“Prelude to the War of the Bounty Hunters: Party Tricks”
Creative Staff:
Story: Alyssa Wong
Art: Minkyu Jung, Victor Olazaba
Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
A MYSTERIOUS INVITATION leads DOCTOR APHRA and SANA STARROS to an exclusive party… teeming with scum and villainy! Will Aphra and Sana be able to survive the underworld social event of the century? Or will their cover be blown by A FAMILIAR FACE with an agenda of their own?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Doctor Aphra’s role in the War of the Bounty Hunters storyline has been kind of around the edges at best since the start, but you could see the path further into it pretty easily. Alyssa Wong wasn’t going to just drop us into the whole thing, guns blazing, so it’s been watching her circle closer with it. As with the previous issue, the run has brought back Minkyu Jung on the art side with Victor Olazaba inking for them and it again looks quite good. Jung’s approach has worked since the start and with the stories that Wong is telling so there’s a good flow to events here and Rachelle Rosenberg’s color design helps to give it a bit more weight and continuity with the bulk of the rest of the Star Wars books.
With the event about to begin that Crimson Dawn is hosting aboard their flagship on Jekara, we’ve got Aphra and Sana there in disguise while taking in the whole host of powerful others that are there, from the Empire to Jabba as well as the Black Sun group and more. It’s a nice array overall and it definitely has Aphra excited at the potential of what all of this will be. But we also get Aphra looking just to stick to her old ways as she tries to life a data necklace from one of the bidders since she could do so much with it on the black market. It’s an amusing moment and reminds us that Aphra really can’t change in a lot of ways when you get down to it.
While there is again a subplot with Lucky and Ariole that continues to keep me from being interested, we do get Aphra approached at the bar by someone she knows must be a clone, though they’re kept hooded the whole time and deny it. There’s definitely an interest there in seeing where this aspect goes because if it’s a familiar character it could tell a lot of story in the bigger picture by their presence. We don’t get to know who the clone is, though the obvious guess is going to be Rex, but there’s plenty of opportunity for a surprise – if the cover hadn’t given it away before it appears next issue.
In Summary:
Aphra’s fully embedded now with what’s going on in the Solo auction and it’s definitely heady times. Of course, the powers that are there aren’t as impressive as a certain someone and we know he has to get involved in this as part of his own larger storyline. And that’s going to give us a very different Aphra than the confident one we see here. T’s definitely an interesting and well-executed installment, though again all the material with Lucky just feels like dead space.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology and Kindle
Release Date: July 14th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
