Star Wars: Doctor Aphra by Alyssa Wong vol. 4 — Crimson Reign

Where the volumes of “Star Wars” and “Darth Vader” that bore the “Crimson Reign” subtitle had only nominal ties to the organization and its ongoing storyline, “Doctor Aphra’s” are a bit more substantial.  In part because this volume’s main storyline involves the Ascendant, the Force-worshipping cult who created the thought dowser seen in the previous volume.  The existence of such an artifact intrigues Domina Tagge and she charges Aphra, along with Sana Staros, with finding another one she can use.  This winds up the title character with another character from her past who wants to kill her, one Kho Phon Farrus.  Not only are they looking to settle a score with Aphra, they’re also working for Crimson Dawn to find a specific Ascendant artifact.  Their masterwork known only as the Spark Eternal.

Vol. 4 is actually the start of a storyline that’s going to last for the next two volumes.  Part of me thinks that writer Alyssa Wong and artist Minkyu Jung could’ve done more to make this an enticing prospect as this one is all about setting things up in advance of the major plot hook that’s presented on the last page.  I will admit that what we get here is quality setup as Kho is an antagonist that strikes the right balance between villainous and tragic, a character returns to make trouble for Aphra and Domina, and the relevance of the “Boushh” one-shot Wong wrote for “War of the Bounty Hunters” becomes clear.  It also helps that the banter between Aphra and Sana is pretty solid as is the idea behind the Ascendant.  All of this is enough to keep me invested in seeing where this storyline is going to go, but maybe not so much to make me excited for another two volumes of it.