Comics Doctor Aphra #32-36: Unspeakable Rebel Superweapon (5/5 released)

Two solicits so far.

Spoiler

STAR WARS: DOCTOR APHRA #32
SI SPURRIER (W) • WILTON SANTOS (A) • Cover by ASHLEY WITTER
GREATEST MOMENTS VARIANT COVER BY STEPHANIE HANS
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.
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99
Star Wars © Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved. Used under authorization. Text and illustrations for Star Wars are © 2019 Lucasfilm Ltd.


STAR WARS: DOCTOR APHRA #33
SI SPURRIER (W) • WILTON SANTOS (A) • Cover by ASHLEY WITTER
GREATEST MOMENTS VARIANT COVER BY PAUL RENAUD
“UNSPEAKABLE REBEL SUPERWEAPON” PART 2
• Counting the cost of her incorrigible thievery, sticky-fingered archaeologist DOCTOR APHRA is at the mercy of REBEL HIGH COMMAND.
• But things are about to get stickier. What’s the one thing every galactic treasure hunter knows for sure?
• EXES NEVER MARK THE SPOT.
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99
Star Wars © Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved. Used under authorization. Text and illustrations for Star Wars are © 2019 Lucasfilm Ltd.

 

That cover for 32 is incredible.

 

This is a fantastic arc title.

 

That title sounds like Imperial propaganda.

The covers are fantastic though, seems like they greatly improved since the start of the series. I'd definitely like to get my hands on a print of #32, to frame.

 

I'm probably alone here but I really want Aphra to end up working for the Empire and Vader again.

 

Preview for #32 is up.

Spoiler: comments

I LOVE that badass Gigoran with the half bun. The Oo'obun!

But no time to admire -- all aboard the train to -ville.

Aw, Aphra's mom... She has electro-tattoos as well, and on both arms.

 

New art team? Different, but I really like it! This book always looks great, but it's cool to see a different feel to it.

 

Wow, this was an action-packed issue.

Spoiler: comments on #32

The leader of the Coalition for Progress has hired Aphra to steal a battle trophy / artifact from a religious warrior clan's roaming temple. Despite being a member of the Funny Hat Crew, the item she wants is a different kind of fancy accessory -- it appears to be a cape.

"The Farkiller of Oo'ob the Apostate" reminds me a bit of the lightsaber rifle Jocasta Nu used in "The Dying Light" arc of Soule's Darth Vader series. "It's a magnification attenuator. Totally unique. Lightsaber tech used in a sniper rifle. Nobody even knows how it worked! Oo'ob could take out targets from a hundred klicks away. He was excommunicated for it! It's worth millions."

In addition to the sad opening scene with Aphra's parents, we see Lona's death two years later, killed by raiders in front of Aphra.

The return of Sister Six! Whose boss is Captain Tolvan, Rebel Alliance Intelligence Service.

Marvel interviewed Si Spurrier for their May The Fourth Previews issue (which appears to be free on Kindle and comiXology, at least where I live). A little bit of info / very light spoilers about what's coming in this arc:

Spoiler: Spurrier interview

Marvel: Doctor Aphra #32 begins a new arc, titled "Unspeakable Rebel Superweapon" — which sounds explosive! What can you tell us about where Aphra's incredible story goes next?

Spurrier: Not a whole lot, sadly, without giving away certain things about the end of "Worst Among Equals." What I can say is that we'll open with Aphra back to doing what she does best — Indiana Jones-ing her way through some deadly, ancient techno-temple — and watch as things spin quickly out of control from there. The idea for the arc arose because I spent a long time thinking about the power dynamic between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire directly after A New Hope. There's a thing — an obvious, no-brainer of a thing — which the rebels 100% should have done the very second the credits rolled...and yet they never did. This arc sort of addresses why not, while dragging Aphra's heart over the coals. This time around we're turning up the stakes even higher, digging deep into Aphra's own past, and shining a light onto the shadiest corners of the galaxy's espionage/black ops factions...

 

Doctor Aphra #32-36: Unspeakable Rebel Superweapon (1/5 released)
pin and title update please and thank you @The2ndQuest @AdmiralNick22

Concerning 32:
I don't like the art at all compared to the quality we were getting before.

Spoiler

I do like that it got right to the action and the heart of the story. I also loved that we got to see more backstory than ever before concerning Aphra and her parents. I hope they continue the flashbacks in future issues of this arc. The little girl got a little bit of a growth spurt?

Also, what nationality is Aphra? Sometimes she appears part Asian, but this issue showed none of that in the art. I guess her mom is of Caucasian decent while her father is maybe half Asian/half something else?

 

Ok, timeline problems:

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How can the first flashback be 20 years ago?

 

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We're presumably in 1 ABY by now, if not even 2 ABY, so 20 years prior would be the first year or two of the Empire. Aphra would be around five or six.

 

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the use of “imperials” had an air of familiarality that dosent ring true with me for just a year or 2 of the Empire being formed

 

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I'd think you'd become very used to the regime after an entire year living in tyranny.

 

Great issue! Buuuuuuuut....

About that one family friendly flashback...

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Nice to see Aphras mom for the first time... again???

(1) Well her being blonde was surprising but do we agree that this is not her natural haircolor? And she does not look asian but art can be anything. Nor does Aphras dad so far look asian unless more detailed art makes him so.

So Aphra was asian I thought, or halfasian at least? Is there anything cementing that or was that always just faninterpretation due to art? I know some artists think her asian too yet her Hasbro figure cardback has her non-asian as well! What the...?

(2) Didn't we see Aphras mom before? I mean not this issues version but another looking more like Aphra herself?

When Aphra was with a Bor caught by the Imperials, we saw plenty of memory flashes. Sure she was under torture and so on, but she (a) said she was thinking of her mom, so Imperials will not see into other parts of her brain. And (b) she saw flashes of a women looking like her with a facial scar and one blind eye, then a woman with no electrotatoos in a Slave Bikini next to a Hutt at an Imperial party.

See image from Aphra #22 of 2018:


I always took this as a reference as loose as can be to her actual mother and whatever dark fate befell her cause we knew Aphra to be with her father and at university.

Soo after this issues flashbacks and more to come for sure detailing young aphras life as paralells to her wards adventures with her, I assume we get more backstory next months.

Given Raiders killed her mom and left kid Aphra on her own stranded or taken...

-How does she return to her dad and university later?
-What dark fate will be hers until then? Slavery? Worse?
-Does this mean Huttslavegirl from the Borvision could be actually Aphra herself before she got electrotatoos like her mom had?????
-How did this dark fate influence her later university life and return to her father? Did he know all this???
-Who is the facial scar missing an eye Aphra-esque lady in the Bor vision if not her mom? Not her herself either.

Aphra was/is 24 years old when with Vader and subsequent adventures as per her wanted poster in Scum and Villainy, as of 1ABY, so assuming that this issue is like the main line now in 2ABY, she would be 25, 17 years ago she lost her mother, meaning when she was 8 years old, with previous flashback in family home being 5 year old Aphra.
Given education takes time, when did she attend/leave university? She was a rogue archeologist before Vader already for some time, and her university flashbacks could have her be 17-20 years old? Anyway... given all these date marks... IF she herself is Hutt Slave from said vision, she was an underage Hutt Slave!!! Ouch!!! And had been gone from her father for a decade! Does this work?




And now to the most important thing of them all: The Imperial Interrogator told her the Bor could not just dig but also mess and rewrite her mind, delete or change her mother and her own past. DID HE? DID HE DO THAT? And if he did, which version is true? Aphra-lookalike mom from previous issue with facial scar and lacking eye that was once a Hutt Slave? Or nicey blonde electrotatoo mom that got killed by Raiders???? Are we witnessing another Mindf... twist and seeing an implaneted memory? Or were previous issues flashes possible pasts, not actual ones they threatened her with?

Thoughts please!!!

 

Spoiler

Aphra's dad is definitely depicted as Asian, in the same way she is. It's subtle at times, but it's there. And I think the name Korin, given to him in this issue, is Japanese.

And it seems like the Imperial officer is threatening to alter her memories, and that's what we're seeing; what her memories might be changed to, not what her memories either are to begin with or what they subsequently become. As far as we know the bor doesn't change anything, because Aphra gives up her secret.

 

I've been saying the "Ch" as in chick and "elli" as in jelly. And Lona like low-nah.

 

is there an audiobook version of from a certain point of view? She had a story in there, so it would pronounce her name!

I agree with Todd and Senpezeco here. Ch as in Charles or Chick. Not Sh or S.

 

That story doesn't use her first name.

 

Spoiler

Agreed about her dad, her memories though I am not so sure if all are just potential threat versions there. I mean especially after this issue and the Raiders killing her mom, I kinda could see her being enslaved, sold to a Hutt etc. and later returning to her Dad with a fresh electro tatoo.

I wonder what else they might reveal about her childhood? First Kill? Love for weapons origin? Where she learned slicing?

Also I still am a bit surprised at the parlells between this issues flashbacks and Rogue One's flashback with the Erso family. Dad with questionable studies wanted by Empire maybe, family goes hiding, is found and killed... kid on its own... turns badass adult later on with some serious issues...

does that mean Aphra will find true love and go out in a blaze of gory glory one day?

 

Doctor Aphra #35 solicit.

Spoiler

STAR WARS: DOCTOR APHRA #35
SI SPURRIER (W) • WILTON SANTOS & ANDREA BROCCARDO (A)
COVER BY ASHLEY WITTER
STAR WARS GREATEST MOMENTS VARIANT BY GREG SMALLWOOD
“UNSPEAKABLE REBEL SUPERWEAPON” PART IV
• It’s time for DOCTOR APHRA to do what she does best: honor her commitments, help people in need, do the right thing.
• Hahaha, nope, the people she’s swindling won’t buy that either. Unlucky for them, she’s always two steps ahead.
• Unlucky for her, the steps lead directly to Coruscant, and into the arms of an old enemy…
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99
Star Wars © Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved. Used under authorization. Text and illustrations for Star Wars are © 2019 Lucasfilm Ltd.

 

Preview for #33 is up:

Spoiler: Doctor Aphra #33 preview pages