The creativity of Aphra.
Creative Staff:
Story: Alyssa Wong
Art: Minkyu Jung, Victor Olazaba
Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
THE OFFER! Hired by DOMINA TAGGE, APHRA sets her sights on a mysterious piece of tech that could shift the balance of the galactic civil war. Her hunt takes her to CORELLIA… and to SANA STARROS’ doorstep! But Aphra’s not the only one on Corellia with an eye on the tech…!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The second arc of Doctor Aphra got underway in the previous issue but things change up a bit more here in the second installment. As Alyssa Wong takes us further into it, and brings Sana into the story, the art team shifts to Minkyu Jung on the pencils and Victor Olazaba on the inks. It looks like they’re on at least the next issue as well so that’s welcome to see as the team looks good here and captures things pretty solidly when it comes to how Aphra’s book and world have looked while feeling connected to the larger Star Wars universe. Jung has a solid take on Aphra and she gets Sana well too, which makes for a fun combo here.
This issue has Aphra on Corellia as she’s in pursuit of things for her new “boss” in Domina Tagge and she knows the best way to get information here is to work with those that know the place the best – the locals. And that has her hunting up Sana Starros, who is wrapping up a deal here with her current and now ex-partner Remy, who has made her time here worse. Having Sana stumble into a waiting Aphra is definitely played right in a comical way with Aphra trying for the whole good-natured chum type of approach, easing her way into Sana’s current place and making herself at home. She needs Sana’s help to get a meeting with Lady Proxima so she’s got to put in the effort and really has to since Sana, having dealt with Aphra enough previously, wants nothing to do with her.
But I love that she bribes things the right way to draw in Sana and before you know it, we’re back in front of Proxima for the first time I think since the Solo movie. Of course, it’s no surprise that Proxima knows Aphra and isn’t pleased by this, but Aphra’s always got the tease on how to win people over to her goals, and showing her the device she’s after certainly intrigues and provides Aphra a route to explore. The book doesn’t get much into real details of events and what’s going on big picture, but we move well and deal with some syndicates that are crossing paths and getting involved and that helps to smooth things over nicely while other storylines are starting to move up into place.
In Summary:
We do spend some time with Lucky, who now that the Tagge he was working for is no more finds himself unemployed, discovers that his younger brother is running up debts again and he has to take on the bounty hunter role again. That’s obviously going to cross paths with what Aphra is up to otherwise he’d just disappear. I do like that we got a little Canto Bright time with that storyline as there’s good material to mine from the films into the comics and books in new and creative ways. Aphra, however, is the core and she’s got a good storyline that’s starting to come together here and this one adds just a little bit more to it.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology and Kindle
Release Date: January 20th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
