Canon Comic Retrospective: Doctor Aphra Series {Issues 1-40} (Volume 1)

– Full Spoiler Review –

I’ll never forget watching Doctor Aphra stuffed in an airlock, me chanting alongside her, “Please, not like this!” as Darth Vader promptly jettisons her out into space, her body floating into the cold depths of space. I was shocked, frustrated, and sad, barely able to finish the next few pages of Darth Vader #25 (Vol. 1), flipping past the credits in annoyance, only to see she somehow finagled together a plan to survive. Shortly after, her on-going comic series was announced, the first comic created character to lead her own series (among many other firsts), and my relief and excitement almost had me bursting out into happy tears compared to my sad tears moments before. 40 issues, and 3 Annuals later, Aphra continuously finagled a new way to survive out of the most unlikeliest of scenarios, hopping from one get rich quick scheme to another, but now her adventures (at least in Volume 1) have come to an end. Continue on to read Chris and mine’s review of the entire Doctor Aphra (Vol. 1) series!

Originally co-created by writer Kieron Gillen and artist Salvador Larroca, Aphra can be best summed up by Gillen in an interview from 2017 just after her series began:

There’s a British TV show called “Fleabag.” Aphra is a bit like “Fleabag,” but in the Star Wars Universe. “Fleabag” is about this woman in her 20s who is just this moral monster. The stuff she does is utterly unforgivable, but also very funny to watch. [Laughs]

I absolutely love Fleabag and find this the most apt description of Aphra, making me love both that show and this series even more just thinking about it. Gillen would go on and put Aphra through some hilarious, but deep misadventures for a quick buck, introducing us to her misguided father Korin and eventual love interest Imperial Inspector Magna Tolvan, while putting her at odds frequently with the unstable, hilarious, murderbots Triple-Zero and BeeTee-One. Midway through the series run, Simon Spurrier came on board as co-writer, eventually taking over, putting her into even more danger with the return of Darth Vader into her life, while also allowing her the opportunity to avenge the death of her mother (by saving Palpatine?!), take on a ward named Vulaada, and find a sense of peace with her choices in life, even if it left her alone with the murderbots again, Tolvan and family far away, but safe. Spurrier also put her through one helluva moral ringer after another, forcing her to slowly, eventually, maybe be a little less like Belloq from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark and just a smidge more like Indiana Jones…though profit remains never far from her mind.

While Salvador Larroca and Edgar Delgado, her original art team, returned for a special coda one-shot at the end of the first issue, and select issues of The Screaming Citadel crossover, the series was graced with a handful of excellent, memorable art teams in their own right: Kev Walker brought the quirky, fun nature of Aphra’s corner of the galaxy to life first, and it was hard for me to accept anyone else…initially (issues #1-6, 9-13, 20-25). He was joined by colorists like Antonio Fabela (#1-5, 7-13), Java Tartaglia (#20-25), with Marc Deering on inks for a bit (#4-6, 9-13, 20-25); While Andrea Broccardo joined for TSC crossover, and some random issues afterwards (#7-8, 31, 33-35), the next main artist was Emilio Laiso, bringing us an even more funky, playful art than Walker’s at times, which I grew to love in such arcs as “Remastered” and “Worst Among Equals” (issues #14-19, 26-31), whose main colorist Rachelle Rosenberg helped make those issues into something truly special (#14-19, 26-31). The “Unspeakable Rebel Superweapon” arc (issues #32-36) was a little slapdash in its art team, with artists like Wilton Santos, Caspar Wijngaard, Cris Bolson, and Broccardo, inkers Deering, Don Ho, Scott Hanna, and Walden Wong, plus colorists Chris O’Halloran, Stéphanie Paitreau. The series ended on a concentrated high note with stunning work from Wijngaard and Lee Loughridge (#37-40), and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Read on for Chris and Ryan’s Good, Bad, and In-betweens of the series and our own Top 5 moments!

The Good

Not Shying Away from Orientation (Ryan): While on-screen LGBTQ+ representation has been severely lacking, and continues to despite an attempt in The Rise of Skywalker, the books and comics pave the way when it comes to help widen inclusion in the GFFA. When the Aphra series started, I had hoped it wouldn’t skirt around her orientation and embrace it, while managing not to make it the defining characteristic and instead an organic part of the character. After 40 issues, I can comfortably say both writers Kieron Gillen and Simon Spurrier did exactly that, as Aphra’s relationship woes could’ve happened to any character/orientation. The series dealt with and covered the jilted ex with Sana Starros, evolving their feud from pure anger to allowing Sana to move on and forget the disaster that is Aphra. And in Magna Tolvan, a severely complex, fluid, and constantly entertaining relationship formed an important backbone not just to the series, but for Aphra herself, as her treatment of Tolvan helped her start to realize the ways she could, and eventually did, change.

It’s Weird! (Chris): What a strange point to make, huh? The thing is, Star Wars should be weird. The Original Trilogy was weird, right? Giant cave monsters, space slugs, toothed-holes in the ground, Jabba the Hutt as a concept…the franchise is built on the weird and wacky. Unfortunately, a lot of the current comic offerings (at least, post-2015) did not utilize the weirdness as well as it could’ve. But not Aphra! Aphra dived right in, introducing more giant slugs (as pets!), long dead Jedi, Separatist-turned-Alliance material, and more. Whatever we say here about the series itself, or the character, Doctor Aphra hands-down offered some of the biggest and weirdest aspects of the galaxy. And, dare I say it, the series leaned most fully into the comic format, using the art, colors, and inks to bring a new depth of strange to the galaxy that we all love.

40 Issues Worth of Change (Ryan): Aphra, as we originally met her, spunky, irreverent, and selfish as all hell, is basically the same by the end of the series, but enough minor, though important changes came her way she’s a different person where it counts. One could easily argue Aphra didn’t need to have any real noticeable change to continue being a fantastic, fun character to follow, as her adventures throughout the series entertained on multiple levels, but giving her any type of arc elevated her series. Getting to see the character come so far, an organic change over the full 40 issues despite a writer change, helped make her exploits and adventures worth reading on a deeper level, as it was always a question if a disaster like Aphra could find a way to change meaningfully and the answers were a blast to see unfold. The series sometimes felt like it walked back lessons she learned, but the final several arcs never stopped building on one another, letting Aphra see the consequences of her actions and grow to fix them. Disasters are fun simply because chaos follows in their wake, but even mayhem gets stale after a while, which is why the series’ trajectory for Aphra, as she finally learns to be a little less selfish and help the ones she cares about even if it puts herself in danger instead, was one of the best parts to discover.

The Bad

Lack of Female Creatives (Ryan): With the full female creative team coming with the series’ relaunch in April 2020, it seems rather unfortunate that beyond a colorist and cover artist in the main series, and one single female artist for the third Annual, Aphra hasn’t had a lot of female creatives behind her story, especially not on writing. Gillen and Spurrier did the character proud, and I have zero issues with their work, but the overall lack of female writers in the comics and lack of female-led series does make the choice not to have a woman involved in the series feel shortsighted, so I’m glad to see it’ll change when the series returns.

But Seriously, Where are the Female Creatives? (Chris): I want to talk about a specific scene when I echo Ryan’s point here. (I figured we would both write about it, so I figured I would need to come up with something creative – I am anything but derivative!) After Aphra sneaks aboard the Alliance’s refurbished and transformed Lucrehulk, she captures Hera and uses her as a bargaining chip. Hera, bound and gagged, is presented with a bow on her head when Aphra offers her to Imperial forces. I understand that quite a few things come together here: it’s Aphra, so they want it to be weird; sometimes, heroes (even heroes we love!) are put in humiliating positions, but this seemed to take a bit too far. A lot of female readers were mad at this scene, so a non-masculine reader should have had their eyes on this to make sure that Hera was represented well in the series.

The In-Between

Vader’s Shadow Always Looming (Ryan): The threat of Vader finding out Aphra had survived after the events of Darth Vader #25 (Vol. 1) was novel and nerve wracking in the opening 13 issues, and even though it scared and delighted me again in two later arcs, it was beginning to feel a little to rote by the series’ end. Vader being duped by Aphra’s schemes could only happen for so long before it went overboard, so at least the series ended on the best one yet, where she manages to help her friends/loved ones by using Vader without trying to make it seem like she’s dead…again. When the murderbots became the masters in “Remastered,” and their close proximity literally meant life or death in “Worst Among Equals,” the series proved how easily it could provide depth and drama without the Dark Lord, which is why it was a bit of a bummer the series regressed to needing Vader again over the course of the final 3 arcs. Aphra, and the corner of the galaxy she and her associates meddle in, are big enough and expansive enough for a whole other type of intriguing variety of threats, so while it was never detrimental to the series overall, relying on Vader for the thrills seemed a little cheap. It looks like Volume 2 could be as Vader-less as it can get, considering everything that happened in The Empire Strikes Back, making Aphra beneath his gaze, so here’s hoping this doesn’t happen again.

The Art (Chris): On one hand, it seems unfair to criticize art in any comic series, if mostly because art is subjective and it seems hard to judge someone’s art and call it bad by every standard. And I don’t want to do that, not at all! But I do want to point out that the series went through a few artists shifts, which didn’t all change the tone of the series, but when it did, it was jarring. (I’m looking at you, The Screaming Citadel!)

QUICK HITS

Favorite Arc: Chris – “The Catastrophe Con” | Ryan – “Worst Among Equals ”

Least Favorite Arc: Chris & Ryan – The Screaming Citadel

Top 5 Overall Moments (in no particular order)

Chris

How did she get her doctorate again?? (Issue #1): Okay, let’s just start with one of the best things in general about Doctor Aphra’s own stand-alone series: the fact that she is getting issue after issue focused on her and what she needs! While Darth Vader was an entertaining comic, one full of deep-dives into the Dark Lord’s psyche, let’s not pretend like Aphra didn’t steal the show and serve as the reason we really wanted to read the series. To be able to explore her backstory, and focus on her and her compatriots(!), was such a joy. An especially big joy was discovering why she *was* Doctor Aphra, and which major discovery she made – or, at least, claimed to make – in order to gain this doctorate.
What does Luke think about her? (Issue #8): Sometimes, we need the opinions of other people to help us see who we really are. Aphra knows, but won’t quite admit to herself, that she is a selfish user, someone who is more concerned for herself at this point than anybody else. But one farmboy, a certain Jedi Knight, doesn’t quite see her that way. Sure, she used him: she exploited his desire to learn more about the Jedi in an effort to use Luke to bring her to the Screaming Citadel to get her treasure, worth an enormous profit unlocked, but Luke sees past the surface. He knows she’s capable of caring about someone else, and heck, he almost gets her to prove it! The rest of the series focuses on the side cast’s ability to talk about her as a person, acting as mirrors to hold up against her and reveal to her what she’s really like. Sometimes, she would find that she loved what she saw; quite a few other times, she was disappointed. Her ability to change – or what she thinks is her inability to change – becomes the emotional crux of the series.
Jedi Rur vs. Darth Vader (Issues #12–13): Ever since the loss of the Jedi Order in Operation: Knightfall, the chances of reading stories focused on Jedi slimmed down considerably. Leave it to Doctor Aphra to find a really creative way to bring in the cosmic battle of the Jedi vs the Sith in a series that doesn’t seem to fit much into it. Darth Vader learns about an auction for an expensive artifact, inadvertently crashing Aphra’s latest scheme to get rich. During the auction, the spirit of an ancient Jedi, Rur, is unlocked, and he locks blades with the Dark Lord.
Wait, just who is in charge here? (Issue #14): One of the most shocking twists came early in the series, when we had discovered that Doctor Aphra had been coerced into working for the Murderbots! Aphra is one of the most resourceful women in the galaxy, but she always seems to be falling under someone’s thumb, unfortunately. At first, after escaping the clutches of Darth Vader, we had thought she would finally be able to strike out on her own, making her own rules and her own way through life. Unfortunately, this never seemed to pan out too well: despite being on her own to discover the Eternal Rur, she falls under the leadership of Triple-Zero. The pair’s dynamic would shift over the remainder of the series, as antagonists, as begrudging allies, and as a pair on the run. The two became excellent foils for each other, and thankfully, the series was creative enough to find different ways to move her around.
Exploding tookas! (“Remastered” arc): Okay, I don’t claim to have a lot to say about this moment, except that Aphra genetically modifying tooka clones in an effort to load them with bombs is a classic Aphra move, leading to lots of comedy and lots of surprisingly emotional moments. Maybe one of the biggest strengths of Aphra’s series was her ability to work the weird and wild into its entirety. Some of the strangest, but most entertaining bits of weirdness also include a Jedi brought back to life as a technopathic droid; a lightsaber blaster; and a swarm of insects that strive to possess the person with the strongest sense of justice.

Ryan

Aphra and Tolvan’s First Kiss (Issue #16): There’s been several, even more meaningful kisses since Aphra and Magna Tolvan first locked lips, and even scenes which take their relationship further, but this was such a big moment for not only the series, but for Star Wars as a whole and representation as well, so this first one stays as their most important one yet. On-screen representation for LGBTQ+ fans still is lacking, especially after The Rise of Skywalker’s clumsy attempt, but at the very least the Aphra series has been pushing the envelope in meaningful and important ways with the complicated relationship between Tolvan and Aphra. Of course having on-screen rep is a far more important and necessary step for the Saga to take, but this kiss only heralded the beginning of one of the Saga’s best, and one of the very few, attempts at a nuanced take on representation and relationships.
A Changeling Indeed (Issue #25): Lopset is Evazan! I’m always a big fan of twists that make you immediately want to go back and find all the hints leading up to it, as your mind is already recalling moments your subconscious caught on. In “The Catastrophe Con,” the reveal meek Lopset, who tags along with Aphra in hopes he can escape Accresker Jail with her, was actually the despicable Dr. Evazan the whole time is exactly that type of twist, as I unwittingly doing my most meme-able “What?!” reaction, dropping the issue in my hands and wracking my brain for all those weird little moments in the issues before that hid the wonderful and intriguing surprise. Aphra, as much as it’s been about her disastrous exploits, has always had a lazer focus on characters and their interactions with one another, no matter the bizarre situation they find themselves in, and a twist predicated on little snippets of dialogue and background hints expands on said focus, where scrutinizing the little things is its own reward. Beyond that, the twist heralded a whole new storyline for the series, changing the status quo, and was a great continuation of storylines building in the background of the series.
Aphra Learning to Live with her Choices (Issue #40): I’ve spent three different articles diving into Aphra’s irreverent and somewhat meta words to Vader about him being the best thing that’s happened to her, but the more I’ve ruminated on her epic speech in issue #40, the more I’ve realized there are more important parts to focus on. Prime example: Aphra believes a truer measure of one’s life isn’t how others view you, but rather if you can live with yourself or not, alone with your choices. Having spent most of the time we’ve known her running from her mistakes, literally making human/alien shields to escape with her life at one point, Aphra dropping such advice reveals she’s finally willing to stick around and deal with the consequences of her actions. We see this play out as she directly confronts Vader, using him to help her loved ones and place the target solely on her back for once, making her a woman changed, taking responsibility for what she’s done to bring them, and herself, to this point.
Unleashing the Murderbots (Issue #13): Keeping droids around that want to murder every sentient being they set their sights on, especially the one that has imprisoned them with “programming,” is never a good idea for long. And thinking you can control them forever is foolish mistake, something Aphra learns in the hardest of ways once Murderbots Triple-Zero and BeeTee-One go behind her back and blackmail her to be set free. It’s either let Darth Vader know she’s still alive or let the Murderbots go, so she takes the risk and lets them free, in a rather hilarious and chilling scene where somehow, as Aphra puts it, “Trip, I’m trapped on a space station with the man I’m most afraid of in the entire galaxy and you still find a way to make things creepier.” Like the twist with Dr. Evazan, this opened up a frightening set of possibilities and a whole new storyline for the series, where the creepy, sadistic, and altogether hilarious Murderbots were in charge. Seems I really like moments when they change the status quo, hey?
Introducing an Odd, but Heart Stealing Couple (Annual #2): Out of the series’ wide variety of entertaining and memorable side characters, it was the strange, wonderful, and often hilarious monster hunting odd couple of Winloss, an older human male with pickpocketing tendencies, and Nokk, a constantly exasperated Trandoshan woman with a code not to kill, that stole our hearts. And it’s all thanks to Annual #2’s introduction of the odd, but loveable pair, roped into another of Aphra’s schemes, which means facing almost certain death for Aphra’s own gains, naturally. Due to her misleading narrative, the hunters go on the hunt for her, causing havoc, and hilarity when they finally catch up to her. They find her unworthy prey though, and while they exited the main series, they got an excellent sendoff in Annual #3, though I’m hoping to see the strangest but most stable couple in the galaxy again soon!

Here are a few other things:

The first volume received a coda of sorts in the Empire Ascendant one-shot, where we see Tolvan, Vulaada, and Korin’s reactions to the news Aphra might’ve done something selfless for once…and their reactions are exactly what you’d expect!
The Aphra series has been so outstanding, and an important, nuanced bit of LGBTQ+ representation that it was nominated by the GLAAD Awards for Outstanding Comic! The awards haven’t been presented yet, but here’s hoping it wins!
Bria LaVorgna, of fan site Tosche Station fame, has been one of Aphra’s biggest fans and just before the series’ first volume finale in December 2019, she released a sequel to her article about the importance of the character and it’s something every fan needs to read, highlighting the strengths a character like her brings to the creatives and the Saga as a whole!
Also, I have to give a shout out to some great Twitter users I’ve had the honor and pleasure to interact with, where they roleplay characters from the series: There’s the Magna Tolvan account (@Magna_Tolvan), who is so consistently in-character in all her interactions it feels like a living breathing extension of the character out of the comics; And there’s been more Aphra accounts as of late, but Joytstick Chevron (@JoystickChevron), named after a funny nickname Aphra provided as her own to Tolvan after they met again in issue #14, has been loud and proud supporter of the series, and has even cosplayed as the character before.
Each Annual really added important additional moments, ideas, details, and characters to the series as a whole. For Annual #1, Kieron Gillen, with an art team of Marc Laming, Will Sliney (art), Jordan Boyd (colors), and Joe Caramagna (lettering), delved into Black Krrsantan’s dark past, but still managed to keep the series’ humor; Annual #2, written by Si Spurrier with art by Caspar Wijngaard, led to the introduction of Winloss and Nokk, as I mentioned above in my Top 5 moments, a pair of side characters not to be missed as the series progressed; and Annual #3, once again written by Spurrier, with Elsa Charretier on art, with Edgar Delgado and Jim Campbell (colors), and Caramagna (lettering), gave supporting characters like Winloss, Nokk, and Krrsantan closure on their stories within the series, more than I ever hoped to get as the series barreled towards its end.
The Doctor Aphra series is relaunching in April, with writer Alyssa Wong and Marika Cresta on art, and only recently we got details on what to expect, from both in an interview with Wong and the April comic solicitations. And with her return looming, Gillen recently did an interview over at TechRadar about the inception of the character and his excitement on seeing how far she’s come since.

I (Chris) remember the first time that I caught even a glimpse of Doctor Aphra. I was working in the stacks as a librarian at the Iowa State University library. I was on a break, sitting in a nice little alcove that not many students knew about. I was scrolling through the Web, and the solicitations for the newest round of comics (that is, announcing the April 2015 releases) had just dropped. Mind you – this was back when the flagship Star Wars title had just reset, the Darth Vader title was new, and we didn’t have either Kanan: The Last Padawan or Princess Leia. I was so excited to see what the future of Marvel comics held.

That’s when I first laid eyes on Doctor Aphra. Oh, and those droids. All the description had to say about her was that Darth Vader sought her out as the foremost weapons expert – and that he had found the deadly droids he was looking for! I thought it was pretty cool that the new Vader comic would feature a woman so predominantly on the cover; especially cool as Vader seemed to be searching out her services. Who was this powerful woman that Vader himself would need the help of? I downloaded the image and used it as my phone’s screen saver for a while.

When the issue would finally be available for sale, I rolled into my local comic store unaware of what I was about to experience. Little did I know, I was about to meet my favorite canon comic book character, someone who would eventually become one of my favorite canon characters, even (Ed. note: Mine too!)! From her Indiana Jones-esque opening, to the interesting power dynamic between her and our favorite Dark Lord, to the energy she brought to the title, I was hooked.

Now, we know our favorite rogue archaeologist as more than just the foremost weapons expert in the galaxy. When her solo series debuted years after her first appearance, we were blessed to meet such a well-rounded and interesting character. Each arc of her solo series would bring untold new depths to her. We got to know her as a family woman, of sorts, who cared about her family, even when they were kinda crappy to her. We learned about her resourcefulness, even if it was a bit manipulative, when she could sweet-talk the farmboy from Tatooine we all love into unlocking an ancient Jedi. We learned about her quick thinking when the ancient Jedi battled Darth Vader and took over every machine in the facility.

But we didn’t just learn about her from her own point of view. As she became entangled in the lives of Imperial leaders (Magna Tolvan, Pitina Mar-Mas Voor), from Alliance leadership (Hera Syndulla, Leia Organa), from outlaws and thieves (Winloss and Nokk; BeeTee and Triple-Zero, Black Krrsantan), we learned about her from a wonderful supporting cast. Sure – Aphra would mostly look out for herself. Sure – these people would be hurt by her, double-crossed by her, and used by her. Sure – they would find themselves enraged at her and might even try to get back at her. But they all couldn’t deny how much they cared about her.

And, really, neither could we.

Reviewing this series was a true joy. My top five moments came from the beginning, but the series never really misfired or had a bad arc. Not even a bad issue, to be totally honest! The forty issues, three Annuals, and epilogue story all painted the picture of a woman trying her best to survive in a hostile galaxy: a woman who makes mistakes, a woman who makes bad and hurtful decisions, but a complex and intriguing woman, well-rounded and full of engaging adventures and complex depth.

Here’s to the series we’ve already had, and here’s to looking ahead to Volume 2.

Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. Chris is the Manor’s Sous Chef. You can follow him on Twitter @ChrisWerms, You can follow the website @MynockManor.
All comic panel images credited to Marvel/Lucasfilm