Review: ‘Doctor Aphra’ #36 Brings in Princess Leia as Aphra and Just Lucky Fight The Droid Scourge
Just as the Spark Eternal suspected, the galaxy is slowly beginning to realize something is wrong with the droids. The Empire has already had their run ins with the Droid Scourge, Domina Tagge also suspected something was wrong with the old Tagge battle droids and now Leia Organa herself is also taking notice.
Leia and Aphra don’t interact in this episode, with Leia’s introduction mainly serving to bring back one of Doctor Aphra‘s most popular supporting characters as the Rebellion finally starts to investigate the Droid Scourge.
The action set pieces in the issue revolve around Doctor Aphra and Just Lucky though, as they strive to fight their way out of a warehouse filled with killer battle droids. The encounter definitely has a thriller atmosphere to it, with Aphra cowering behind corners while the droids stalk her. It ends in a very surprising manner that suggests Aphra may have a larger role to play in the Dark Droids crossover than it initially seemed.
If I have one criticism, it’s that the various writers of these series need to be more consistent with the Droid Scourge’s decision making across the crossover event. In this issue, writer Alyssa Wong decides that the Scourge is prepared to kill any organic that doesn’t serve a purpose, but in the most recent Bounty Hunters issue it decided to spare Zuckuss because he was an organic who served no purpose to them. Other than that, Action and Apprehension is a fun issue with plenty of action that also does a lot to set up the Rebellion’s involvement in this crossover.
Spoilers ahead…
I certainly didn’t expect this issue of Doctor Aphra to kick off with a full page spread of Princess Leia looking over a hologram at a Rebel base, but it was a welcome surprise. It becomes very clear that this has nothing to do with Chelli Aphra directly — Leia is watching a transmission from The Silver Arrow, a Rebel supply ship that sent a garbled distress call crying that “Something is wrong with the droids!” before going dark.
Leia immediately asks for Magna Tolvan, whose team has just returned to base following a successful mission. Though it hasn’t been too long since we last saw Tolvan, we didn’t really get to check in with her during the Spark Eternal arc so it was nice to spend a bit of time with her here and see what life is like for her in the Rebellion.
Tolvan is cheered and admired by her team, in stark contrast to her time with the Empire and its emotionless stormtroopers. She seems genuinely happy to be surrounded by people who care for and value her, something that wasn’t always the case in her relationships with the Empire or Aphra. Interestingly though, Tolvan still thinks about Chelli regularly. An innocuous comment from her team member on the way to The Silver Arrow triggers a memory of her and Aphra cuddling under the covers when Chelli suggests running away together.
Magna of course laughs off the suggestion, as a highly motivated individual who wants to make a positive difference in the galaxy. It paints a picture that the two perhaps were never suited for each other, but Magna seems to view the memory fondly. She still has a soft spot for Doctor Aphra, even if she knows they both want different things.
We last see Magna’s team docking with The Silver Arrow, so we’ll have to wait until the next issue to see how they deal with their Droid Scourge discovery. Elsewhere, Doctor Aphra and Just Lucky are surrounded by Tagge battle droids in the warehouse. The two initially manage to run and find cover, before Just Lucky appears to ditch Aphra by grappling up to the catwalks above.
It’s an unnecessary development, because Lucky returns to bail Aphra out a few pages later. We don’t get any indication that he felt guilty about leaving and came back for her, and there was no need for them to pretend that he was ditching her as the droids don’t care. It seems this only happened so Wong could get Aphra into some Jurassic Park-esque situations, with her hiding behind a door as the intimidating murderbots search for her (as an aside, I loved that the droids could move faster by rolling like a ball, an allusion to their droideka design inspirations). To be fair, it is an excellent piece of artwork; I could practically hear bassy synth music reverberating off the page as the tension ramped up.
Interestingly, before Just Lucky comes back for her, Aphra stumbles across Teviy, the girl from Galator III who stole her datastick and beat her to the warehouse in the previous issue. Chelli may be on a journey of self improvement, but she owes nothing to this girl who took advantage of her and screwed her over, so she uses her as bait to escape, knocking her over to have her killed by the droids — who are happy to do so as she has no cybernetic parts, as I alluded to above — which gives her valuable seconds to go hide.
Eventually, the droids have both Doctor Aphra and Just Lucky cornered, but in the nick of time they lose power. It turns out that they were running on reserve power the whole time, which the Droid Scourge apparently didn’t realize. They were only operational for a couple of minutes before running out of power, so the two of them are free to leave and return to Domina. It could be argued that this resolution was a bit of a cop out, but I definitely didn’t see it coming and it made sense so I was happy enough with the outcome.
The issue seems to suggest that Domina will give them another job next issue, one that will presumably have them cross paths with Magna Tolvan somehow. There was plenty to love about this issue, whether it was the action or the chance to check in with Tolvan once again. I look forward to seeing how it all pans out.
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.
