– Spoiler Review –
Nothing is ever what it seems and Chelli Aphra and Luke Skywalker find out the hard way as the mysteries of the Sason Temple unwrap in an increasingly scary, yet funny Doctor Aphra #33 (Vol. 2).
I’m always glad to be wrong, mainly when it comes to theories (not stuff with my friends ha!), and I was off on a few marks after Doctor Aphra #32 (Vol. 2), but the actual answers dreamt up by Alyssa Wong were so much more entertaining, and fraught, then I had imagined. The issue opens with a flashback to the past, where we see Sason alive with Jedi, as Aayla Secura trains a group of Padawans and Shaak Ti meditates nearby. As the two senior Jedi speak, we learn Kythoo’s Bell is part of a design meant to keep something very powerful trapped within the Sason Temple, and Shaak Ti has located whatever it is and the two Jedi are off to capture it. It helps keep the illusion they could very well be here at the Temple, despite at least Secura’s very public death on film, years later as we saw at the end of last issue. When we get back to the present, Aphra and Luke both try to talk to the two towering Jedi Masters…only for Aphra to realize they aren’t real, swiping her hand through the holo-projection lightsaber to prove her point. I had my suspicions they weren’t real but was holding onto hope Shaak Ti was at least, while I was on Aphra’s side with believing the Bell was an artifact they could use when the reality of the situation is far more intriguing instead.
Outside, the Sason Temple seemed pillowy and gentle, minus the giant magnetic guardians and trap door and giant storm hiding it (okay maybe not that gentle), but inside it cuts a much different profile. As Aphra, Luke, and Artoo wander its halls, the same inviting pink permeates the space, but now the walls are cold, reflective crystal, with sharp edges and far more traps and dangers than what was even outside. But the physical traps and problems look to be the least of their worries, as while the two explore, things start getting caustic between them. Aphra isn’t taking things seriously enough for Luke’s liking and he makes a comment about Sana leaving Aphra in return, which had me shouting “Oh shit!” when I read it, and the two start yelling at one another, letting it all out. Weirdly, neither seems to know what the other is initially talking about though, as Aphra doesn’t understand why Luke thinks she isn’t taking this seriously and Luke reveals he didn’t even know Sana Starros and her were a couple in the first place (oh, poor clueless Luke), while as readers we see them reacting to reflections of themselves in the walls, a curious and important factor into their growing shouting match. Artoo is trying to get their attention throughout their bickering, but a ghastly creature does instead, its glowing eyes piercing through the walls as it slams against it and scaring the crap out of Luke, Aphra, and myself! Luke muffles them both as it looms over them, not taking its gaze off of them, until the Kythoo’s Bell chimes and it swooshes away into the unknown. They rush away from the hallways and continue exploring, hoping they get as far away from it as they can, as if it’s just another guardian or something. Oh, how wrong they turn out to be…
The insults and hurtful comments they were slinging each other’s way is a stark contrast to their interactions last issue, but they feel more honest at least, and as Aphra saves Luke from another trap, he begins to doubt the whole endeavor. Listening to the recording she showed him but sort of glossed over last issue, and realizing Aphra thinks he brought up Sana Starros first but he didn’t, plus all the traps and whatnot, Luke puts it together how this place is no good, very bad news for them and they should leave. Aphra’s insistent they should stay, which is when her real reasons for bringing him along, besides trying to be a good person Sana might actually want to be with in the future, come to the forefront…as she puts her blaster to Luke’s head! Luke puts his hands up and continues forward, and despite the new situation, knows she’s trying to do good, but he’s unclear why. She claims it’s because if she doesn’t help him, if they don’t get this Bell, Vader will kill him, after what she’s seen when she had a run in with the Sith Lord prior to capturing Luke and dragging him here (clearing up some confusion on when this takes place compared to her appearance in Darth Vader #35 {Vol. 3} ), the Force Wave causing Luke issues is only causing the powerful Sith Lord to have uncontrollable pouts of power. And Aphra reckons, if he kills Luke, who and what’s to stop him from killing her (or at least trying to again)? It seems like Aphra’s misunderstood the assignment from Sana, as while she is trying to be a good person here, helping Luke, she’s still doing it for her usual selfish reasons, to save herself. To truly do something good, she has to be doing something more like taking Vader down and misleading the Empire about the location of the Rebel’s base on Hoth than helping Luke combat Vader so the latter doesn’t have the opportunity to kill her. Will she come around and do something a little more selfless before her time with Luke is up? Or will their time together at least help her realize how to better approach making herself a better person?
Before she can worry about the existential questions, how about the far more pressing and frightening ones? With Luke happy to help her after her explanation and agrees they have to go after the Bell, they venture further into the structure, overcoming more traps and guardians, until finally finding it. It’s far bigger than Aphra guessed it would be, leaving her angry and worried this was all for naught, until she notices something shiny inside the top of the Bell, climbing over Luke and pulling it out…and it comes crashing down! Luke can no longer hear the echo of the Bell resonating through the halls and that’s when the floor beneath where Kythoo’s Bell collapsed explodes and Aphra realizes she was wrong about the artifact. It was a security system all along, as Shaak Ti and Aalya Secura hinted at all those years ago, to keep a powerful horror locked away: the creepy thing in the walls from earlier!
Or, to be official, a Starweird! Wait…what?! Revealed at Marvel’a Celebration Europe panel this year, I initially never heard of the creature, but the moment I read up more I was instantly hooked on the idea of it coming to Aphra! I’ll be curious how much of its Legends lore will make it through to this iteration, but essentially it was a sort of space ghost which haunted spacers and hated Jedi, and was able to use the Force, coming into conflict with Jedi during the Old Republic. Their haunting abilities are front and center here, not just from their scary, wispy, boney look, but mainly in the way they messed with Luke and Aphra, digging in their minds and making one another, through reflections in the walls around them, say dark things which hit deep. With no Bell to banish it to the depths of the Jedi prison now, and how quickly it did its work on them earlier, how the heck will these two make it out of this alive?! How can they stop the Starweird?! If anyone can, I guess it’s the strange yet potent team of Chelli Aphra and Luke Skywalker!
And thankfully alongside Wong’s excellent, often funny, yet scary script we have artist Minkyu Jung, colorist Rachelle Rosenberg, and Joe Caramagna lettering to help scare the crap out of me or show off the creepy, insidious things the Starweird can do! The whole sequence of the reflected versions of Aphra and Luke saying nasty, hidden things to one another is so well-designed, I was both delighted by growing fight but also the chaotic way it was unfolding. These reflections in the crystal seem to mimic the real life versions, but are fractured by the imperfections in the walls, smaller and more distant, and have a darker, less friendly pink hue to them than the rest of Rosenberg’s work for the scene. Each panel is framed in a way, as the fight goes on, we see more and more of their darker reflections, while Jung amps up the passionate anger on their faces, both of them pointing fingers, while poor little Artoo’s beeps by Caramagna try to get loud enough for them to hear him but they can’t match the intensity. The next page, when the Starweird scares everyone, is all about starting with Caramagna’s SFX for it slamming into the wall behind them, followed by their cojoined shout of fright, to really make the moment feel sudden and scary. It’s also the ghastly first look at the Starweird, the skull with pink to white tipped hair, it’s eyes so white compared to all the darker pink hue they look like they’re glowing, while Aphra and Luke and hunched over, protecting themselves from what feels like something which will impact them, giving the whole page the sense of like a zoo animal banging up against the glass unexpectedly. As for the Starweird itself when it breaks free, what an unholy, chilling sight! It’s basically all bones, it’s skull tilted unnaturally to the side, holding glowing white eyes still and shocking white hair flowing from it, which whips around it in a flurry of wind as it emerges from the depths of the prison it was held in, while it has modest, yet brown, old, and flimsy cloth coverings over chunks of its bones, from a chest piece with a glowing center reminiscent of how Aphra looked when possessed by the Spark Eternal, a covering over the groin, and lower arms/legs. It’s really chilling and I get why, on looks alone, Shaak Ti wanted it locked up for good! An early moment really stood out to me as well, where Aphra reaches out and swipes her hand through the assumed hologram lightsaber. The framing of it, us on the other side of the blade, Aphra almost reaching out to us as she hits the blade, was just a fun way to draw the scene, as if we were about to be front and center to a gruesome moment if she wasn’t right! Luke has a great look of concern and a little “Ah” to match, as if he can’t say it fast enough to stop her, and her determined, yet delighted look she was right highlights her joy of discovery.
Here are a few other things:
- With this issue comes the final Pride Month variant, as seen above, starring Aphra herself!
- Secura and Ti left a bunch of younglings at Sason in a scene I wasn’t totally clear on…was it after they captured the Starweird a locked it away or before they went off to capture it? If it’s after they locked it away…what happened to all the Padawans?! Did the Starweird get to them, slowly but surely, like how it affected Aphra and Luke? Did they flee because they felt Order 66 in the Force, like other Jedi did? Or something else? And will we ever find out?
- Late 2022, Alyssa Wong put out a request for fans’ favorite alien species and someone responded with the Starweird and now…here they are! And I’m so glad @Senpezeco reached out because this is turning out to be quite interesting already!
Doctor Aphra #33 (Vol. 2) finds Chelli Aphra and Luke Skywalker unwillingly spouting truths to one another as the mystery around them becomes clear: the Starweird is here and things are going to get spookier and more frightening before they get better!
+ Letting it all (unintentionally) out
+ Starweird and it’s scary look/abilities
+ Playing up the frights and Starweird’s digging into their minds
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: #1-5 — The Engine Job: #6-10 — War of the Bounty Hunters: #11-15 — Crimson Reign: #16-21 —The Spark Eternal: #22 | #23 | #24 | #25 — Ascendant: #26 | #27 | #28 | #29 | #30 | #31 — #32