– Spoiler Review –
I don’t like I have to type this, but Doctor Aphra #39 (Vol. 2) is the penultimate issue of Alyssa Wong’s run of the series, but what I do like to type is, that much like all the issues before it, it has all the style, character moments, and tear-inducing greatness one should come to expect as it wraps up its Dark Droids storyline and gets us ready for the finale.
While the previous issue suggested Domina Tagge was amongst the Scourged, we open Doctor Aphra #39 (Vol. 2) with finding out she isn’t…yet. She springs into action, using her plasma blade to hold back the hordes, and rushes to the escape pods with Lapin, her aide, but shoves them inside and reveals they are to be the Tagge Corporation’s heir if anything happens to her! As she turns around to face the Scourged droids, they reveal they want to talk to her, but her only answer is a renewed attack with her blade. When the issue returns to Domina, she captured by the Scourge, looking exhausted and her blade’s power seems to have run out, but what does it want with her? The Scourge sees itself as an inventor, given its penchant for even more depraved levels of jumbled combinations than Syd from Toy Story, and wants to show this off to Domina in hopes she’ll see the power of combining their efforts, herself a tinkerer who has given the Empire many weapons and inventions. There’s some great dialogue here both getting to the heart of the Scourge’s unending hunger to consume and its larger plans, succinctly giving readers of Aphra a greater sense of this crossover’s story without having to read any other entry. Domina is attached to her company, literally, as she claims there’s a kill switch for all its data if she were to die, so she turns down the Scourge’s request. It’s a good thing she’s so passionate about her work, as we saw when she coldly turned away from Chelli Aphra in the morning after a late-night tryst, since the Scourge’s points about the Tagge Corporations’ scope and abilities helping its cause is a haunting glimpse of how it could’ve gone on to fulfill its greatest desire, to be everything and everyone. Despite her kill switch, the Scourge decides it’ll take the risk and sends one of its vector droids to convert her; will she rescue herself or is someone else on the way?
With Magna Tolvan unconscious and secure, Aphra, Sana Starros, and Just Lucky are on their way to Tagge space to rescue Domina after what Chelli saw when she dove into the Scourge’s mind via Magna. But news is spreading on the holonet about the droid infestation and Lucky, despite going this far with Aphra to help her, is done, demanding she take a detour to Canto Bight so he can save his family, his brother Pak, and his fiancé, Ariole. There’s a time I think Aphra would’ve not listened to him, brought him along anyways despite his pleas, her needs to save the people she cares about taking precedence, but here, knowing how big and growingly expansive this problem is, and maybe a little bit better of a person, she drops him off. She plays into their little game about one of them owing the other, but like how a similar sentiment between Luke Skywalker and Han Solo was merely comradery and not actual debt, she admits to Sana she’s sure they’ll be good and even after this. We don’t get to see how successful Lucky was in saving Ariole and Pak, though Revelations (2023) #1 and writer Alyssa Wong’s “Tall Tales” might reveal what happened, though we’re left unsure about Detta Yao and Kho Phon Farrus’ fates, seen briefly here, as well as Lapin’s, who looks to be doing their best to follow Domina’s directive to survive. I suspect we’ll get more finality to these characters’ fates in next month’s (don’t like typing this) finale, especially given Wong’s pedigree, but it was nice reminder here of the stakes being beyond just Aphra and her desire to save someone she’s loved.
After leaving Lucky behind, Aphra and Sana continue their trip to rescue Domina, where we learn Aphra has a idea up her electro-tattoo-lined sleeves: she’s reconfiguring one of the little Scourge vector spider droids to deliver a payload which incapacitates Scourged droids, so not a cure, but something to help make their goal of saving Domina/stopping the Scourge easier. Aphra’s penchant for tinkering with droids has been a part of her character since before we ever saw her in a panel and I love those skills and what she saw while she was in the Scourge’s mind are enough to help her develop this anti-Scourge virus. She’s not totally sure it works, and is doing her best to not show she’s disappointed it’s not a cure, doing her typical rambling to Sana about it, only for Sana to do something that took me a bit by surprise and definitely Aphra as well: she reaches out and grab’s Aphra’s hand, telling her she’s done a great job and they’ll figure it out together. Ever since issue #31, where Aphra couldn’t say “I love you” back to Sana, who left for some time for herself, Aphra’s slowly come to understand the person she needs to be for Sana to be with her. Sana still felt cold to the idea of Aphra last issue, but this move is a small, yet big step, and it leaves Aphra blushing over the support. She avoids dealing with it, getting very bombastic and less concerned, claiming nothing scares her now…only for the battle raging around the Tagge corporation’s fleet bringing her back down to size. Thankfully she has her little anti-Scourge virus with her, as it’s vital to their success as they board the ship, fighting through the ton of droids left on board Domina didn’t destroy on their way to her. It’s almost too late, as despite the usage of one more of those handy EMPs, one of the little vectors gets to Domina, who realizes the blast held back the Scourge infection but it’s only a matter of time before it takes over. She tasks Aphra with killing her the moment she turns, so the Scourge doesn’t learn everything she knows, and Aphra agrees, verbally at least, and then she mentions since her main ship, the Acquisitor, is so infested, complete and total destruction of it is necessary to prevent the Scourge using anything after she’s gone.
And then this is the other thing I don’t like having to type, as every time I’ve thought about what comes next, and read it, it either leads me to crying or brings me to the edge. Aphra claims she has another EMP and she’ll use it to bring down the ship, saying she’ll be right back, but through a little clever drop of a microphone, Sana and Domina think she’s back on the ship and fly away…only for the Acquisitor to jump away and the truth of Aphra’s action hit. Aphra arrives at her destination and reaches out to Sana through the device, telling her she’s sorry only because she thinks Sana would like to hear it, and Sana’s shouting into the mic, telling her to give them the coordinates and they’ll come get her and…phew, okay, I can type this…Aphra stops her in her tracks by saying what she couldn’t before: I love you. Sana’s frozen (and so was I, the first hint of tears creeping in for me and only expanding) as Aphra explains what she’s doing, she has to hyperspace jump the Acquisitor into a planet, Holdo Maneuver style, to completely obliterate it, instead of dropping it onto a planet like they did to the Casus Belli a few issues back. Sana’s as incredulous as I was about how now, of all the times, she chooses to be selfless, truly and finally, to the point Sana’s mad she finally got to the point, wondering what’s wrong with her. And then she drops the real bomb, simultaneously as the comic shows the Acquisitor start its jump: Sana deserves someone who can say “I love you” to her and Chelli believes, even if she wasn’t that person, Sana made her believe she could!!!! UUUUGGGHHHHH. Tearing my heart out with this stuff, Alyssa Wong! It’s been a long, winding, and fulfilling road to get to this point, yet only fitting it comes at such a price. As Chelli says goodbye, the Acquisitor becomes a giant sound FX and bright new light on the planet she jumped to, completely obliterated. How did she survive? Will she reveal her survival to Sana? How the freaking moons of Iego is this supposed to be over in one more issue? What level of absolutely destroyed will my heart be if this issue’s final moments, where Aphra finally has become the person Sana deserves, have wrecked me this much?! And what does the mysterious Raslin Grace and her tall tale telling self have to do with the finale, as seen in Revelations (2023) #1, also out this week?! It’s going to be hard to say good bye to this run of Aphra, even if we learn there is more of her exploits on the way, but it wouldn’t be this hard to do so if it wasn’t so damn good every single issue.
It’s been a blessing to have Minkyu Jung, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Joe Caramagna as consistently on this series as they have been, creating a visual language readers have come to rely on, serving to make the emotional beats all the more intense. Of all the things this issue, one of the smallest was an early favorite of mine, is when Lucky stands up to Aphra and requests to go save his family. In the panel, Aphra’s walking away, her back to Lucky and to us, as if this is all decided and this is their course of action, while Lucky is in the foreground, shadowed out though, not the focus, but he seems to be turning towards her, with his head down, thinking of what he’s about to say or do. Aphra’s dialogue takes up most of the panel, Caramagna giving her words so much weight, they’re unavoidable and why would anyone disagree? This is the plan of action we built to at the end of last issue and in the opening images of this one, with Domina fighting for her life; it’s on to the Acquisitor, of course! That’s what makes the placement of Lucky’s response so good, as his “No,” bold and italicized, sits above Aphra’s second word bubble, giving the comment a sharper zing to it by placing it up there, as if he’s overriding what she’s saying and going against our expectations; I don’t think this response being under Aphra’s words would’ve had the same effect, the same oomph behind them. In the scene where Sana reaches out and takes Aphra’s hand, reassuring her, stopping her from her spiral since she knows her so well, I appreciate the focus on the hand contact to start. It says everything to start there, as it adds to the impact of the moment, how Sana’s hand holding Aphra’s is such a big surprise and having it from Sana’s POV just shows how much Aphra nor us would expect it, such a move could only come from her direct. Aphra’s blushing cheeks as she overcomes the surprise is a subtle enough coloring, it feels just as much for her as it for us to see, not Sana. Also, speaking of surprise, the next page after this interaction, with Aphra getting her gusto back, we open on the Tagge fleet in disarray, explosions, “PHEW!”s, and laser bolts flying everywhere, with a little insert panel on the bottom with shocked, scared faces of Sana and Aphra, Rosenberg presenting their faces in a unnerving orange, like one might see if watching a big fire bring devastation. While it’s pretty clear Aphra’s up to something when she drops the mic device, the big SFX when she jumps the Acquisitor away, “VORP,” is such a loud surprise to Domina and Sana, underscoring how monumental this moment and what it could mean for the final few pages. There’s so much to the way we don’t often see Sana’s reaction to Aphra’s action, even getting a mirrored moment as Aphra’s looking in on herself as she admits what Sana made her feel, but I think all we need to see of Sana is her scrambling to the mic to talk to Aphra, as it looks like she’s fallen, stumbled out of her chair, her legs unable to support her as she’s already so concerned about what this means, about what Aphra has planned; it’s unnatural for Sana to be this way, usually poised and confident in her motions, so we know how deeply this has hit her and how much she cares about Aphra no matter her tough exterior.
Here are a few other things:
- Across the Star Wars comics line, the Dark Droids crossover is coming to a close, but far too often it felt like each series was instantly ready to move on from the whole drama of it, ignoring what happened, robbing the event of some of its luster. While this issue feels like a big ending for the series’ Dark Droids arc, it doesn’t feel like it’s quickly moving on and forgetting what happened, as we still have Magna in trouble, Domina on the verge of being converted, and Kho/Detta/Lapin/Luck all doing their best to stay alive as well, so while we already know the Scourge’s hold on the galaxy will come to an end, it feels like the final issue will cover some of the fallout as it wraps up the entire run.
- Would Chelli Aphra have some holiday spirit? I can’t imagine her expressing it any other way than how artist Dylan Macri imagined in this commission!
Doctor Aphra #39 (Vol. 2) is a penultimate issue like only the heart-stabbing genius of Alyssa Wong, and the hold-you-still-while-they-stab-you of an art team in Minkyu Jung, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Joe Caramagna could deliver.
+ Those final pages, well deserved, ripping us apart
+ Feeling like a proper set up for the finale next issue
+ Art team of Jung, Rosenberg, and Caramagna underscore the little and the big moments, letting the emotions punch us in the heart
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 | #38