Doctor Aphra (2020) #39
ABOVE ALL
Tasked with investigating malfunctioning droids at a Tagge warehouse, Doctor Aphra and Just Lucky came face-to-face with the scourged droids. After disbaling one of them, Aphra used her connection to the Spark Eternal, a component of the mysterious rogue machine intelligence, and discovered that Magna Tolvan was also corrupted by the Scourge.
Then Aphra, Lucky, and Sana traveled to the scourge-affected world of Epikonia, where Tolvan and other cyborgs infected by the Scourge are continuing experiments to transition into organic minds.
And Domina Tagge is the Scourge’s next target….
Writer: Alyssa Wong
Artists: Minkyu Jung
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Cover artist: Romy Jones
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: December 20, 2023
The latest issue of Doctor Aphra continues through the latter stages of the Dark Droids storyline as we open aboard the Acquisitor, Domina Tagge’s flagship as droids continue to attack, her aide Lapin Tagge trying to get her to safety, but instead finding themself jetisoned from the ship in an escape pod as Domina makes the decision to stay on the Acquisitor and protect the data aboard. As the scourge tells a captured Domina they must talk we switch to the Ark Angel IV and Aphra, Sana Starros, Just Lucky and Magna Tolvan who is secured to the bed. Reports of droid attacks are coming in from across the galaxy, but as Aphra informs them that they’re close to arriving sat the Acquisitor, Just Lucky tells her he plans to head to Canto Bight where his brother and Ariole are, and how Aphra owes him. He wants off the ship, and he gets his wish as we see Lucky dropped off on Cantonica and the Ark Angel blast away, Lucky reunited with his crew as he finds Ariole in the casino.
Back to Aphra and Starros as Chelli works on a disc droid, reprogamming it to drop a different payload into the droids, one that will incapacitate the bodies of the droids stolen by the scourge. Aphra points out how she beat the scourge before when it was the Spark Eternal, and how nothing scares her anymore. Meanwhile, they arrive in Tagge space and the midst of a tremendous space battle, and we cut to Domina Tagge held captive by the scourge as it asks Tagge what she thinks of its work. She claims it lacks artistry, and the scourge informs her that why they’ve captured her. It’s hungry, overwhelmingly so, and Domina figures it out; the scourge needs her to fix it, and it agrees. She informs the scourge that if she dies, all Tagge Corporation data goes with her, the very things the scourge needs along with the galaxy-wide influence of the Tagge Corporation.
We rejoin Aphra and Sana moving through the ship, the reconfigured disc droid latching onto a passing droid and changing its programming to attack another nearby droid. The scourge feels it and starts to look for the source, plunging a disc droid into the spine of Domina as she waits. Aphra kicks into the room, and the droid acting as the scourge attacks her before she thumbs a detonator and the droids all fall, her own disc droids now taking many of the droids in the nearby vicinity. All droids and weapons useless, Tagge asks Aphra to eliminate her if the scourge gains access to her mind and Aphra agrees as they rig the Acquisitor to set off a huge EMP and they leave in the Ark Angel.
However, there’s a twist. Aphra didn’t hop back onboard the Ark Angel but instead leaps into hyperspace, taking the Acquisitor away to Rocedila, a world on the Outer Rim where she pauses to call Sana, who warns her not to do anything stupid. In reply, Chelli tells her she loves her, and explains that Tagge was right – the ship can’t just be destroyed, it needs to be disintegrated and she aims the vessel at Rocedila, telling Sana she deserves someone who’ll tell her she loves her before saying goodbye, and the final panel is what appears to be the Acquisitor smashing into the planet….
Next issue is the final issue, and just as Bounty Hunters gets one more issue to wrap up the title after the end of Dark Droids, so Aphra will do the same. Here, with just the fifth and final issue of Dark Droids to go, Aphra would appear to have made a final gambit, protecting all the Tagge information so vital to the plans of the scourge, and if it is her final big move – which we sincerely hope it isn’t – then it’s the boldest, most selfless act of her life. It’s the end of an era in Star Wars comics with the final Bounty Hunters and Doctor Aphra, and while we know there will be a bounty hunting title from Ethan Sacks set during the prequel era to celebrate 25 years of The Phantom Menace there’s no word yet on more Aphra adventures. Let’s hope, because this run has been fantastic.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Wong, Alyssa (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 24 Pages - 01/31/2024 (Publication Date) - Marvel (Publisher)
