Will things settle down? Pffft.
Creative Staff:
Story: Simon Spurrier
Art: Kev Walker, Marc Deering
Colors: Java Tartaglia
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
GOOD NEWS: THE IMPERIALS HAVE ABANDONED ACCRESKER JAIL. BAD NEWS: FIRST THEY SHOT IT AT A REBEL PLANET. For unscrupulous inmate DOCTOR APHRA, accompanied by former flame SANA STARROS and current flame INSPECTOR TOLVAN…(NB: Awkward.)…chances to escape are dwindling fast. Good thing Aphra’s not distracted by an expensive relic, right? Oh, dear.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While I still feel like Simon Spurrier is still getting a handle on Aphra herself to some degree I’m still mostly just wary of the story arcs themselves. Kieron Gillen didn’t have a lot of strong ones in the book from the start but had a good handle on the character. Spurrier’s getting closer on both but the storylines just feel like they’re too convoluted to work well as a monthly book and likely read better in full. Thankfully, Kev Walker and Marc Deering continue to nail the look of the property issue after issue with what they do and this one is no exception, especially as Vader makes a quick appearance in it. That alone delights me.
Escape continues to largely be the name of the game here and Aphra, Tolvan, and Sana are all working on doing just that – not that it’s easy as the jail “world” just had one of the massive rebel ships crash into it, providing for a lot more chaos on top of what’s already happened. The fires and explosion only make the rioting prisoners that are still alive even more dangerous and then there’s that whole ghost thing going on as well, which is rampaging. Aphra’s also drawing in some potential help that’s more likely to be problematic at the end by having Lopset change his appearance while dealing with a bounty hunter. I’m curious how it’ll work out but I just adore that it provide for another appearance of Evazan in the larger Star Wars Universe.
A lot of the book is looking for ways out through various avenues and escape pods before the jail crashes into Tiferep Major. Tolvan’s attempts at getting help are most amusing since she listed herself as elsewhere and the Imperial side doesn’t believe it’s actually her. The escape plan has some good moments, especially when they come across the ghost again and it pushes a lot of memories into their minds with fears, but it only goes so far in the end. Mostly, what we get throughout the book is some decent action in terms of just trying to survive mixed in with some good character material, notably with Aphra and Tolvan as Aphra asks her if she’s curious about Sana at all. Tolvan’s able to break things down easily enough but it makes for a good sort of firm opposite for Aphra to have to deal with.
In Summary:
I’m still very much of the mind that Doctor Aphra can be a great book and that there’s so much that can be done here. But it needs to define itself better, smaller, and with more time on the character side and digging into the universe instead of seemingly continually blowing it up. This issue has some fun in terms of the action but it’s the character material, particularly with Tolvan, that really makes it work. Walker and Deering continue to provide for some really great pages and layouts with wonderful design and just the little tease at the end for how badly south things are going to go soon is spot on welcome.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: August 22nd, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
