– Spoiler Review –
With Magna Tolvan under the Scourge’s thrall, will Chelli Aphra be able to convince Sana Starros to save the woman they both love? Find out in our review of another excellent, funny, and harrowing Doctor Aphra (Vol. 2) issue, #38!
We left off last issue with Chelli Aphra returning to Sana Starros, after the latter walked away from her and had her own fabulous comic miniseries to find herself, and I’ve been eager to see how their conversation would go ever since. Writer Alyssa Wong doesn’t disappoint, as expected from all the brilliant work so far from them about Sana and Aphra’s dynamic through the series, as what seems simple rarely is for Chelli, who, even with Just Lucky as humorous interjector, manages to navigate the situation as best as she can, which is to say not gracefully. It’s only a three-page scene, but I love how it begins, as Sana fixes some caf and waits for Aphra to speak because, well, she always will, she’s terrible with awkward silences. She kicks it off with an apology, but Sana’s heard it before and not taking the bait, and when Aphra tries to explain why she’s even here, she makes it too much about herself, also unsurprising. Sana explains her reason for leaving, how it was for herself and to find someone who wasn’t so self-centered all the time, as we saw play out in the aforementioned miniseries everyone reading this should have read/be reading shortly, and Aphra grows frustrated with this attempt to reconcile ahead of asking for help. She reveals she’s not even here for herself or for Sana, which I was hoping she would admit, but it’s not enough for Sana, who’s eager to see her leave right up until Aphra shouts she’s here about Magna Tolvan. Chelli lets it all out about what’s going on and why she’s even asking Sana for help, admitting how she’s at her best with her around, something Sana doesn’t address in the moment. These admissions are enough to get Sana on board and a very reluctant team-up vibe permeates the issue in the best way possible, bringing lots of humor to the harrowing situation unfolding before them, be it Sana’s line about burglaries or exceptions on not-trusting. The situation between the two is left unresolved for now, with Magna’s life on the line, but if we know anything from Wong’s writing so far, we’ll unpack it soon enough.
It doesn’t take very long for Aphra, Sana, and Lucky to catch up to Magna’s location, as Sana calls in a favor from Princess Leia and gets the tracking data they have for her due to previous mission, which we saw go horribly wrong last issue. It takes them to Epikonia, a spot Star Wars #40 (Vol. 2) and Dark Droids #4 also visit, which is home to a galactic relay station and what was once a bustling city of people, but it’s now only full of droids, as far as the initial recon by the team can ascertain. Thankfully, due to her previous interactions with the entity and deadly droids, Aphra was devious enough to spirit-away some experimental Tagge tech, which is basically little EMP grenades she’s since modified, and they begin the process of infiltrating the city to find Magna. It doesn’t take long for them to discover the horrifying truth, that whatever talked to Chelli at the end of last issue, alerting her to Magna’s perilous situation, is a machine trying to jump from the metal to the meat…and Magna, being a cyborg, has already fallen pray to its machinations! They enact a daring smash-and-grab, getting out of Epikonia with Magna thanks to the EMP grenades, but the Scourge is still with Magna, somehow, and it even taunts them for their efforts.
Aphra’s still smarting from being called boring last issue, and eager to save Magna Tolvan, and proves she shouldn’t be underestimated, using her electro-tattoos to enter Magna’s mind, which at this moment, is the Scourge’s, to understand what’s going on and how to stop it. Inside, it’s an overwhelming deluge of information, as Aphra’s surrounded by the thousands and thousands of windows of the Scourge’s split consciousness (including views with hints about the ending of this issue and events in Dark Droids #4), coming to understand its all-consuming hunger and a glimpse at its plans to consume everything. Sana helps pull Aphra out with another EMP burst, where she then reveals what she’s learned about the Scourge and its desire to be everything so nothing can kill it, with Lucky suggesting they stop it now before it’s found its way into full organics…only for Aphra to reveal IT’S FOUND A WAY!!??!!!! Not even DD #4 revealed this surprising and frightening new step in the Scourge’s plans, which makes the final month of issues even bigger than expected with how much more those trying to stop the Scourge will have to deal with. What happens to the minds of those taken by the Scourge? We know droids end up okay (for the most part, look at Threepio and Artoo) and even Lobot will be back to his ol’ mute self, but is that true for everyone? For other cyborgs, like Magna? And will that be the case for full organics…like Domina Tagge?! That’s right, the issue reveals the Scourge has found a way into full organics by showing us a Scourged droid serving Domina Tagge drinks (which we can see the scene from the droid’s POV while Aphra’s in Magna’s head), heavily implying she’s been Scourged! I get this is the penultimate month of the Dark Droids crossover, but can we stop with this escalation of the stakes?! I don’t know how much more I can take!!
While it’s been fun to have two different artists for two different parts of the story, as has happened in this series’ past, it’s all back to series stalwart Minkyu Jung, Rachelle Rosenberg on colors, and Joe Caramagna on lettering. It feels like Jung was happy to have Magna back under his control, as the final panel of her opening part of the issue has her gleefully and creepily holding a buzzsaw instrument, a strange array of robotic limbs hanging behind her in an almost ritualistic way, Rosenberg saturating the panel with a menacing redish orange, Caramagna making us focus on the creepy display of limbs with Scourged Magna’s line about not being enough. The next page is a full one of just the Scourge itself sitting aboard a throne on its flagship, Scourge One, but it now has a similar display of limbs jutting out from its back, and the flip between the two pages makes Magna Scourged and the Scourge itself feel as one, as their minds really are right now. The same coloring also adds to the illusion we’re seeing the same person to some extent, as well as where Caramagna places the dialogue bubble too. A page later on is one of my favorites of the issue, as it starts with droids being shot by sniper fire, so we know it’s going to be Lucky, and we follow the Scourge as it tries to track down his location, Caramagna shifting us quickly between the Scourge POV bubbles in one panel as its various bodies pin-point Lucky’s location from all different points-of-view, but the biggest of those bubbles shows Lucky holding up one of the grenades and the dialogue of the Scourge coming to an abrupt halt. The next panel is all black again, like the one with the Scourge POVs, but with red, angry lines with little sparks coming out of them, like a screen abruptly shutting off, the sound FX a sharp, kinetic sound of electricity being cut off. When Aphra leaps into Scourge Magna’s mind, it felt like the scene in the original The Matrix, where Neo first wakes up in the human battery field or whatever, as all the little POV pods remind me of trapped minds being used from a far by another machine, and it’s drawn in such a way it feels overwhelming, the dots almost stretching to infinity despite the limitations of the page, giving readers vertigo. If you look closely at the POV windows, you’ll not only see Aphra and Sana, but like I mentioned before, Domina sitting at her table which we see on the final page, while there are also little snippets of the Scourge talking to his new personified personality droids, as seen in DD #4! Lastly, those opening three pages of Sana and Aphra talking…I can’t get enough of how Jung and team handle these scenes, Sana’s indifference for most of the chat, Aphra’s subdued expression packed with guilt, the subtle hands on her chest pointing out she’s self-centered still despite her words, her growing frustrations at how to handle this, and Sana’s calm but stern get the hell out of my home pose…it’s all just chef’s kisses.
Here are a few other things:
- I really enjoyed how much this series has been diving into the Scourge and its plans and goals, as we get some narration from the entity via Magna’s body for some shiver-inducing panels due to seeing her in such an unusual way. Wong and the art team really play up this Scourged Magna, gleefully grabbing instruments to inflict more bizarre experiments. If you weren’t really reading the main miniseries, one could easily get a good sense of the larger picture thanks to how it’s been handled here so far.
- I’m assuming Leia giving Sana the information happens before she joins Luke, Lando, and Chewie in going to Epikona in SW #40.
- Who’s done for some great Aphra fan-art?! I’ve been slacking on posting more here, and I only have one for you readers today, but check out IrisPardom’s wonderful Chelli Aphra piece, which has all the ‘tood the good doctor usually exudes!
- As a general PSA for all Dark Droids crossover readers: Charles Soule revealed in his latest newsletter that Star Wars #41 (Vol. 2), out early in December, spoils the ending to Dark Droids #5, out later in the same month, though it will have a disclaimer in the issue itself. He suggests reading the SW issue once you have Dark Droids #5 in hand, but I’ll be reading and reviewing SW #41 the day it releases and will try to secret away any DD #5 spoilers.
Doctor Aphra #38 (Vol. 2) brings Sana Starros back into the fold in the most Sana/Aphra way possible, all while giving some thrilling, daring fun before the final ball is drop at the end!
+ Sana and Aphra’s conversation and attitude throughout the issue
+ Getting the big reveal
+ Jung, Rosenberg, and Caramagna gives us vertigo, delectable conversations, and dynamic action
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Bluesky, 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 — Starweird: #32 | #33 | #34 — Dark Droids: #35 | #36 | #37