– Spoiler Review –
The Spark Eternal is back in full control of Aphra’s body and heading towards a showdown with the Sith, will Sana Starros and team make it through the giant Crimson Dawn and Empire battle to save and free Aphra in time? Find out if they can and why I got all misty-eyed reading the excellent Doctor Aphra #30 (Vol. 2) in my review!
First mentioned in issue #17 (and the Ascendant first mentioned in issue #15), the Spark Eternal has been a big part of Alyssa Wong’s Doctor Aphra series for quite some time now, and everything has been leading to this exact moment. It might be one the longest stories in any Aphra series, but it’s led to entertaining adventures, heartbreaks, and unique glimpses of the past, maintaining my interest and delight the whole time. In a way, it’s what’s helped the series feel so fresh and engaging throughout the many Qi’ra-centric crossovers, as while the stories have intersected, the Spark’s tale has matched Qi’ra’s in length and intensity, rewarding readers for sticking around and focusing on it amongst the bigger miniseries taking over the era. In fact, events of Qi’ra’s final story are important to events here, to the point they both crescendo at the same time, giving the events within this series just as epic a feeling, even if reading one or the other won’t exactly give you the full story. And that’s okay, as the characters have been at the heart of the Aphra series and its many events over these 10+ issues of the Spark’s story, so it makes sense their emotional journeys are the focus here instead of Hidden Empire’s events, as it’s what left me with tears by the issue’s end, even bringing me to the edge of them in subsequent rereads.
The Spark, in full possession of Aphra after tricking her into procuring a second Spark made by the Ascendant off-shoot led by Ilith, has finally come face-to-face with one of this era’s only Sith, Darth Vader, and hopes to finally fulfill its mission and honor Miril’s memory in the process. It’s a battle we saw in Hidden Empire #5, and while it might be as short as it was there, how Doctor Aphra #30 expands from what HE showed us is what makes this such a memorable issue (we’ll discuss those differences shortly). The Spark, with its Null Blade, not only holds its own against Vader, it manages to disarm the Sith Lord, but he has an ace up his sleeve the Ascendant only ever hoped of recreating: the Force. With a mighty eruption from the Force, Vader sends the Spark possessed Aphra flying backwards and when she lands, the Spark is gone and Aphra has control over her body again, the Force push itself one of the many visually stunning pages from Minkyu Jung, who gives Aphra’s face such an utter shock of a look it shows how much the Spark never expected to fail, Rachelle Rosenberg, whose red colors shock the reader’s eyes with the might of what Vader’s doing, and Joe Cararmagna, the SFX work which breaks the edges of the top of the page to highlight the Sith Lord’s might. Aphra’s in shock over the turn of events but any happiness she has flees quickly, as Vader calls back his lightsaber and ignites it, ready to kill her once and for all. That is until the Fermata Cage, the device Qi’ra has relied on to lure out Vader and Emperor Palpatine in hopes of defeating them, lets out a roar as it opens, giving Aphra a chance to run away and diverting Vader’s attention, so he leaves her be and joins his Master instead of chasing her down.
Just as Aphra’s ready to catch her breath from the encounter, the sprite of the Spark returns, trying to once again take over, using the remaining broken Spark they recently procured as an anchor to take back over. This is where things are expanded on from what happened in HE #5, in the best way possible! Thankfully for Aphra, the team Sana Starros put together to rescue her ex is not only on their way, but already on the Amaxine Station attempting to rescue her. Thanks to some snazzy flying by Ariole, they manage to skirt the giant battle unfolding between Crimson Dawn’s hidden fleet and the Empire’s forces, landing on the station and finding their way to Aphra and the Spark. Sana, Magna Tolvan, Kho Phon Farrus, Detta Yao, Eustacia Okka, Just Lucky, Ariole, and Korin Aphra struggle to get to her though, as the Fermata Cage’s power begins to overwhelm them and makes their initial plans impossible to implement. And then they run into an even bigger roadblock: the murderbots Triple-Zero and Bee Tee! Arriving with a hilarious quip like only they can, they are far too eager to destroy the meatbags in front of them to protect their new Master, the Spark. As the group battles the deadly duo, they try to discuss next steps, with Magna telling them, due to all Aphra shared when they connected via their electro-tattoos, they can’t destroy the Spark without killing her. Kho realizes then the Spark would only leave a host if they die or it is being passed to a successor, so to get the sprite of the Spark into the Fermata Cage they’ll have to do the Ascendant ritual again. They double their efforts in the fight with the droids, Just Lucky providing covering fire, the others going blade-to-blade with Trip or Bee Tee, while Magna and Sana rush to Aphra and the raging Spark sprite when they have an opening.
The interactions when these three unite for the first time since this storyline began are utterly delightful despite the seriousness and stakes of the situation. Aphra starts it all off with, “You have to stab me,” something both women have wanted to do to her, but after everything these two have gone through together, how she’s been to them since the breakups, they can’t imagine having to do it now, believing she’s just messing with them. After she explains the situation, the Null Blade’s cortosis core would not only disrupt the energy flow of the Spark Sprite back into Aphra’s body, but it would also short out the old Spark shard still in her chest, they realize she’s not kidding. She’s not sure if it’ll kill her or not, but she knows she doesn’t want to spend another second under the Spark’s control so is fine with whomever wants to do the dirty work. Sana volunteers and shouts for Kho to bring them the blade, leading to the team taking out Bee Tee and distracting Triple Zero enough for Kho to bring it over to the group, more funny comments though this time between Kho and Aphra. As the three steady the blade for Sana to plunge it into Aphra’s chest cavity, Aphra tells Sana she’s glad it’s her and Sana’s glad too, in a way she gets to stab Aphra like she’s always wanted, releasing the anger she’s harbored for so long once and for all (at least that’s what I was picking up). Kho lashes onto the Spark with their Ascendant chains, ready to help yank it away and towards the Fermata Cage, trapping it once and for all, while Sana pushes the Blade in, the sheer pain cutting off Aphra from finishing a sentence that curiously looks like she’s about to tell Sana she loves her! Sana must push harder still, Kho egging her on and Magna shouting for Aphra to stay with them, until the effort is seemingly enough, the three helpers flying backwards as the Spark Sprite explodes out from Aphra, seemingly flying into the Cage. Is Aphra alive? Dead? Is the Spark truly trapped? Are these final few parts of the issue which brought me to tears and on the brink every damn time I’ve read it since?! You freaking bet.
The issue takes us back into the Memory Block Aphra’s been locked in while possessed by the Spark, though this time she stands not in a swirl of red, but mainly a blank, black expanse, holding the tiny globe of the Spark in her hands. There’s no animosity in Aphra’s eyes, as she reveals she understands the Spark’s desire to live, to see the galaxy and be part of it, but it just picked the wrong person because she wants the exact same thing. The Spark’s only response is Miril deserved better and while Aphra agrees, she also says she did too. It felt like in this moment she’s talking about her life so far, not just in what happened since being possessed with the Spark, but unlike Miril, she has a chance to get what she deserves still, hence why she was the wrong person for the Spark to use when trying to give Miril what it felt she deserved. After everything so far, even after all the fighting and snarky back and forth, this short, somber, and very real moment felt fitting, as it’s been hard to call the Spark an antagonist or even hate it for what it’s done, and a conversation full of understanding, no hard feelings, or apologies between Aphra and it just sits right for the end of the whole Spark saga.
On the next page, various voices are coming in unclear, fuzzy faces begin to appear as Aphra starts opening her eyes, and then she notices something strange happening with her eyes…she’s crying. And now so am I thinking about this moment just writing about it…damn it Alyssa Wong!! The final page is the entire team of Lucky, Ariole, Kho, Detta, Eustacia, Korin, and Magna around Aphra, as she’s in disbelief she’s crying, while Sana is holding her tight. As much as this was a saga between Aphra and the Spark, it’s also been one for this team, the trials and tribulations they’ve gone through just for this one woman. Her tears are her body’s understanding why all these people are around her now, fought so hard for her this whole time: they actually care about her. Despite anything she’s done to them in the past, they still care about her to the point they all risked their lives to save her, and whereas she told the Spark she deserved better, she’s getting the better which she deserves by having all these people care about her. Will she manage to do better now herself? Will she mend any and all of these relationships or try harder with them? At this moment, it doesn’t quite matter, all which matters is they are all together here, finally, after all this time, the problem solved and Aphra embraced by the woman she loves, the found family she’s gained around them despite all her actions. Yup, getting all misty just thinking about this moment again!! Ugh! If this is where the series wrapped, I wouldn’t have been mad, in fact it would’ve felt like a satisfying moment, even though there’s many questions and unknowns and more fun character interactions ahead, and it would’ve left me wishing for more but glad for what we got. Thankfully, there’s more to come!
Part of what comes next is in what you don’t see this issue but see in Hidden Empire #5. In Qi’ra’s story, we see Vader expel the Spark from Aphra’s body with the Force push and then the Spark Sprite goes flying off into the wilds of the Amaxine Station. What we don’t see there is the wild, emotional, and exhausting fight Aphra and the others go through to defeat back the Spark, and instead we see the Sprite fly into a strange disk on the ground. Where this issue seems to suggest the Spark was captured by the Fermata Cage, HE #5 shows us otherwise. When the Cage opened, out spit not a Sith or powerful Force user or artifact, but rather a strange little disk without any connection to the Force, and Palpatine discards it after they find it. What is in this disk? Why would the Spark be attracted to it and take it over next? And what could it mean if that disk finds its way out into the galaxy with the Spark in it? The Fermata Cage was never used lightly so what was so terrible about a small little disk?! Just announced at Celebration Europe 2023’s Marvel panel, and hinted at since the Revelations one-shot last year, is the upcoming horror crossover event, Dark Droids, which sees a mysterious Scourge, “…corrupt{s} droids, cyborgs, and everything in-between, spreading chaos throughout the galaxy.” Could the Scourge be on this disk, given terrible new life by pairing with the Spark? As much I’ve been vocal about being unsure we need another crossover event in such a short era of time, this sounds like a more personal, intriguing one at least so I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt for now!
The art team here really goes hard for this finale. Jung pulls out all the stops, be it menacing poses for the murderbots as they try to fry Sana’s crew, Detta barely holding her own with her knives against his torture tools, the determination of Aphra, Sana, Magna, and even Kho’s faces as they prepare to drive the sword into Aphra, to the big page-filled painful explosion as the Spark is finally driven back, though how it all ends on such quiet, intimate moments and Jung can deliver on those just shows his range and abilities are not to be missed time and time again. The way the Fermata Cage’s influence, reaching out and sucking the life from all that’s around it for power, was conveyed was simple yet effective, as it was a swirling wind effect, which added a ton to the intensity of the fight before Sana’s team trying to rescue Aphra, as they weren’t just fighting against the murderbots, but the strength and intensity of the Cage’s hunger, while it made for some great swooping, wild hair, adding to the dramatic atmosphere of the entire issue. Rosenberg’s colors, especially in the magentas around Sana, Kho, Magna, and Aphra, combining the odd pink of the Fermata Cage’s influence and the red of the Spark to make something even more otherworldly (or other-galaxy-ly), heightening the impression of how hard this fight will be, as they are up against forces greater than any of them combined. Caramagna’s SFX for the struggle with the Spark Sprite are the large, jagged letters we’ve come to expect though on a scale we’ve not seen before, breaking through pages or taking up huge chunks of the panels and pages, further cementing the might of the powers before them and we’re witnessing, while there’s a ton in the big fight with the murderbots, with my favorite being the little “grind” as Detta and Trip lock blades. All the sweeping visuals, unnatural colors, and big SFX give way to a stillness in the final page, as the forces around them are gone, the various plant-life colors returning to the station, the wind-swept hair all calm and in place, while only a small though bubble of Aphra’s incredulousness over her crying appears in the center of the this heartfelt circle of people. As much as how things ended feels earned in the script, the calm they are all enjoying, their mission complete and the person they all care about safe and understanding how many people do care for her despite herself, feels earned from the art as well. All the big action, the swirling effects, how prominent things were, it’s clear they are gone now, the stillness hard to miss.
Here are a few other things:
- Also in upcoming Aphra issues, we’ll see her deal with Luke Skywalker again (she tried to sell him to basically a vampire queen last time so curious to see what happens in this one), be called upon for her services by Darth Vader (they have a weird working relationship), plus some truly wild things: the Starweird, a sort of hyperspace ghost, and….Shaak Ti?!! After how great these first 30 issues have been, consider me all in on the next 30 or more (hopefully)!
- Out the same week as this issue was Alyssa Wong’s other Star Wars comic: Return of the Jedi – Ewoks #1! It’s a stellar issue, really showing the power of the comics medium in how it can tell stories in a unique way, and should not be missed!
- Lastly, at Celebration Europe we also learned Alyssa is joining The High Republic initiative for Phase III, launching later this year! If you haven’t jumped on the initiative just yet, I urge you to reconsider, as in my opinion it’s been some of the best Star Wars content of all time.
Doctor Aphra #30 (Vol. 2) was an epic, emotional finale for the Spark Eternal saga, cementing this team as something truly damn special in Star Wars comics and comics overall.
+ Every moment feels earned as the Spark Eternal Saga ends
+ Find a group of people who care about her
+ Big, bombastic moments in the art lead to the intimate, quiet final page
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 | #27 | #28 | #29