Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #34 // Review
Luke Skywalker has been kidnapped by Chelli. It’s okay; she’s a doctor. She knows what she’s doing...kinda. She’s taken him to an ancient Jedi temple. (That’s what she thought it was, anyway.) It’s turned out to be a Jedi prison. It was an easy mistake. Anyone could have made it. Now, Luke and Chelli have their hands full in Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #34. Writer Alyssa Wong continues a story with artist Minkyu Jung and colorist Rachelle Rosenberg. The adventure kicks into kind of a fun direction while narrowly avoiding anything that could have had a bit more dramatic and thematic depth.
They’ve unleashed a Starweird. Chelli thought they were extinct. Clearly, they aren’t. She’ll have to double-check where she gets her information from. In any case, she’s clearly unleashed something that possesses great power. It’s capable of eating planets. And now, it’s up against someone who will go on to help bring down an evil galactic empire. So it’s a good bet that Luke is going to do something, but he’s going to have a hell of a time of it. The thing is telekinetically pushing them up against the wall...but he’s not using the Force.
Wong places a bit of mystery into the action. It engages the reader just a little more than the action would alone. The dialogue serves to make the characters a bit more endearing than they have been in the past. Luke, in particular, is kind of a difficult character to draw to page or screen with the right kind of charisma. Clearly, the good doctor is messing around in matters that she's not very well capable of handling on her own. This is the type of team that finds itself in a lot of fantasy and science fiction. It's hard to get that particular theme to work in a way that feels truly insightful given how often it's been explored. Wong has little trouble avoiding this in favor of a really fun action story.
Jung and Rosenberg find a style and tone that fits the overall production design of the Star Wars universe perfectly. The Starweird kind of feels like something that might have made it into the films in the early 1980s. The action flows freely across the page with fluid grace. There IS a bit of well-executed drama here and there, but Jung and Rosenberg are at their best when the panels are squarely focused on fast-paced action.
It’s been quite a bit of fun having Chelli and Luke hang out in a tightly-composed team-up with a few other characters. Writers have a tendency to want to work with a whole bunch of different action figures when someone's writing a Star Wars comic book. Wong keeps it close and cozy, and the resulting two-player adventure with optional droids feels remarkably fun.
