Star Wars: Doctor Aphra – Fortune and Fate

Writer- Alyssa Wong

Artist – Marika Cresta

Doctor Aphra, now an enemy of the Empire, must avoid those trying to collect the bounty on her head while making a living selling hard to find artifacts and long-lost treasures to the highest bidder. Her and her crew have an opportunity tracking down the Rings of Vaale, jewelry that can give its wearer eternal life and immense fortune and power. The job sounds like a piece of cake until stories about the cursed planet Dianth start to make Aphra and company rethink their job. They aren’t the only ones looking for the rings. Ronen Tagge wants them for his collection and he won’t let Aphra beat him to the punch.

When the Star Wars license went back to Marvel Comics, Doctor Aphra became the breakout star of Darth Vader and ended up getting a spinoff series of her very own. I never read the first volume of her series and wanted to rectify that immediately, so I borrowed the first volume of her second series from my local library.

The best part of the Stars Wars Expanded universe of stories is visiting corners of the galaxy that haven’t been explored yet and the debut of new characters and their interactions with old and beloved ones.

Fortune and Fate is your typical heist story with a dose of sci-fi action and plenty of backstabbing and betrayal. There could be a third and fourth F added to the title and that would be fears and frights. As Doctor Aphra and her crew land on Dianth, they find a planet completely devoid of life. What happened to the inhabitants of this world and can the things that the group see and hear possibly be true or is it just a figment of their imaginations? When a group of mercenaries in the employ of Tagge reach the planet, Aphra and company must try to flush out a spy in their midst. Can they find out who it is before its too late and who will be the sole owner of the Rings of Vaale?

There’s only one way to find out all the answers to these questions, so strap in and get ready to blast off for another high-flying adventure featuring everyone’s favorite rogue archaeologist.