A new adventure gets underway.
Creative Staff:
Story: Simon Spurrier
Art: Wilton Santos, Caspar Wijngaard, Marc Deering, Don Ho
Colors: Chris O’Halloran, Stephane Paitreau
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
UNSPEAKABLE REBEL SUPERWEAPON: PART 1 A NEW ADVENTURE STARTS HERE! After a year of close shaves, Doctor CHELLI APHRA is taking it easy and lying low. Probably herding banthas or something. She’s smart like that, right? NAH, not really. The galaxy’s shadiest archaeologist is back doing what she does best: busting into alien temples to steal horrifying weapons for huge profit. She just can’t stop herself. But plenty of other people could. Powerful factions are watching closely: Rebel and Empire, familiar and strange – all calculating whether Aphra’s more useful alive… or dead.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Doctor Aphra series has worked bigger and bigger for a while and the last arc had its moments but really just felt like too much. An overload kind of thing. Simon Spurrier hopefully has things getting a bit smaller this time around and more character driven as I’d like to have a solidly fun and interesting arc that doesn’t hit the ground running quite so much. This installment has a host of artists on it that have dabbled in the Star Wars realm for at different times and they put together a largely decent looking book, though not quite with the same level of detail or consistency that we’ve come to expect from the series. It looks good overall and captures things right and that’s what counts in the end.
Taking place two months since escaping with her life but being thought for dead, Aphra has been mostly continuing on her ways. She’s laying low in her own way but hits up plenty of bars for information in order to go after some new target that will earn her a lot of credits. While she has been taking it quiet a bit she’s also paired up a bit with the kid from before, Vulaadna, as she stowed away on Aphra’s ship and is now in a kind of mentor/mentee position. It’s not exactly what Vu expected, however, as Aphra takes her on an easy mission to make some credits by going after an ancient item that someone wanted and Vu has to face a lot of angry droids shooting at her and Aphra’s style being gruff and by the seat of her pants. Aphra’s not exactly one to take on a trainee of any sort but she needs someone to play off when it comes to telling her story and the cast has been whittled down for a good bit.
While there’s some fun with her coming across an older Jedi weapon, essentially a lightsaber gun, a lot of the book sticks to the past. Focusing on her twenty years ago when her father was researching a particular Jedi and his path, that was when Aphra as Cheli began to realize that her father wasn’t all that focused on her. Her mother, Korin, ended up taking her away to do research on another world and extract her from the toxic situation but both of Aphra’s parents put some rough things into her mind about how people are. There’s a lot to like in the flashbacks that we get here that touch upon her upbringing and make clear her mindset a bit more and it translates well into how she’s dealing with Vu. All of that is going to take a few twists in the next couple of issues as Tolvan reappears in the series and Aphra’s going to be even more all over the place, but the backstory is definitely welcome.
In Summary:
This Aphra arc may start off with a bit of action but that’s to be expected. What we get is a story that’s giving us some good background, setting the relationship dynamics up, and preparing for the bigger fun to come. And I definitely appreciate and needed something a little slower and low-key to get it underway, more personal for Aphra than something with huge stakes after the previous arc played out. Spurrier has a good handle on the character in general but a better one when focusing on a smaller story, so I like what’s being set here. The artwork is solid even if it feels like too many cooks involved and some consistency issues in places but it’s a good experience throughout. I’m hopeful for some fun with this arc, especially in seeing this new weapon being used at some point.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: May 8th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
