– Spoiler Review –
If you were expecting or hoping the emotional roller coaster this series has put us readers through lately to take a break and allow you to breathe after everything went down last issue, you should know better, as Doctor Aphra #27 (Vol. 2) barrels on as Chelli and Sana make choices which change everything.
With the Spark Eternal showing its true might to Sana Starros and her team, taking over the murderbots and charging off to find a Sith, Chelli still struggling to find her way out of the Spark’s mental prison, Kho Phon Farrus leaving said team to work with Crimson Dawn, and the fate of Sana’s team in limbo after the Spark bombed the Volt Cobra, there really is no peace ahead in Doctor Aphra #27, but damn am I glad it’s here as we finally get to see what happens next! For starters, it’s awesome the issue wastes no time in resolving the fates of everyone aboard the Volt Cobra, as Just Lucky and Ariole find them and rescue them, meaning thankfully Sana, Magna Tolvan, Detta Yao, Eustacia Okka, and Korin Aphra are still alive. And while alive is better than dead, the situation Lucky brought them into might almost be worse, as the only one with the tech Lucky knew could save them all is the mercurial Ronen Tagge. He has his own desires for the Spark Eternal and uses the debt of saving their lives, well the credit amount of saving their lives, over the group’s heads to make them comply with his plans to secure it for himself. Lucky’s been under Ronen’s thumb for far too long and doesn’t see a way out of such a debt, but Sana conspires with the team after Ronen gives them time to think it over. What I love about the next scene really gives us an excellent look at Sana’s shrewdness, resolve, and mindset, the three things, when combined, have helped her live so long being stuck in Aphra’s orbit and striking it out on her own. When Ronen returns, the team’s decision is no, and while he’s incredulous at the response–the boy needs to hear a no every once in awhile–Sana lays it out plain, knowing Domina will just kill them after she kills Ronen for taking the Spark. Ronen counters with a surprise, though whether he’s telling the truth or not remains to be seen, as he claims he’s part of Crimson Dawn, hence why he’s not worried about Domina anymore since Qi’ra will help him with an army to take her down. Sana immediately changes her tune, much to Tolvan’s chagrin, but her explanation is level-headed and sound…up to a point: Sana thinks Qi’ra is more powerful than Domina and is now willing to help Ronen because of it, though she thinks he’s too short-sighted and suggests they kill Domina!! Look, I don’t think Domina is a good person by any means, but she’s been an intriguing, powerful character to have and I sort of don’t want to see her die. Plus, Qi’ra and Crimson Dawn aren’t in the best of shape, Lucky’s news of the Vermillion‘s destruction should’ve given Sana some pause about the organization’s might, as they are in the Empire’s sights due to the Hidden Empire storyline (though Qi’ra still has some tricks up her sleeves), so I’m curious if Qi’ra will be willing and able to spare anyone to help with the fight against Domina when the time comes. Or maybe Sana has her own plan, one that will be successful for killing Domina without the need of the Dawn, besides maybe as a distraction, or she’s actually lying and still plotting against Ronen…or maybe she’s going after both so they don’t bother her or anyone she cares about *COUGHAPHRACOUGH* again. I’ll be curious as hell to see where this goes!!
As for Chelli Aphra and the Spark Eternal itself, we join the latter enjoying their little victory and destruction of Sana’s ship only for Aphra to ruin its day as she breaks through the Spark’s fog thanks to the electro-tattoos! For the first time since being taken over, Aphra’s able to communicate directly and whenever she wants with the Spark, which causes it pain and frustration, so it dives down into their shared mind to talk. After spending so much time with Miril, the creator of the Spark Eternal and leader of the Ascendant cult, Aphra’s got a few new tricks up her sleeves alongside her already considerable hacking skills, plus a surprise weapon against the Spark I really shouldn’t have been surprised by. When the Spark Eternal took over the murderbots Triple-Zero and Beetee, rather easily I might add, I was very curious as to why Aphra thought they’d be such an instrumental weapon she tried but not really tried to hide their existence so they could be brought into the fight. They were machines after all and very easy for the Spark to hack into and control…but hacking into them opened up a little present Aphra stored inside of them, as while she offered them total freedom for helping her, she’s known them for too long not to build in viruses and backdoors in case someone trick to hack into them and control them. In a sense, Aphra was building in a chance for them to retain their total freedom by killing someone who might try to use them with his virus, but said freedom ends with her thanks to the backdoor she installed because she learned the hard way last time when they became her master for a bit. Regardless, the virus she also installed is helping her hack into the Spark now but also holds a ticking time bomb over her body, with only Aphra knowing the cure/way to stop it. For every threat or intimidation the Spark has, Aphra has an answer, striking back and striking back hard, in a funny, excellently planned way only Aphra could. She claims she’s willing to die if it means she doesn’t have to be a passenger in her body anymore, knowing death has always been coming for her, and this is quite the big moment for her. Since we’ve known Aphra, most of her plans have put her life at risk, especially when she tricked Vader into thinking he killed her, but for every time she did something like that, there’s hundreds of times other people were put at risk first, be it the poor woman she used as a body shield way back when or erasing Magna’s memories, so to be willing to put herself on the line, and only her at the moment, shows how serious she is about getting out and gaining back control over her body. As much as it would’ve been nice for her to be rescued and broken free by the likes of Sana and Magna, as the Spark put it last issue, it would be like claiming they helped put a broken woman back to together, maybe to make themselves feel better about Aphra than anything to do with actually fixing Aphra, so having her do it herself allows her to put herself back together, to gain her own autonomy back her own way, which is a far more powerful story in the end. The Spark takes her deal, allowing Aphra out of her own brain and back in control again, but wants her to impress it, the image of Vader’s helmet floating in front of Aphra in the real world, as the Spark is eager to find a Sith, per last issue. Does the Spark want to beat a Sith to fulfill Miri’s dream for it? Does it want to control Vader and possess him or another Sith instead? If I was curious as hell to see what happens with Sana’s part of the story, dear reader, there’s a special level of curious I don’t have words for that’s inside me, dying to see what happens with Aphra and the Spark!
While we’ve had two issues of Hidden Empire since the previous Aphra issue, neither has quite dug into Kho and their choice to leave the group and join with the Dawn to help them open the Fermata Cage for Qi’ra. If that all sounds like Huttese to you, Qi’ra’s done scheming and has hatched her final plan to take down the Sith Lords ruling the galaxy, and to do so she’s enlisted the Archivist and now, via the Spark of all people (who spoke with the Archivist earlier in this run), Kho to open the Fermata Cage, a device created by the devious Lord Momin that supposedly can capture someone, even someone as powerful as a Sith Lord, in time and space, forever. Qi’ra got the plan from Darth Maul, and both have hoped it has a Sith inside that can kill the Sidious and Vader…or that it can be used to capture them and lock them away forever instead. I do find it interesting Kho is talking to the Archivist about using it to capture Sidious but all Hidden Empire has said so far about it is opening it and unleashing whomever is inside…but it seems very Qi’ra to say one thing and actually do another. Why did Kho leave Sana and team for this? Things weren’t looking good against the Spark in the last issue, I’ll give them that, but why give up and do this instead? Turns out they didn’t give up and instead are helping out because they see it as an opportunity, that it might be the key to harnessing the Spark, but if that’s to harness it for themselves or to free Aphra, or a bit of both, remains to be seen. It’s a brave choice and I love the explanation here, especially in the wizard way Kho tells someone special about what they’re doing and how much the special someone would enjoy the chaos of it. There’s been hints of it for awhile now and fans have been clamoring for it as well, but this almost all but confirms some type of connection between Detta and Kho!! I hope these two will get a chance to see one another again after both of them go after high-level targets like Emperor Palpatine and Domina Tagge!
It’s always a joy to have another amazingly written issue by Alyssa Wong come to life via artist Minkyu Jung, colorist Rachelle Rosenberg, and Joe Caramagna lettering. There’s plenty to enjoy this issue, but some of my favorite stuff comes from Aphra confronting the Spark. It all starts with the dazzling power spikes coming out of the Spark itself, causing it to scream in pain, pretty much frying Triple-Zero and Beetee, only for the next page to have two giant black separators between the real world and inside Aphra/Spark’s mind, where we see Aphra’s tattoos glowing and a big smiling grin on her face as she reveals the little tidbit about hiding viruses in the muderbots. The next page contains probably my favorite panel of the issue, as the Spark floats down into its own mind to confront Aphra, Rosenberg backlighting its descending body as if it comes from a place of light, of the real world, with Aphra standing in the shadows, in the darkness of the Spark’s mind, while Jung creates this mesmerizing effect of wispy tendrils parting as the Spark descends down, like it’s cutting through the fog, Caramagna’s Spark-red speech bubble hanging between them, the Spark understanding the depths Aphra’s gone. Aphra even gets to play with the wispy fog around them, conjuring crude images of her working on the murderbots, her showmanship in true form, smiles, determination, and pizazz oozing out of her body language. It’s clear she means everything she says, maintaining eye contact and holding it throughout her fight for her chance to be free, so it was fun when we got a stark reminder we were in the Spark’s brain prison for Aphra when the Spark reaches out to shake on the deal and its hand breaks out of the boundaries of the panel. Also, let me just say, seeing Aphra in control of her own body was a damn blessing, even with the ticking time bomb of the virus inside her, and I look forward to more of her in control going forward. For the entirety of their appearances in the issue, Sana, Magna, Detta, Eustacia, and Korin are all in white undergarments after being in the bacta tanks (so, think Boba Fett in The Book of Boba Fett, though maybe a little more sexy as they aren’t diapers), but despite the outfits they are all, minus maybe Korin, they are as intimidating as ever, which I think speaks a lot to the strength and tenaciousness of Sana and the crew, not feeling vulnerable in their own skin and ready for anything regardless; As much as Korin might not be intimidating, he now has an eye patch over his left eye, so he sustained some irreparable damage from explosion, which I almost didn’t catch on my first read-through. It’s been interesting to see the similarities and differences in how Steven Cummings and Jung have drawn Kho now, and since they got a fancy new cloak, Jung doesn’t have to change styles as much as Cummings did from what we know, bringing back more of their feathered appearance we only saw briefly some time ago, which is usually hidden by the cloak. Coming off of scenes with a majority of characters in barely any clothes, it says a lot about Kho not maybe being so comfortable in their skin at times if they have to hide parts of themselves under big, elaborate cloaks…unless I’m reading to much into this and Kho just really likes cloaks and that’s totally fine and very them at the same time!
Here are a few other things:
- The big one-shot teasing the future of Star Wars comics is a ‘your mileage may vary’ case, though its teases of what’s to come in the Aphra series were small and basically consisted of moments from this issue, as well as the murderbots hanging with IG-88 and Artoo and….a big surprise image of APHRA AND DOMINA SMOOCHING! Not everything in Revelations will come to pass, and while almost everything but the Aphomina (Domhra? Apomina?) moment hasn’t, with Sana planning on killing Domina, I wouldn’t hold out hope. But you never know, it could happen just before Domina dies, giving the seemingly heartless business tycoon a moment of happiness before she dies.
- Speaking of Darth Vader, you might want to take a peak at the cover for issue #30 from March’s solicitations, which looks to promise the end to the Spark Eternal Saga to some degree (though as a heads up, the issue moved from March to April already).
- Doctor Aphra first made the jump to video games in Force Arena and now she’s been unleashed on Galaxy of Heroes! You can read more about her abilities aka “kit” in the game’s parlance, as well as see some video of her in action in the game’s forums.
Doctor Aphra #27 (Vol. 2) proves again and again it’ll be worth the wait, as Sana and Aphra make big choices which change the trajectory of the story in exciting and thrilling new ways!
+ Aphra stepping up in the fight for her body back
+ Sana’s shrewd decision
+ Diving more into Kho and their reasons for leaving
+ Aphra and the Spark’s confrontation is a tour-de-force moment for the art team; making Sana and crew intimidating despite their clothes (or lack thereof!)
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: #26