Star Wars: Giving more of us excuses to roll up to conventions in comfortable robe costumes one character at a time

Oh wait. Was that not the takeaway I was supposed to get from this issue? Oops.

Spoilers after the jump.

Doctor Aphra #13 wraps up “The Enormous Profit” arc with the good doctor making it out in… well… pretty good shape actually. I’ve spent the majority of the last few issues paranoid and worried about the inevitable moment when Vader and Aphra come face to face but somehow, it turned out not to be inevitable. (It’s fine. I didn’t need those moments of no stress anyways.) Okay sure, perhaps it stretches the suspension of disbelief a little that Aphra was able to avoid being seen by Vader at all but it was all worth it for him to describe her as “an infuriating presence” as an echo from his A New Hope line.

What I like most about this issue is that it makes Aphra’s moral ambiguity and strong desire to survive blatantly obvious. She is unapologetically herself and more concerned about her own survival than anyone else’s. And you know what? That’s fair. I don’t blame her in the least.

In a way, this issue feels like a season finale and it sort of is. Next issue, Simon Spurrier joins Kieron Gillen to share in the writing duties and that’ll almost definitely give the book a slightly different feel. This is also setting us up for an Aphra that we haven’t seen before. Almost since the moment we’ve met her, she’s been partially defined by the people that surround her: Vader, the murder droids, and Black Krrsantan. Now? They’re all gone although I suspect the murder droids may reappear further down the line. It’ll be fascinating to see where the book goes from here.

This first year of Aphra has been a heck of a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see where the next one takes us!

Doctor Aphra #13: Kieron Gillen/Writer, Kev Walker/Penciler, Marc Deering/Inks, Antonio Fabela/Colors, Joe Caramagna/Letterer, Heather Antos/Assistant Editor, Jordan D. White/Editor