Review: ‘Doctor Aphra’ #38 – ‘Truth to Liars’ Is The Best Issue of The Entire ‘Dark Droids’ Crossover So Far
The latest issue of Doctor Aphra is expertly paced, packed with tense action, personal drama and quality exposition. It becomes clearer than ever that Doctor Aphra is going to be one of the main players responsible for defeating the Droid Scourge, an incredible transformation considering how small scale her story began in the first issue during the crossover arc.
We get a healthy dose of emotional drama as Aphra speaks to Sana Starros for the first time since the pair separated — it’s a very stirring conversation that sets the tone for an issue that is high stakes for our eponymous character. The rescue mission for Magna has a great build up, but spends a graceful amount of time on the actual action. Since these issues don’t need to be padded out to make a story last an entire year, we only see the action we need to see before the story moves us on.
It’s a level of pacing that I very much appreciate, capped off with some natural exposition as Aphra learns more about the Scourge’s motivation and just how dangerous it really is. The issue does a great job of ramping up the excitement and then maintains its level as it sets up a tantalizing jumping off point. I can’t wait to see what Doctor Aphra does next.
Spoilers ahead…
The issue kicks off with a conversation that long-time Doctor Aphra readers have been waiting for all year — the first interaction between Chelli and Sana Starros since the two split up after the Spark Eternal arc. Sana calmly sits back and waits for Aphra to explain what she wants, disappointed but not surprised that her old flame has only contacted her because she needs something.
Chelli tries to apologize for taking Sana for granted but seems to only make things worse, as she explains she’s not here for her and belatedly reveals that Magna is in trouble just as Sana shows her the door. It will be a while before these two can properly reconcile, but Sana would do anything to save a friend. She sits back down and tells Aphra to get her up to speed.
They travel to Epikonia with Just Lucky (presumably just before Luke, Leia, Lando and Chewbacca arrive in Star Wars #40) and recon the city. Noting that the city is swarming with droids but all the people have mysteriously disappeared, the trio plan their attack. Aphra reveals that she stole some prototype EMP devices from Domina Tagge and made her own modifications. Activating one will deactivate every droid and hybroid in the immediate vicinity, allowing them to get the edge in a fight or help them create a hole in the droid defenses.
They make their move and the Droid Scourge quickly spots Just Lucky on a rooftop. The Scourge is too busy arrogantly patting itself on the back to neutralize the threat before Just Lucky pulls out an EMP, knocking out all eyes on him. This allows Doctor Aphra and Sana Starros to sneak into the main facility where the hybroids are experimenting on organic beings.
Before they get there, we spend some time with the possessed Magna Tolvan as the Droid Scourge expresses its frustration at being unable to possess organics, even though the Spark Eternal was so competent at it. Seeing all this happen through a human body is somehow more unsettling than through a droid, and Magna comes across as a terrifying monster.
Aphra and Sana are horrified to learn what’s going on, realizing that all three hybroids are here and working for the Droid Scourge. Realizing they’ll have to take Magna by force, we get a short and sweet slice of action as our heroes zip around the warehouse and knock everyone out with EMPs. Previous story arcs would have dragged this out for half an issue but thankfully this action scene is only three pages long, which gives us more narrative to explore.
We learn that they were able to extract Magna Tolvan and bring her aboard the Ark Angel, but unfortunately the EMP did not rid the Droid Scourge from the host bodies. Aphra has to use her electro-tattoos and connection with the Spark Eternal to enter the Droid Scourge’s mind, stating that “Connections are liabilities”, an opinion that Sana will surely find interesting to hear.
It’s here that Aphra learns what the Droid Scourge wants. As stated in this week’s Dark Droids #4, the Droid Scourge doesn’t necessarily want to destroy everything and take over the galaxy. It wants to survive and live autonomously, and has determined that the best way to do that is to consume every living being into its own consciousness (the same end result but a different motivation), a tactic which is causing its mind to fail and fragment.
Doctor Aphra has done a really good job of summarizing what the Droid Scourge is about for people who perhaps aren’t keeping up with the main crossover series. Aphra also says that its experiments on living beings are the equivalent of a child playing with toys and exploring its world, rather than the deliberate intentions of a demented monster.
Just Lucky points out the urgent need to stop the Droid Scourge before it figures out how to possess fully organic beings, which I’d always assumed was a futile goal of the droids, but as Aphra put it earlier, “Everything’s impossible until it isn’t. That’s science.” It would seem that Doctor Aphra, Just Lucky and Sana Starros are setting their sights on the Droid Scourge next, although the final page teases that Domina Tagge is about to be possessed, possibly by imbibing some poisoned drink containing the Scourge virus.
If Domina becomes a new threat, perhaps that will distract Aphra for another issue before Dark Droids #5 arrives late in December and the threat is dealt with once and for all. This was a highly entertaining issue and possibly the best one of the entire crossover.
Rating: 9/10
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.
