– Spoiler Review –
With the Spark Eternal within their grasp, it seems everything’s going right with Sana Starros and team’s mission to stop it and save Doctor Chelli Aphra, but that’s when everything goes bad typically, and holy lothcats does it ever in Alyssa Wong and team’s Doctor Aphra #26 (Vol. 2), a sentiment which isn’t even scratching the surface of how much worse things have to get before they get better. I’m still not emotionally recovered (WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, ALYSSA?!), but let’s do this review!
At the end of issue #25, everything was looking up for Aphra’s murder of misfit heroes and exes, as Sana’s team managed to subdue the Spark Eternal possessed Doctor Aphra, largely thanks to Kho Phon Farrus in the final stretch as she playacted to fool the Spark. Victory seemed guaranteed thanks to a power-stance full final page…but it doesn’t even last to the end of the first page of issue #26, as the Spark’s true power is unleashed and soon Sana Starros, Magna Tolvan, Detta Yao, Eustacia Okka, Kho, and even the murderbots Triple-Zero and Bee Tee find the true might of the Ascendant tech and the marvel of the Spark. While using so much Ascendant tech to bring down the Spark sounded like such a good idea, it’s haunting the team now, as the Spark’s able to power surge the whips, breaking free, fix Aphra’s legs after Kho crushed them, and starts to use Kho’s gloves to magnetically grab the teams’ guns and throw them around. It looks like a (deranged) kid playing with (real life) dolls, it’s so easy for the Spark to take over and use the tech, much like Miril and the Ascendant hoped, the fight doesn’t even seem fair. The murderbots, usually the last thing most meatbags see, don’t have much effect on the Spark either…to the point she not only spears them through with the Null blade, but she manages to take control of them and turn them to her side! It was spooky having them be Aphra’s master for awhile in the previous Aphra series, but there’s something about the droids possessed by the malevolent A.I. that gives me even more chills than that story did. There’s a glimmer of hope in the fight at one point, despite the screaming worthy final pages, and I can’t wait to see how it comes into play in the future…hopefully.
When the murderbots first press their attack, and barely hold their own against the Spark, Sana sees an opening and sends Magna in to do her part of the plan, which is to connect to Aphra again through their shared electro-tattoos! In case you haven’t read the previous Aphra series (if you’ve enjoyed this run so far, go back and do so as soon as you can!), as Magna worked through her feelings for Aphra, more so because she represented everything she swore to protect the Empire against, like chaos and unlawfulness, though she couldn’t help herself and ended up trying to help Aphra escape a prison at one point, which is when she got the tattoos so they could communicate discretely. The ability for them to connect on such a deeper level was used again in the previous series’ penultimate issue, which is also the last time they’ve seen one another, a moment where Aphra once again broke down Magna’s walls and it led to their sizzling relationship firing off again. But this time, Magna’s not totally sure what using her tattoos with Aphra’s will do because of the Spark, but she charges in anyways and the resulting overload flings her into Aphra’s mind, within the construct the Spark has built to lock Aphra way! And while Magna’s not there long, her usual demeanor and control slipping away being around Aphra again, starting to talk about her feelings and what happened between, about to say there’s no time…only for Aphra to take advantage of the moment for a big ol’ smooch!!
Seeing Sana and Aphra together again, turning their usually antagonistic association into something less volatile to the point Sana’s gone this far to lead a mission to rescue her, has been one of the biggest highlights of Alyssa Wong’s run so far, but this brief moment between Magna and Aphra almost takes the cake already. It feels so inherently them, the dynamics switching, Aphra no longer bumbling and in control, Magna no longer in control and bumbling, Aphra continuing to surprise Magna, knowing what she really wants before she says it (even without this unique connection with the tattoos). And then their kiss!! When these two lock lips, it’s always a big production and rightfully so! In fact, their first kiss was years before The Rise of Skywalker’s attempt at representation, the first one in a visual medium in canon, and was a cathartic moment from their growing connection. Their next big kiss, in the penultimate issue I mentioned earlier, also was a full page delightful beauty mixed with tragic lighting. And now this one, while only in Aphra’s mind technically, gets the biggest panel of the page, Magna in total surprise but not fighting it and Aphra on top, further cementing the way their roles reverse around one another, all the worries and troubles around them gone in that instance. It’s a beautiful portrait of their connection, intimate in the way the others were but this closeup makes it even more personal, more private, putting Minkyu Jung and Rachelle Rosenberg’s work right up alongside Emilio Laiso and Caspar Wijngaard’s. Aphra gets the Han Solo line of “I know” after their kiss, and uses their closeness to charge up her tattoos to send Magna out, but not before leaving her with a sly little tidbit, “…you’ve got everything you need,” her finger placed on Magna’s head, who then pop’s back out of her mind. What secret or hint did she drop to help Magna and team save her from the Spark?!
Throughout the losing battle against the Spark, and before Magna arrives inside, we see Aphra starting to tackle the problem of her situation, trying to work out how to free herself from this construct the Spark has trapped her in. As I said in my review last issue, I believe it’ll come down to her helping Miril let go or something like that, but Aphra’s version of that, before Magna literally POPs inside, is a little harsher and simpler: she’s thinking of striking down Miril. She knows the Spark cares about her, so when trying to break out the door doesn’t seem to work, maybe going after the thing the Spark cares for could divide its attention or cause it to falter enough for Aphra to break out. We never see the depth of this plan, the issue doesn’t return to inside Aphra’s mind prison after Magna leaves, but I wonder what details she offered to Magna and if/how it ties into what she’s doing from the inside. Has she been hoping and waiting for this exact moment, trying plans out literally but inside she’s been thinking of a different solution? How much access does she have to what the Spark is doing or thinking as well? Is it a place, person, or idea she tells Magna to help her? It’s a giant mystery and very well could be what helps bring this fantastic Spark Eternal Saga to a close…as long as Magna is alive to try it…
Aphra and Magna’s secret conversation isn’t the only one this issue. After Magna returns and the murderbots are turned, the team is under assault but Kho remains in the Spark’s way. They stand their ground to the Spark, but it plays on their insecurities once again, saying how easy it would be to kill them and steal the gloves, but the Spark decides to let them live, saying something to her we aren’t privy too, calling it a gift, and saying they are its favorite. Joe Caramagna’s lettering for the whisper was neat, a squiggle we wish we could unravel, as right after the Spark leaves and imparts the message, Kho abandons the team to be with Crimson Dawn. What could it have said to convince them to leave the team? What could it offer? Part of the answer seems to come in Hidden Empire #1, hence Alyssa Wong’s suggestion to read this first before the new miniseries about Qi’ra’s efforts to tear down the Sith and their absolute stranglehold on the galaxy, but I won’t spoil it here (we’ll have our review of Hidden Empire up soon, so I’ll link to that when it’s up) though I can say it ties into a mystery from Crimson Reign, if you’ve read that. Will Kho still factor into the story here or will they be waylaid in Hidden Empire? I hope they can be in both, as has been the case in past crossover-like events so far, as I don’t think issue #25’s Kho, who was able to resist the Spark’s taunting, is still in there, still changed to some degree. Maybe they think working with Crimson Dawn will potentially help this situation as well? I can’t wait to find out, since they might be the only person from Magna’s team who make it out of this issue alive.
Wait…what?! That’s right, remember how I said I haven’t emotionally recovered yet from this issue? I wrote that tidbit on Wednesday and now I’m wrapping this up Thursday and I’m still in a bit of shock, even having read the solicitations for upcoming issues of the series. After the Spark leaves, followed by Kho, the murderbots leave Sana and team behind as well, but we get a bit of a Spark monologue to hear what it has planned next. Now in control of the murderbots, who once served a Sith Lord, the Spark can’t wait to crack open their secrets to help it in its fight against the Sith, revealing it’s still carrying on the Ascendant’s original purpose, something it knows Crimson Dawn is planning as well. It’s not linked with the group, but it wants Kho to help the Archivist with the Dawn’s plans, as they are all after the same thing: destroy the Sith. As the Spark and muderbots fly off to find themselves a Sith, its words, Sana and team pile into the Volt Cobra to chase afterwards, but the Spark left them a parting gift: spider-bombs. And then it lets the fireworks fly, blowing up the damn Volt Cobra with the entire team inside of it!!?!?!!? WHAT!?!?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!? The team is all in the cockpit at the time of explosion, and maybe this is just one part of what Aphra warned/told Magna about, as the destroyed Cobra still has its cockpit intact before the issue ends, with its own door so they could all possibly be alive, trapped in there, but I threw my phone when I read the issue in the morning and threw the literal comic when I read it that evening. It’s a big cliffhanger, and even if some solicitations for future issues secure some fates, enough are left open it could very well be a toss up of who makes it out (hopefully everyone, even if it means they’ll face more certain death in the future)! This was such a great issue by Alyssa Wong, once again carrying on the same level of quality, character moments, and plot movement, it’s almost feels like they made a deal with the devil. The Spark Eternal Saga has been vastly entertaining and this opens up a whole new part of it, the team facing death, the Spark seemingly impossible to overcome, and the team’s best chance of stopping the Spark leaving them for Crimson Dawn, all while Aphra works out a plan to free herself, still locked inside her own mind. So many unknowns! So many ways this could all go! So much more humor, action, and emotion surely on its way!
It’s not just Wong’s writing that makes this so special, it’s the art team’s work which has brought these dastardly stories alive in such vibrant, arresting ways, even the deadly explosion at the end is hard to look away from (once I picked back up my phone, of course). From the opening page, Jung and team ensure it’s clear who is winning this issue, and how wrong Sana and team were about their fight against the Spark. The final panel of page one is when the Spark overloads the whip, bursting free from its hold, floating at the epicenter of its self-made explosion, debris flying everywhere, its might bursting forward, clear to readers and Sana’s team alike. Caramagna’s SFX, exclamation mark included, make sure the explosive might of the Spark isn’t obscured but it does reveal the deafening boom it creates, it’s guttural roar as it breaks free breaking through the word bubble. Rosenberg’s colors, the typical red of the Ascendant tech bursting across the page, overwhelmingly as to highlight how much power it contains and is radiating. It really does set the stage for what’s to come, hinting at how impossible the fight is ahead of them. The casualness of the Spark’s actions after it figures out it has so much control now, the relaxed way Jung draws Sparkra, using the sword as a cane, later swooping it across the room like a musical conductor as it makes Kho throw around Detta, are images which caused me to think of a kid playing with dolls, Kho’s shocked face only selling the Spark’s power more. The use of color when Magna leaps at the Spark, connecting with Aphra through the tattoos, is one of many little brilliant things Rosenberg does. As Magna leaps, throwing off her coat for appropriate over-the-top-ness, the panel of her touching Sparkra does away with the usual red surrounding it, instead is blazing blue, the usual red hue to Sparkra herself and her outfit fading, almost like it’s stealing the power of the Spark, like she’s breaking through, hinting at the strength of their connection and how it might be enough to overcome the Spark. Caramagna’s “POP” when Magna enters Aphra’s might was hilarious, looking like something out of the ol’ Batman TV show, a sound I can so viscerally hear I made it with my mouth when I read it, followed by a laugh. The use of negatives and negative space when the Spark pulls the Null blade out of where it just speared them is misleading in the best way, making readers, like myself, think it’s all over for the two, only for the next panel to reveal the Spark’s taken over them instead, setting up and selling the surprise that left my jaw on the floor, further painting how terrible the situation was before Sana and team.
Here are a few other things:
- The final variant cover I put in the post is the Revelations variant, a beautiful cover that’s tied to the big one-shot issue next week about the future of Star Wars comics! And by the way, all the covers are amazing for this issue!!
- Aphra is once again getting a new action figure!! This one is inspired by a look from the previous run, so it’s going to be a little different than her last one which is really cool! I only hope we can get Magna, Sana, and Kho figures in the future too! You can preorder it here.
- Aphra’s not just in mobile games or action figures, she’s also in an upcoming expansion for the X-Wing Miniatures. And her card is VERY fitting!! It sounds like a line she’d take and claim as one she came up with about herself.
Doctor Aphra #26 (Vol. 2) flips the script on the recent victories, unveiling the true might of the Spark Eternal and the harder battle in front out Sana and her team…if they can make it out of this issue alive! The Spark Eternal Saga continues and the next part looks to continue the stellar work of the team so far!
+ Spark’s might unleashed
+ Magna and Aphra’s connection
+ What a flipping cliffhanger!!
+ Art breathing life into Magna/Aphra’s kiss and connection, detailing the Spark’s power
+ Starting off this next part of the Spark Eternal Saga with a memorable bang
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.
DOCTOR APHRA (Vol. 2) REVIEWS:
Fortune and Fate: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 / Arc Review — The Engine Job: #6 | #7 | #8 | #9 | #10 — War of the Bounty Hunters: #11 | #12 | #13 | #14 | #15 — Crimson Reign: #16 | #17 | #18 | #19 | #20 | #21 —The Spark Eternal: #22 | #23 | #24 | #25 — Ascendant