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STAR WARS: DOCTOR APHRA #11

This week’s issue of Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (issue #11) was so great! Part III of the Enormous Profit story arc, this week’s story sees major changes in the dynamic of the whole series. Triple-Zero and Beetee, the scary but funny killer droids who have been reluctantly complying with Aphra (but slowly working to subvert her) have finally found their way around the restrictions she’s placed on them. Now they’ve unleashed mayhem in the form of a killer ghost-Jedi-robot. 

A couple of issues ago, Triple-Zero, the homicidal C-3PO, took advantage of one of Aphra’s poorly worded commands and set a plan into motion that would take them out of her service and free them to kill indiscriminately once again. While Aphra’s been distracted by trying to auction off her Jedi Holy Grail to the galaxy’s most unsavory and struggling with the moral and historical implications thereof, the droids have contacted Vader, hijacked the ship’s weapons and set the angry Jedi ghost loose on the buyers. Aphra spends this issue running and gunning with bodies falling all around her before the shoe finally drops. 

The Doctor Aphra series has gone from Indiana Jones-like “historical” action/adventure to a heist story to a high-class tale of criminal intrigue. This issue, more than the previous issues, feels like classic Star Wars, with its over-the-top blaster fire, comedic dialogue, dismembered limbs, and untrustworthy aliens. It’s funny, exciting, and has severe and lasting consequences. It moves quickly and leaves the reader wanting more. Top notch story-telling!

Perhaps the best part of this issue is how it sets up the next issue. It seems like all the seeds that writer Kieron Gillen planted throughout this series are blooming. Aphra’s been adventuring around the universe making terrible and powerful enemies. Now, backed into a corner, with all her former allies turned against her, she faces the scary consequences of her actions. Can’t wait to see how it all unfolds and how/if she gets out of this one.

Jonah Chuang is a Technical Account Manager at comiXology. He hopes one day Doctor Aphra makes a cameo in a Star Wars movie or maybe get her own movie.