Star Wars: Doctor Aphra vol. 5 — Worst Among Equals

The last time we saw the good Doctor things had become real dark.  Like, mindwiping her girlfriend to believe that she had killed her in order to escape Darth Vader dark.  In the end, Aprha’s efforts only served to get her out of the frying pan when it was revealed that her new alien friend was actually Doctor Cornelius Evazan — who, if you’ll recall, has the death sentence in twelve different star systems.  Having both Aphra and vengeful murder-droid Triple-Zero at his mercy, Evazan thought it would be hilarious to see how they’d manage after he implanted them with bombs that would self-destruct if the other died or wandered more than 20 meters away.  That’s where we are when “Worst Among Equals” kicks off.

Except not quite, because this volume also contains the title’s first Annual.  Written by regular writer Si Spurrier with art from his “Angelic” collaborator Caspar Wijngaard.  It introduces us to Winloss and Nokk, monster hunters who happen to be married and who also appear to be quite happy together because of their constant bickering.  They’ve been contracted by Aphra to capture a monster that’s been guarding the kind of treasure that you’d expect her to be after. Except she’s nowhere to be seen except via hologram transmission.  But how does she know so much about the ruins they’re in and what’s with all of the remains of these other monster hunters that have come before Winloss and Nokk?

Getting to these answers proves to be a lot of fun.  Spurrier is clearly enjoying himself as he puts the pair through the kind of sci-fi “Indiana Jones” adventure you’d expect to see Aphra on.  (“Strike the holy chimes! Strike them harder!!”) Winloss and Nokk, however, make for likeable stand-in protagonists on this particular adventure as they convince you that they do love each other underneath all of the griping and, despite outward appearances, actually turn out to be pretty good at their job.  Their adventure also looks great thanks to Wijngaard and his intricate yet playful style.

Now, if you’re wondering if this Annual has been collected here for reasons other than completeness’ sake then I won’t spoil the surprise.  Of which there are many to be had in “Worst Among Equals” as Aphra and Triple-Zero find their way to the Imperial Utopia known as Milvayne. The planet has been held up across the galaxy as an example of how good things can be when you let the Empire in and submit to their exacting bureaucracy while also informing on your neighbors for profit.  It’s in this environment that Aphra and Triple-Zero have to find a cyber-surgeon skilled enough to extract their bombs. That would normally be a tall order on a planet like this, but then Evazan decides to start stacking the deck…

A race-against-time involving two adversaries who are forced to work together to avoid their own imminent demises?  That’d be a solid premise to work with even if you didn’t have the “Star Wars” license attached to it. Of course, we’re dealing with a “Star Wars” series being written by Si Spurrier — a writer for whom taking the straightforward choice in a story almost seems to be anathema to him.  Which is why Aphra and Triple-Zero are constantly challenging each other’s assumptions throughout the story. While this is more or less an extension of how the writer dug into Aphra’s own morality and priorities in the previous volume, it’s interesting to see how he deals with the assassin droid’s own hang-ups.  For all of his claims about being an emotionless murder machine, Aphra does an impressively credible job of getting under his circuitry. Sometimes the constant back-and-forth and lack of trust between the two can get tiresome, but I thought it was all worth it in the end after I saw where their relationship wound up.

It’s not just the relationship between the co-protagonists in this volume, Spurrier takes an unconventional approach to the setting as well.  Milvayne is meant to be the ideal Imperial planet, which essentially makes it a fascistopia that someone like Judge Dredd would find himself utterly at home in.  There’s also its trashy underside where the undesirables are made to jump into after public denunciations. All of this is managed by the Empire’s Public Relations division which tries to maintain an invisible hand in manipulating public opinion on the planet, but isn’t above arming the rail gun when things get out of hand.  It’s all satirical and over-the-top in a way that feels more like “Dredd” than “Star Wars” at times, but not distractingly so and that’s a good thing.

It’s also worth noting that the writer’s take on Evazan is probably the most straightforward thing about this volume.  He’s a scientist who loves putting his experiments and theories into practice regardless of their moral implications. Evazan thoroughly enjoys what he does and Spurrier gets some good (mostly) comedic mileage out of playing up that side of him.  What keeps him interesting are his efforts to save his own skin after Triple-Zero figures out his angle on this whole thing. Those efforts have some unintended, yet interesting ramifications to the story at large which are neat to see play out over the course of the volume.

The majority of this arc has art from Emilio Laiso, with Andrea Broccardo pitching in at the end, and it’s solid work in the same vein that “Remastered” was.  He doesn’t get to draw a variety of locations as he did in that volume, but Laiso does a good job investing this cityscape with appropriate detail. The artist really shines with his action sequences, which is a good thing considering that the volume feels like one big one at times.  There’s lots of diversity and surprises in them — including a couple returns and resurrections — which gives them some nice substance in addition to the style already present in the action.

Even if the satire can feel odd or the bickering between the co-protagonists can get wearying, I still think this Spurrier’s strongest volume of “Aphra” yet.  He does an even better job of getting into her head here and demonstrates new aspects to Triple-Zero’s personality as well. Evazan also proves to be a darkly comic presence which enlivens the story, while the fate of Milvayne takes a predictable but satisfying turn over the course of the volume.  It all ends on a note that’s more interesting for the new party that has taken an interest in the doctor rather than Aphra’s fate itself. To which I will only note that vol. 6, “Unspeakable Rebel Superweapon,” is currently being serialized so I think she’ll be okay.