About the Ending of Doctor Aphra #40 (and what’s next?)

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Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #40 came out last Wednesday and was the grand finale of Alyssa Wong’s Star Wars: Doctor Aphra comic run that started back in 2020. 

This announcement made Aphra fans scream, cry, and throw up as they considered a reality in which where the Aphra era was over. 

But Aphra is not gone. There is clearly more story set up to be told. In this post I want to talk about the ending of Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #40 and speculate on what’s next for Doctor Aphra. 

Mad spoilers ahead. If that bothers you… run. Run fast and hard until you can no longer hear my voice. 

But if you’ve already read it, or don’t care about spoilers, let’s dig in. 

What Happens In Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #40?

My understanding of what happened is that Aphra faked her death. We find out later that she does this to escape being constantly in someone else’s debt. Whether it’s Darth Vader, the Rebels, or Domina Tagge, Aphra hasn’t truly been free in a while. 

The context is beautiful and makes sense to me. Plus if fits the character. She prides herself in using other people but more than not she herself is being used by larger powers as well. 

Aphra plans to drive Domina Tagge’s flagship, The Acquisitor, into a planet called Rocedila at hyperspeed to make sure that every droid infected by the Scourge is destroyed alongside it. She tells everyone her plan, begins the process, and then sneaks off to an escape pod to saver her skin while everyone else thinks she’s been blown into a million pieces.

The plan goes perfectly, but I do have a gripe with the scene. For two reasons…

1. Shouldn’t the gravity well of the planet have forced the Acquisitor out of hyperspeed before it hit the surface? I could also be missing something here.
   
2. If not, the planet should have been largely destroyed. A massive meteor hitting a planet at sub light levels can cause massive destruction. As we see in the High Republic, even just chunks of a large ship at near lightspeed hitting a planet can destroy entire planets or cause them to be uninhabitable. In one of the High Republic novels (I think the Rising Storm), a chunk of a destroyed ship that was flung out of hyperspace kills millions on a moon as the impact completely destroys anything on the surface.
   
   A ship the size of the Acquisitor hitting the surface at lightspeed really should have destroyed the entire planet. Or at the very least a large enough section of the planet that would make the area that Aphra eventually landed on just molten lava as the core spills out onto the surface. 

But hey… it’s a show about space wizards & hokey religions. I can get over some inconsistencies. Or I could just be wrong and misinformed. Either way, it doesn’t matter.  

On Rocedila, she finds an ancient Jedi text. Made of paper, which is no longer used for books anymore. And has not been used for books in thousands of years.

At this point, the timeline paper books or manuscripts were exceedingly rare. Most books and archives were cataloged on data tapes and accessed through datapads. Though flimsiplast replicas of books were also not uncommon though they were considered a more primitive way of reading and writing.

The plans for the 2nd Death Star were initially mapped out on flimsiplast for security purposes.

But the point is that this book is printed on paper. Which, when you combine this with the setting being an old forgotten Jedi Temple, means this book is ancient. And, as Aphra notes, valuable.  

Doctor Aphra also notes that the ancient Jedi book is written in a language she is unfamiliar with. This lines up with at least some of the ancient Jedi texts that Rey took from Ahch-To when she left Luke to go help her friends. In the Poe Dameron comics, C-3PO helps Rey translate the texts from their old language to galactic basic. 

It’s unclear if this book is one of the books that Rey eventually takes from Ahch-To. It certainly seems much larger in physical size than any of the books Rey has. But that could also just be a stylistic choice from the artist. 

Either way, I’m excited to learn more. 

From there, Sana Starros shows up, knowing that Aphra wouldn’t actually kill herself for any specific cause, and she and Aphra share a moment before meeting back up with Magna Tolvin to discuss their future. And it’s hard to tell the dynamic here. I’ve lost track of this love triangle and who is supposed to be with whom. But it doesn’t matter. They’re all three meant to be together. Whether that’s some sort of three-pronged relationship as lovers – or if they’re just partners in crime – the point is that they are a team now and in the future. 

After everything they have been through, they agree to move forward together to participate in a “lifetime of crime” and have seemed to disassociate themselves from any larger causes such as the Empire and the Rebellion. 

We then get two epilogue-style pages.

The first is aboard an Imperial warship called the Peerless where ISB Officer Mechior Votto (this is his first appearance) and bounty hunter Raslin Grace (first appearance in Star Wars: Revelations #1 (2023)) discuss a new mission… to hunt down Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra.

We then pivot to Aphra and her new crew causing trouble on Canto Bight. Her crew is Sana, Magna, Lucky, and Ariole and they’re clearly up to no good again as if nothing had ever happened. 

The comic then is signed off with “the end… for now!” and also includes a page that directly states that “Doctor Aphra Will Return…” 

So this is absolutely not the last we’ve seen of Aphra in comics. But with Aphra and Co. being on Canto Bight raising a ruckus I do question the purpose of Aphra faking her death. As I was reading it I was expecting it to signify a fresh start for Aphra.

A reality where everyone who wanted things from her thought she was dead and therefore she could go about her business without that added pressure and without being used for a larger purpose over and over again. 

But Canto Bight isn’t some backwater outer rim planet or an unknown place in Wild Space. It’s a well-known planet that is monitored heavily. Any breathing room she earned from her ‘death’ will be gone as she’s acting as if nothing has changed. She’s still pulling jobs with largely the same people. 

I guess that this run ended for sales reasons. And that starting up a new series with a new jumping-off point for fans would ideally reinvigorate the Doctor Aphra line of comics. 

With that being said… let’s talk about what’s next.

What’s Next For Doctor Aphra?

Two days after Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #40, on January 26th, I found a new product listing on TFAW for a comic called Star Wars: Aphra Bounty Hunter #1 set to come out on May 1st, 2024. My initial thought was… 

ummm…. what is this?? pic.twitter.com/VU8YGKglLT

— drunkwooky (High Republic SZN) (@drunkwooky) January 26, 2024

I had known that we were getting more Doctor Aphra. They would not have included the stuff about Raslin Grace and Melchior Votto looking for her in both Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #40 and Star Wars: Revelations #1 2023) if that wasn’t the case. So I wasn’t shocked but I was a little surprised that it was coming so soon. 

But then Michael Siglain, Creative Director at Lucasfilm Publishing, tweeted this saying that this listing is not real:

For inquiring minds, the below is an unfortunate misprint. This book does not exist. If it did, it would’ve been announced with much more fanfare. https://t.co/rK1IUGjEKO

— Michael Siglain (@msiglain) January 26, 2024

Collectively Doctor Aphra fans lowered their heads, whispered obscenities, and thought they were fooled by a clerical error or some cruel joke. 

But I’m not buying it. 

1. First off, the listings are still up on TFAW. And TFAW doesn’t randomly put up listings for comics. Their website scrapes all of the products listed by Diamond Comic Distributors and uploads them to their online store. So this came from the distributor level. 
   
2. Also, the variants listed are not variants from any other comic. Meaning this isn’t a situation where there was a typo and this comic was accidentally copied and pasted over from previous issues. There is a “Phil Noto Master and Apprentice” variant listed and no other comics have a variant like that from Phil Noto. 
   
3. And lastly, the story clearly states she’s coming back and even has a BOUNTY HUNTER set up to hunt her. 

So even if the Star Wars: Aphra Bounty Hunter #1 listing for May 1st on TFAW is not real – something just like it is on the way regardless. 

I think that Lucasfilm and Marvel are just not ready to make the announcement quite yet, and while the title and timing may be different than above, we’ll be getting an announcement about SOMETHING within the next few weeks. 

My current guess is that the new Aphra comic will come out in June 2024. Here’s why… 

• The new 4-part Star Wars: Mace Windu (2024) comic mini-series ends in May 2024.
• Star Wars: Darth Maul – Black, White, and Red starts in April 2024
• Star Wars: Ahsoka starts in July 2024

This makes June the perfect spot in my humble opinion to kick things off and replace the slot that will open up with Mace Windu ending a few weeks earlier. 

• Maul replaces Obi-Wan Kenobi (KENOOOBII!!) that ends in March
• Aphra (a citizen) replaces Mace Windu that ends in May
• And Ahsoka replaces the Jango Fett series that ends in June

So that’s where I’m at with the future of Doctor Aphra in comics. I remain confident that we’ll see her in live action sooner rather than later but I don’t see an obvious place for her at the moment. 

But she’s a big enough character that I could see her being in a movie. Introducing her to casual audiences in Dave Filoni’s Thrawn/Ahsoka/Mandoverse/etc. Heir to the Empire movie would be a great place for her to get involved in my opinion. But that is based on nothing other than expectations that she’ll show up eventually. 

But time will tell. In the meantime just know that our favorite self-centered-bisexual-criminal-archeologist won’t be gone for long. 

For light and life my friends!

Grand Admiral Frik