We learn a bit more about Black Krrsantan’s history in the first “Star Wars: Doctor Aphra” annual. Also, we talk about the confusion of publication dates and decisions.
Cover by David NakayamaWritten by Kieron Gillen
Illustrated by Marc Laming and Will Sliney
Colored by Jordan Boyd
Lettered by VC’s Joe CaramangaDoctor Aphra has a troubled past full of parental drama and war. But what about her Wookiee shadow, Black Krrsantan? Find out just how this Wookiee warrior is as frightening as they say…and then some!
Publication decisions are an interesting thing, and sometimes dizzying. According to the solicit text for ‘The Enormous Profit,’ the collected trade for the second arc of “Star Wars: Doctor Aphra,” the collection was to include issues #9-13, plus the first Annual. Looking at that listing, one would expect the Annual to be listed at the very end of the book. And indeed, there is a title page for the Annual in the digital copy I obtained from comiXology Unlimited that at the end . . . but no Annual at all. Nor is it sandwiched in between issues #11 and #12 of the series, if we are reading in order of release date.
If I only had been reading this series in trade via comiXology Unlimited, I would have not been happy. Fortunately, the Annual is also available that way, so I would not have been paying extra for an issue that should have been there.
The location of where this Annual appeared in the trade was something that intrigued me last week, particularly when you look at the solicit, promising us a backstory for the menacing Black Krrsantan. In the trade (if it was there) this was positioned right after issue #13, which had that final scene showing Black Krrsantan getting ready to enact some revenge on his former captors. As a single issue, this would have dropped in between issues #11 and #12, where there are some hints as to the nature of the relationship between Xonti brothers and Aphra’s Wookie, but it’s an almost throwaway piece of dialogue that I missed the first time around.
For story flow, the trade positioning makes the most sense. The end of issue #13 leads right into the flashback of the opening pages of the Annual in the forests of Kashyyyk. The reader has an tension-filled hook, seeing that the captured is preparing to turn on the captors. What could he have in mind? What led to this moment?
But this publication positioning is all another complicated wrinkle in what ends up being a complicated story. Indeed, the history of Black Krrsantan and the Xonti Brothers is in the spotlight, expanding on what we saw at the end of issue #13: the Brothers captured the Wookie on Kashyyyk for sport and profit. Rather than bring him in to make a new throw rug, the Brothers decide to make him into the ultimate fighter.
This on its own, while cliched and predictable (the same thing my colleague Jake said when he reviewed this annual in 2017) is a decently executed story. It’s when the issue flashes between past and present, using an Aphra heist as a frame around this flashback story, that the issue falters. The connection between the two stories is a fragile one: Krrsantan spends some time with reporters sharing his story as a distraction while Aphra does whatever she needs to do. The reporters themselves make for a good framing device, but throwing Aphra in weakens the entire structure further. This is a small annual (33 pages), and there’s a lot going on. Jumping from past to present with this secondary plot interrupts the flow and dilutes the emotional resonance we’re expected to feel over Krrsantan’s tale. That said, it does all wrap up rather well without any dangling plot point, so Kieron Gillen does know how to structure a story for page count well. I just wish he stuck with the singular focus on Krrsantan and didn’t feel the need to shoehorn in Aphra just because her name is on the title.
We have a new illustrator and colorist on this Annual, and they do well within the Marvel Star Wars house style. There’s a fine attention to detail on Black Krrsantan that makes him look every bit haggard on his first meeting in the Kashyyyk forest and rugged but menacing in the arena. As I look at action scenes, though, they look stilted, like we’re looking at a photograph or a moment. There’s few if any action or motion lines, hardly any fluidity of movement. The follow through to make that action jump off the page is missing. There’s an aspect of this that makes sense when considering we’re hearing this story in flashback, vignettes of a story. But vignettes are not always still pictures.
Continued belowMost confusing in art is the approach to Aphra. One thing to note is that throughout this series, Aphra always has a slight Asian appearance. In the ongoing series, there’s a younger rough-around-the edges look to her. This is a woman who has her hands in literal and metaphorical dirt.
But here in the Annual, her face is smoother, with more conventional and Western-influenced look. Less action hero, more beauty pageant contestant. (When did she have time in all this to get a facial?) The skin tone is also lighter, a disturbing change. Skin lightening, in spite of its health risks, remains in high demand throughout Asia. That’s a very problematic message.
The script didn’t know what really do with Aphra in this story, and the art doesn’t seem to do so either.
So why did Black Krrsantan turn on the Brothers? It wasn’t out of anger for capture and forced combat. It was just simply paying back a debt. They changed him, now he must return the debt by changing their lives in a similar way.
That’s anger that simmers cold. It’s calculating anger, not driven solely by emotion, but by logic. An eye for an eye, as the old saying goes. And that’s far more evil than the bursting rage that bubbles up to the surface.
There are eerie moments when what you’re reading from the past manages to mirror the world at large in the present. And in the light of much despair this week, be it rising COVID-19 cases, government suppression of key COVID-19 data to further their own political agenda, a reminder that the Notorious R.B.G. is still mortal, or even the sudden passing of Mythbusters co-host (and official R2-D2 operator) Grant Imahara, you can find light in the darkest moments.
And this moment from nearly three years ago provides a flicker in a very desolate tunnel.
Nothing lasts forever, even cold November rain, as the song goes.
Next week we start the third arc, ‘Remastered,’ with a look at issues #14-16.
If you want to read along with me this summer, you can pick up the single issues or trades of “Star Wars: Doctor Aphra” at your local comic shop (be sure to social distance, wash your hands, and wear a mask, or even better, order your comics online for curbside pickup or delivery!), or digitally via Comixology Unlimited or Marvel Unlimited. As of this writing, all 40 issues of the series are available on Marvel Unlimited, and issues #1-25, and #28 (along with volumes 1 – 4) are available via Comixology Unlimited.
