haven’t managed to get the somewhat expensive Aphra and murderbots action figure triple pack or have had no luck with finding Aphra’s standalone The Vintage Collection figure, a new option has arrived: Hasbro’s Black Series announced Doctor Aphra (with removable vest/cap), Triple-Zero (with regular and torture hands), and BeeTee-One standalone figures! Can’t wait to add these to my collection!
Released this week, on 10/23/18, the book Scum and Villainy includes an Aphra appearance or two!
The next arc sounded like a lot of fun, but now knowing the predicament of Triple-Zero and Aphra is due to Evazan, it makes it even more exciting! The latest solicitations, for January 2019, has a cover which includes Evazan, funnily enough I didn’t even put that together because I thought it was like Lopset shape-shifting or something, but it also mentions an undead bounty hunter and I thought it might be Tam or hookspores inhabiting Tam, but that big fiery explosion of the jail would suggest otherwise.

Doctor Aphra #25 is amazing issue of Star Wars comics, thanks to how deftly written the overall arc was and putting our favorite through a ringer than wrapped years of storytelling while propelling into something even more exciting than ever before. In short: Same Aphra, same:

+ LOPSET IS ACTUALLY CORNELIUS EVAZAN
+ Tolvan’s big “choice”
+ Aphra and Triple-Zero’s new predicament
+ Deftly plotted and glorious art

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 #25

+ LOPSET IS ACTUALLY CORNELIUS EVAZAN

+ Tolvan’s big “choice”

+ Aphra and Triple-Zero’s new predicament

+ Deftly plotted and glorious art

Check out the rest of our Canon Comic Reviews here!/

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