Force Matters: ‘Doctor Aphra Chaos Agent’ #5 — Great Potential, Abrupt Ending

In Star Wars comics from the week of 10/29, we get one abrupt ending and one surprisingly-sweet Boba Fett story in Doctor Aphra: Chaos Agent #5 and Boba Fett: Black, White & Red #2, respectively.

Star Wars: Doctor Aphra – Chaos Agent #5

By Cherish Chen & Steven Cummings

To get back her tattoos, Aphra must bring her estranged sister back to the New Republic.

• After being mentioned last issue, this is the first full appearance of Dellen Aphra, Doctor Aphra’s sister.

• Princess Leia is on hand in this one to give Aphra her marching orders, completing her tour through the Original Trilogy Big Three (all we need is a Lando and a Threepio/Artoo team-up and she’ll have the whole set of Star Warriors).
• Aphra gets a new droid companion, a repurposed Gonk droid she nicknames, “Stripes.” It sure seems like setup for a continuing role, but, well, not so much, in turns out.
• The worlds Aphra visit in this issue include Ord Mantell (site of a mentioned bounty hunter run-in in The Empire Strikes Back), Hosnian Prime (soon to become the capital of the New Republic, then obliterated by Starkiller Base), Nar Haaska (previously mentioned in Legends canon and canonically in a Force Awakens-era roleplaying game, appearing here for the first time), and Provina (appearing here for the first time).
• Unger is Iktotch, the same species as Jedi Saesee Tinn; Frum is a Twi’lek.
• This is, apparently, the final issue of the series, as it concludes with a “End.” text box and no preview for a subsequent issue. I don’t believe this was pitched as a five issue miniseries — its certainly not structured like one, clearly taking pains to build out a supporting cast and storytelling engine for an ongoing series in its five issues — so presumably it’s another victim of Marvel’s “you got five issues to prove yourself sales-wise or you’re out!” approach.

As the fifth issue of a series, this is perfectly fine, with the introduction of Aphra’s sister serving as a vehicle for some interesting new backstory and character dynamics (Dellen isn’t presented as “the good sister” and is an appreciated deviation from the usual setup of these kinds of strained relationships involving the more “chaotic good” protagonists). As a final issue, well, it’s clearly not meant to be one, so obviously, it fails utterly in that regard.

This is probably the current Star Wars book I look forward to reading the least, so I’m not exactly sad to see it go, but Doctor Aphra is a great character and the line is stronger when she’s in it, so I am bummed that we’re entering into another Aphra-less period of time.

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #2

By Saladin Ahmed & Ramon Rosanas

Boba Fett is hired to capture a slippery Zeltron named Samu the Scurrier

• This story takes place on the planet Meddan, which I believe is a new world.
• Samu the Scurrier is a fun character. The idea that he’s not tough but squirmy– adept at weaseling his way out of trouble vs. fighting or scheming his way out — is a clever way to make him a challenge for Boba Fett. It also reminds me of that King of the Hill episode where Cotton tries to toughen Bobby up at a military academy but all his tactics fail because while Bobby’s not tough, he is mushy, and even though you can’t build up mush, you can’t really break it down, either.
• Samu is a Zeltron, a humanoid species with reddish/purplish skin color first introduced in the original Marvel comics run, which is another smart decision – it allows Samu to be colored since he fits the “red” portion of the title, so he and Boba Fett are the two characters who pop the most on the page.

• Boba Fett is using a holopuck (basically a Space Wanted Poster) with info on Samu; they were first introduced in the first episode of The Mandalorian.
• Boba also uses the Mandalorian expletive “dank farrik”, introduced by that series.
• The people Boba is fighting over Samu with are Houks, a species first introduced in Brian Daley‘s Han Solo and the Lost Legacy in 1980 and later recanonized in a 2014 junior novel by Ryder Windham.

The somewhat last minute introduction of Samu’s son, to give the story some added emotional heft, feels a bit random, but overall, this issue does an effective job of casting Boba Fett in a heroic role without making him a hero, and Rosanas, already one of my favorite current Star Wars artists, looks great in (nearly) black & white.

Cover of the Week – Boba Fett Black, White & Red #2 Variant

Kyle Hotz‘ very Kyle Hotz-ian variant cover gets the nod this week.