REVIEW: Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Volume 7-A Rogue’s End
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Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Volume 7-A Rogue’s End collects issues 37-40 of Doctor Aphra, as well as Annual 3, and material from Star Wars: Empire Ascendant #1. It was written by Simon Spurrier with art by Caspar Wijngaard and Elsa Charretier.
Doctor Aphra, having foiled a plot to assassinate Emperor Sheev Palpatine, is now in the service of the Empire. On board the Executor, she works with a team of archaeologists to analyze sites that could be serving as the Rebellion’s hidden base. She is also under constant threat of horrendous execution from Darth Vader. While investigating one of these sites, she is reunited with her father, and then Triple Zero and BT-1 who have been outfitted with restraining bolts and given assignments as Imperial interrogation specialists. As they often do for the Doctor, events unfold fast and frantic: she and her father get taken by Rebel operatives led by her ex Capt. Tolvan; Aphra learns that the Rebel base is on Hoth and escapes from the Rebels, leaving her dad and Vulaada behind. Aphra then leads Vader to Tython (cool!) where she traps him inside an ancient Jedi temple and basically uses him to access the data from the thousands of probe droids. She manages to set back the Empire’s search for the Rebellion at least of couple of weeks, giving them time to set up their defenses on Hoth. In the end, Aphra and Trip’s head set off for parts unknown; while Tolvan, Mr. Aphra, and Vulaada (all on Hoth) listen to a heartfelt message she has left for them.
Dr. Aphra is kind of a big deal. In the era of the new canon, when it seemed as if everything had to tie in closely to the films or television series (though we got precious little tie-ins for Rebels), it was an ongoing comic series that was about a character who was neither a Rebel, an Imperial, a Jedi, nor a Sith. It was about a character that was original to the comics and had never appeared on film or TV. It went for 40 issues, longer than any other ongoing title except the flagship series. During the course of reading this series I spent quite a bit of time wondering whether or not this character was truly evolving, growing as a character and giving us something more than just the same story about the same “I know I’m a bad girl, but whatta you gonna do” anti-hero. How did I feel about all of this by the time I finished A Rogue’s End? Well, I guess it depends on how you define evolution, or growth. By the end Aphra, who was introduced as basically an Imperial collaborator, certainly isn’t a converted Rebel. She makes a choice to help the Rebellion but only because helping them means protecting her dad, Tolvan, and Vulaada. So, Aphra doesn’t grow in the sense of becoming an unequivocal “good guy” who is willing to sacrifice herself for the whole galaxy; but I think she does grow quite a bit in terms of empathy and really seeing that her actions have repercussions far beyond herself. I don’t think Aphra specifically supports the Rebellion now, but I don’t think she minds that doing what she did will benefit them.
As the story progresses, with plenty of action, we get glimpses into the pasts of Honnah, Urrr’k, and Chio and see why each of them would want to hurt the Empire. With Valance, though, we get more than a glimpse. We see where he comes from, a world that initially hailed the Empire as liberators from the slave masters that forced Beilert’s family and others like them to work the mines. In a chilling parallel to his own journey, we also see how the Empire took everything it could from this planet and then tossed it aside (metaphorically; they didn’t literally toss the planet out of its orbit and send it spinning; I feel the need to clarify that because it is Star Wars after all). As I already mentioned, Darth Vader is not the star of this story. He is in it, obviously, and we get some great stuff with him, the usual Vader being really good at killing people stuff. At one point it occurred to me that Vader probably knows he should just hang back and let someone else handle this thing, but his ego just won’t let him. He has to be the one to stop his would be assassins and track down the Hidden Hand. It is Valance’s story, though, and it is told almost entirely from his point of view. This is a good example of a Star Wars story that uses the Empire and Rebellion in supporting roles, but isn’t just another Empire vs. Rebellion story. In that sense, it is like some of the better Aphra stories, giving us a (kind of) new character doing their own thing with the war as a backdrop.
It’s a good ending to a usually pretty good series. It nicely brings together elements from the entire run and reminds you that this series, the first Vader series, and Star Wars all tied in with one another. Sometimes I think I would have liked for this series to be a little less character focused and instead have been a vehicle for uncovering the past in the new canon. I mean, she is an archaeologist, after all. Nevertheless, we did get some pretty good glimpses of that sort of thing anyway; and this final volume maybe has more references to ancient Jedi and Force stuff than any of the others. Not only that, but as far as character driven storylines go, this one, like Aphra herself, was pretty good if not always perfect. We got something different. You can’t say that about a lot of other stuff.
Comic Pack Wish List:
We got a good Aphra figure, a good BT figure, and a kind of terrible Triple Zero figure. I really want Black Krrsantan and Tolvan. Winloss and Nokk would be cool too.
Score:
4 Skulls. My average score for the series as a whole is 3.25. That’s including the fairly awful Screaming Citadel crossover storyline.
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