Doctor Aphra, her evil robot duo, a Wookiee bounty hunter, and her dad are all on Yavin IV. What are they doing? Eh, nothing important, just uncovering secret Jedi lore! Oh, I am very excited to see where the story is going, but how about the latest issue? Is it good?
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #4 (Marvel Comics)
So what’s it about? Read the preview to find out more!
Why does this book matter?
Kieron Gillen and Kev Walker must be having a ball. The series has weaved in cool details from the films (Last week we had a Rogue One reference) as well as continued a compelling in-canon tale that hould reveal more about the Jedi than we ever knew. How can you not be on board!?
Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?
You might be surprised you end up liking this character.
I’m starting to really like the Empire Captain Tolvan that’s attempting to capture Aphra. She has a unique look that falls in line with the prototypical Empire villain, has a determination you can’t fault–as well as the more-than-likely fate of death due to her not appearing in future films. Gillen does well to flesh out the stakes she faces here to the point where I’m almost rooting for her!
Outside of this, Aphra and company continue to do their thing. It’s a bit bumbling, but they get the job done. I keep getting Indiana Jones vibes from this tale and when they creep up I secretly wish Disney would make a movie based on this character already! Triple Zero continues to have some chilling bits of dialogue to remind us he’s the opposite of C-3PO and fans of his and Beetee should be more than happy with a few developments.
This issue is very good at scope. I won’t say too much to avoid spoilers–the turn of events twice in this issue caught me off guard and got me giddy, but let’s just say Gillen and Walker will blow you away with some Star Wars moments you’d love to see on the big screen. One involves a certain Star Wars vehicle, and the other a very cool discovery to end this issue.
Walker does well to capture those big moments as he does a fantastic job rendering the technology in the issue. That goes for the evil robots too, and again the scenes in space look marvelous as well. It’s the subtle facial expressions on Tolvan that do so much to make her sympathetic. She may be working for the bad guys, but she’s between a rock and a hard place. He’s good at capturing the relationship with Aphra and her father in the short but sweet moments they share.
It can’t be perfect can it?
This issue does better with the relationship between Aphra and her dad, but it’s still not quite selling me. Their relationship is less than ideal, though the way they act isn’t conveying the hurt it seems to suggest. Maybe it’s due to her dad being unaware of his cold nature, but he looks so damn kind and giving it doesn’t add up. It also may be due to his being introduced only three issues ago and we still don’t really know who he is.
And by “Slow them down” he means he’s going to kill them all, right?
Is It Good?
It’s hard to resist reading Doctor Aphra due to its important connections to the Star Wars canon, but also its sense of adventure. It may lack the relationship development required to understand Aphra and her dad, but it’s a lot of fun. This is Indiana Jones meets Star Wars, and fans shouldn’t miss it.
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