Star Wars: Doctor Aphra – Chaos Agent #4
“TURNING POINT”
She’s been a rogue archaeologist. A pawn of the Empire. A reluctant ally to the Rebellion. After the fall of the Empire, what’s next for…
Following a botched heist, DOCTOR APHRA was brought into custody and recruited to join D.A.A.G.R.–a shadowy subdivision of the New Republic. This team specializes in hunting down important and dangerous archaeological artifacts, making Aphra the perfect addition to the team.
Despite struggling with the deactivation of her electro-tattoos (who the kark could have hacked those?!), she successfully completed missions with Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, and now finds herself on a strange planet on an even stranger mission alongside a familiar Wookiee….
Writer: Cherish Chen
Artist: Kieran McKeown
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colourist: Michael Atiyeh
Cover artist: Ejikure
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: September 24 2025
We’ve seen Doctor Aphra in a number of interesting situations over the past ten years, but sharing digs with Chewbacca would seem to be a new one, and that’s where we find ourselves at the start of the 4th issue of Doctor Aphra: Chaos Agent as Chelli and Chewie are woken by a hulking guard (who doesn’t know her name) as they doze in the servants quarters on the sun-bleached isle of Taisun. She’s ordered to bring Chewie to the royal court for a meeting with young Prince Flot, and as they make their way there we hear why we find them on this mission. D.A.A.G.R chief General Meteora Gray has ordered Aphra to guard the prince through his coronation (a mind-numbing twelve-day mission so far), and our erstwhile archaeologist is far from happy about it (and Chewbacca is none too thrilled either). She tells him they need to be on their best behaviour, and bows as she enters to a scolding for being late, and a reminder that the young prince’s life has been threatened by bounty hunter Krrsantan. Flot is annoyed that he has to prepare a speech for the coronation at short notice, and as Aphra assures him that they’ll take care of her former partner Krrsantan, he angrily tells her he wants her nowhere near the palace and sends them out – once again – to an isolated outpost many kilometers away.
Now ensconsed in a high observation tower, Aphra and Chewbacca scour the horizon for problems, but despite Aphra’s insistance that such a job was beneath Krrsantan, we see their platform crumple and the two fall to the sand below as the bounty hunter leaps in and a fierce, multi-page fight begins between the two wookiees, only stopped when Aphra throws water over them and growls at them in stilted shryiiwook.
Aphra tells Krrsantan of her surprise at him taking the job (slightly less so when she learns how much he’s being paid for the job – credits and the crown jewels) and warns him off, telling him she knows where his secret hideouts are (even the one on Bothawui). Krrsantan opts to leave, and we cut to Chewie and Aphra’s quarters on the evening as they eat and ponder on the events of the day. Suddenly the penny drops, and she asks Chewie to create a diversion the next day and we cut to the streets of Taisun Isle as the coronation is about to start. The people seem less than enthused, but as we see the prince arrive in his carriage there’s a huge explosion and from the smoke appears Krrsantan, who leaps in to attack Chewie while Aphra runs towards the Prince, quickly telling him that she’s figured out that he hired Krrsantan, but why?
Young Prince Flot reveals all. He’s never wanted to be ruler, he’s just a kid, and hired the wookiee bounty hunter to kidnap him and take him away to a new life. After pleading his case Aphra pauses, thinks and then tells Chewie to let Krrsantan through, telling Flot that his advisor will instead take on the reigns of leadership and we see a delighted Flot being led away from Krrsantan to the new life he so desires.
Back at D.A.A.G.R headquarters on Nakadia we see an exasperated Meteora try to make sense of what Aphra has done, pointing out the potential problems she could have spiralled the people of Tiasun Isle into. Aphra is unmoved, telling Gray that she wants control of her electro-tattoos back and learning that it’s not a thing that’s stopping her from using them, but a person codenamed Aeturna, who’s real name is Dellen – Chelli’s sister, a reveal that eneds the issue with a raging Aphra yelling ‘You hired my karking sister?!‘
There’s not a lot of plot in this fourth issue, but in all honesty, who cares? It’s fun, beautifully drawn by Kieran McKeown with enjoyable characterisations from Cherish Chen and two very welcome guest stars in Chewbacca and Krrsantan. Wrapped in a very Brian Daley trilogyesque cover by Ejikure and you have the recipe for a fun, smile-inducing mini adventure that continues the series with more special appearances and a character who continues to rail against authority but who – bit by bit – seems to be edging towards doing the right thing more than feeding her voracious ego and hungry pockets.
Alyssa Wong gave us the most complex version of Aphra with the long-running Spark Eternal storyline and relationship breakups, giving us a character reminiscent of Gregory House from the TV show of the same name, and here we – thankfully – find her a whole lot more relaxed and demon free. While that’s sure to change at some point, it’s fun to have this version of Aphra, a character who we’ve enjoyed for a decade and who continues to be the epicenter of a great heap of trouble.
