Review: ‘Doctor Aphra’ #32 – ‘Ripple Effect’ Sends Aphra and Luke Skywalker On a Fascinating Jedi Adventure
The decision to team up Doctor Aphra and Luke Skywalker for the first time since the Screaming Citadel arc has potential for some fascinating adventures, and Ripple Effect does not disappoint on that front.
It turns out Aphra has a new lead that she needs Luke’s help with; a lead involving some notable characters from the prequel era that most fans will recognize immediately. Only a Jedi can gain access to the treasure at the end of her latest archaeological adventure, and Luke fits the bill perfectly.
It’s unclear how affected Aphra is by the emotional confrontations she experienced in the last issue — while the memories do seem to have sparked a desire inside her to do better, she still seems primarily motivated by money. That will surely cause friction with Luke at some point, but for now it’s nice to see her on the start of a new personal journey.
The issue ends on a great cliffhanger that invites so many exciting questions that I can’t wait to find the answers to. This arc is gonna be a good one.
Spoilers ahead…
Thankfully Luke doesn’t spend long as Doctor Aphra’s captive. Once he wakes up, she lets him out of the trunk she’d been holding him in and offers him a caf. She offers him an opportunity to find an ancient Jedi relic that might give him an edge against Darth Vader; an edge Luke needs right now, considering his unstable connection to the Force.
It seems this arc takes place between the Star Wars series’ Kezarat Convoy arc and the current one that has Luke on a quest to build a new lightsaber, as he’s still using his faulty yellow saber and agrees to hunt down this ancient artifact pretty quickly, knowing he’s outmatched against Vader right now.
Now, let’s get to the tasty part of Aphra’s proposal. She shows Luke a malfunctioning holo message from Jedi Master Shaak Ti intended for fellow Jedi Master Aayla Secura. Not all of the Togrutan Jedi’s message comes through, but enough of it is intact to understand that she wants to lock away a powerful artifact that would spell doom for all should a Sith Lord get their hands on it.
When Luke asks her why she cares about his fight against Vader, we immediately see her flash back to the memory of Sana Starros walking away in the previous issue. It’s clear she wants to better herself so she can deserve a life with Sana, but she’s clearly not going to open up to Luke about that. Instead, she does a strange double bluff, acting like she’s pretending to care about fighting the Sith when actually she just wants to get paid, even though her own flashback betrays her. Maybe she is only in it for the money, but it seems to me it’s a mask she’s putting on out of comfort.
It appears Shaak Ti succeeded, locking the artifact away in a secret Jedi temple on the planet Sason. Aphra, Luke and R2 fly to the planet and shortly after entering the atmosphere, they are caught in a magnetic storm. After Chelli reluctantly trusts Luke’s instinct to fly further into the storm, risking irreparable damage to the Ark Angel, they find the temple located in the centre of the storm.
Shortly after landing, Luke reveals he’s unable to open the door to the temple. His connection to the Force comes in waves, and right now the tide is low indeed. As Aphra bemoans her luck, it gets worse when the temple summons two monstrous guardians made out of the pink crystals native to the planet, presumably summoned to attack anyone unworthy of entering the temple. Luke and R2 keep the monsters distracted while Aphra looks for a way to disable the trigger that keeps the crystals forming together.
The monster fight is pretty exciting and I definitely got a slight adrenaline rush when Chelli roared in delight as Luke’s faulty lightsaber belatedly ignited just in time to fight back. She manages to deactivate the mechanism summoning the monsters just as Luke is hit by a big Force wave, hitting the creatures with a huge Force push.
Luke’s pretty exhausted by the effort involved and is about to pass out when the ground opens up beneath them and they fall down a large pit into a pool of water. Presumably the Force push was the proof the temple needed to grant them entry.
They survive the fall, only to look up and find Shaak Ti and Aayla Secura looking down on them, brandishing their lightsabers. Of course, we know that both Jedi were slain during Order 66 — Secura by clone troopers, Ti by Darth Vader himself — so clearly these aren’t the real Jedi. Most likely we’re dealing with illusions, but it’s a hell of a mic drop to end on.
This was a tense and fascinating issue of Doctor Aphra, leaving us with plenty of questions to ponder and some entertaining action sequences. Hopefully writer Alyssa Wong can keep this momentum going.
Rating: 8/10
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
