Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Vol. 4-The Catastrophe Con collects issues 20-25 written by Si Spurrier with art by Kev Walker and Marc Deering. It was released on January 8, 2019.
Synopsis
Dr. Aphra and Lopset Yas
Dr. Chelli Lona “Joystick Chevron/Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider” Aphra is behind bars! Ok, well, she’s not behind bars, but she is a prisoner of the Galactic Empire. She is incarcerated at Accresker Jail. Accresker is “80,000 tons of wrecked starships held together by an attractor node” and pulled along by an Imperial tug. The point of the thing is that the prisoners are used as cannon fodder troops to attack disabled enemy vessels. I guess they also salvage stuff; I’m not sure. Each squad is led by a hub-droid who will detonate a bomb planted in an inmate if they stray too far during combat; any attempt to escape…and BOOM! They blow you up. Worse than that, the food is only slightly better than the oatmeal in the Cook County slammer. Also, Aphra is being routinely interrogated by the Imperials who are coming dangerously close to finding out she has a big secret (a big Darth Vader trying to usurp the Emperor related secret). After an escape attempt fails, Aphra is offered a chance to make a transmission for assistance by a fellow prisoner, a shape shifter named Lopset Yas. She contacts Captain Magna Tolvan and basically blackmails her into coming to rescue her. At the same time Gen. Hera Syndulla contracts Aphra’s other ex, Sana Starros, to go get her so that she can de-crypt the data she provided them with in the last story. On top of all this, Aphra, spurred on by ghostly visions, discovers that Accresker is infested with a hive of Gundravian hookspores. The sentient fungus is part of a wrecked ship and Jedi corpse; as a result of having infected the Jedi years ago, the organism now has Force abilities and some of the Jedi’s personality. Sana and Tolvan both arrive and both of their ships are disabled. Aphra concocts a plan to escape by summoning Tam Posla and showing him via holo that she has Dr. Evazan (Lopset in disguise) in custody and that she will exchange him for a shuttle. Tolvan, seeking to hedge her rescue bets, contacts Darth Vader anonymously to let him know she knows about his Aphra related secret; aaannnd, Triple Zero and BT-1 are also closing in on the good doctor. Anyway, Tam arrives and leaves with Evazan (Lopset); Vader and the Killbots arrive about the same time. Tolvan tells Aphra to use the Mairan, Bor Ifriem (like Bor Gullet,) to erase her memory of her; but Aphra actually uses it to implant a memory in Tolvan that she killed Aphra. Tam, having found out Aphra’s ruse (her clever attempt to trick him), returns with Lopset. Triple Zero intervenes and incapacitates Tam. Lopset then knocks out both Triple Zero and Aphra. Meanwhile, Vader has found Tolvan. After leaving her with his men outside their shuttle to go investigate the hookspores, they are attacked by Rebels evacuating the planet that the now decommissioned Accresker is going to crash into. This is exhausting. Okay, Vader takes out the hookspores and assumes Tolvan is dead now. Aphra wakes up on a ship and is shocked to learn that Lopset really is Dr. Cornelius Evazan. The whole time. He had a…jellyfish thing…on his head that allowed him to change his appearance. He tells Aphra that he has implanted proximity bombs in both her and 0-0-0 and that if either of them dies or strays more than 20 meters from the other, the bombs will detonate; then he leaves ‘cause his friend is there to get him.
Review
Aphra, Tolvan, and Sana
Full disclosure: my synopsis up there doesn’t really do justice to describing this story. Dr. Aphra stories always come across as being fairly complicated and difficult to box in for me. I think it’s due to the nature of the character and the kind of situations in which she ends up. She’s always playing a few different angles and always simultaneously facing the consequences of several different previous actions. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it can make for an interesting story as long as everything remains coherent. I make the whole thing sound like kind of a hot mess, which it is; but it actually flows pretty well. My point is that there are a lot of strands, man; a lot of strands to keep in old Duder’s head. My biggest complaint with the last story was the characterization of Magna Tolvan. Now, I spoke my piece about it then, and I’m not going to re-hash it now; suffice it to say that while nothing in this story is done to make her motivations clearer or more believable, I found her to be less problematic in this story. I’m not sure why. I like the fact that she and Sana are put together in the story and used as contrasting lenses through which Aphra is viewed. Tolvan is the one who, even though she knows Aphra is terrible, keeps putting herself on the line for her; and Sana has already been through all of that and is basically done with her crap. The idea of the Gundravian hookspores infecting the Jedi and gaining aspects of his personality and Force abilities after his death was fascinating. It’s another glimpse into the world of the Jedi of the ancient Republic, and it really ups the ante of the story rather than just having it be a straight prison escape tale. On the other hand, it is similar to the whole Rur thing: an entity thinking itself a Jedi seeks to further its cause.
Darth Vader and his ridiculously large lightsaber hilt
Nevertheless, I liked it; possibly because this time they knew better than to make the whole story about it. Hera’s appearance was great, and I would really like to see her given a semi-regular role in this series as Aphra’s main Rebel antagonist. Now that Rebels is over, it would be a shame to not use such a great character. The reveal at the end of the story was genuinely surprising for me. It seems ol’ Aphra’s always got another trick up her sleeve, another card to play, another con to pull. Even though we frequently see her past actions come back to bite her, she thus far seems to elude any serious repercussions. She usually doesn’t end up making much headway, but she seems to break even. Even though the last story ended with her going to prison, there was a smirking sense of “eh, it’ll all work out in the end”. Well, not here; not really. Here, Aphra’s actions really seem to hurt her because they end up hurting someone she cares about. She doesn’t just erase Tolvan’s memories of her; she changes them to make Tolvan believe that she killed her. Aphra takes the one person in the Galaxy that loves her (God knows why), in spite of her flaws, and turns that love into hate. She does it intentionally, and she does it in order to ensure her own safety and then sits back and hopes that Vader won’t kill Tolvan anyway even though she knows he probably will. Aphra seems to be genuinely upset by her actions, more so than we’ve seen her before. This time, however, the consequences are more than just another, thicker layer of guilt grafted on to her soul. This time one of the hapless people that Aphra screwed over when he came into her sphere of influence turns out to be something altogether different than another innocent bystander. When “Lopset” turns out to really be Dr. Evazan, Aphra finds herself confronted by a worse monster than herself; and the punishment that he sees fit to inflict upon her is to shackle her to Triple Zero, as if the droid is the manifestation of all her darkest impulses and unprincipled, self serving ways. And so, Aphra ends this story having survived yet again; but having turned love into hate to do so; and although she escapes one prison, she finds herself in another.
Kev Walker’s art here is good, although I think I prefer Emilio Laiso who, if I’m not mistaken, returns in the next storyline. There are a couple of places where the proportions are screwed up, like where Vader’s lightsaber hilt looks to be more the size of a footlong sub. The comic’s trademark humor is present here, and not quite as over the top as I felt it was (in some places) in the previous volume. The inclusion of Bor Ifriem was a nice nod to Rogue One.
Notes
Lopset Yas reveals his true face
Tam Posla is seen to be in possession of Ponda Baba’s severed arm. Evazan recovers it while on his ship and returns it to his pal when he arrives to pick him up.
BT-1 is destroyed by Darth Vader near the end of the story.
We’re not told exactly how old the wrecked ship and corpse of the unidentified Jedi are. According to Wookieepedia they are from around 2000 years BBY.
I’m not saying they should have shoe-horned him into this story unnecessarily, but I am really missing Black Krrsantan.
Comic Pack Wish List:
Dr. Aphra in prison outfit, Lopset Yas.
Score:
If you don’t like Aphra, this story probably won’t change your mind; but if you do, it’s going to be a high point of her journey for you. 4 Skulls.
