Star Wars: Doctor Aphra No. 37 review: The reunion we didn’t see coming

At the start of the final arc of Doctor Aphra’s story, our heroine gets a warning, a promotion — and an unexpected reunion.

This review contains spoilers for Doctor Aphra No. 36 & 37. Check back in later if you don’t want spoilers.

Every time Aphra wins, she almost immediately loses. But that’s to be expected when you refuse to choose sides in the middle of a galactic civil war.

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Aphra is, and always has been, out for herself. Only on several occasions have we seen her do anything that requires her putting someone else’s life, freedom, or happiness before hers. She is the kind of survivalist that doesn’t mess around.

Sometimes, though, even the most well-thought-out plans completely backfire.

Now that Aphra is working for the Empire against her will, her not-so-wonderful past with Vader has left her miserable and sarcastic as ever.

Desperate to get away from her former boss — can you blame her? — she agrees to a mission that will take her off the Star Destroyer and into the field. There, she “Aphra”s her way into a promotion (by default, let’s say) and aids in the capture of an armored human the Empire seems very interested in keeping alive.

Removing the helmet of the masked man reveals he isn’t just some random stranger claiming to know Jedi mind tricks. He’s Aphra’s father.

Turns out Luke Skywalker isn’t the only one with daddy issues.

At this point we already know that Aphra and her mother left her father behind when she was young, and that this is just one of many contributing factors to our all-grown-up archeologist’s inability to properly love anyone — including herself.

And now her troubled past is — literally — staring her right in the face.

“Hi, dad.” NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE.

Obviously there are plenty of questions to be answered in the issues soon to come. What has he been doing all this time? What does Vader want with him?

Something tells me Aphra is going to be faced with a choice when all this comes to an end. Despite everything, her dad is still her dad. Will she choose his life, his freedom, his happiness over hers — because that’s what you do for the people you love?

There are only a few issues of this run of Doctor Aphra left. Though this story will come to an end this December, there are rumors that her story will pick up again sometine in 2020.

Marvel is already relaunching its main Star Wars comic — set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi — so if they’re going to continue Aphra’s arc along the same timeline, that would be the time to do it.

But for now, we’ll just cross our fingers hoping Aphra even makes it out of these pages alive. At the very least, we hope she patches things up with her dad. And reunites with Tolvan. Give us a reason to smile again! This is so stressful … and we can’t wait for more.

The next issue of Doctor Aphra releases on October 30.