Doctor Aphra #5: Tagge, You’re It.

Her team is broken. Her sought after treasures are stolen. She is in shackles. Her doomed sealed, yet this issue starts out with her smiling. She even compliments Tagge on the antiquity he has on display. That smile only widens into an ecstatic grin over the course of this one. This is the Columbo moment. The “oh there’s just this one more thing,” moment. This is the point were, despite being physically restrained, she begins to orchestrate her entire on-the-fly plot to escape death once again. This is all apparent in that first smile in the very first panel.

This chapter pretty much has is all; explosions, tables tuned, riches won, old enemies dealt with, and new ones gained. Building up to a new arc, this issue ties up a ton of loss ends. The creative team here put a lot of extra effort onto each page on this entry it seems. Great art and fluid action, as well as clever dialog are showcased as well. More importantly it gives a lot of closure for the group of treasure hunting heroes. It is a satisfying end, leaving Aphra’s core group stronger for the mission’s ahead. This needed to be accomplished quickly and efficiently, and the team accomplished that in spades. It was well-rounded to say the least.

Clearly this is a story progression issue, and an effective one at that, but there is a fantastic undercurrent of references that the hardcore Star Wars comic fan will undoubtedly have picked up already and wildly expanded upon in this issue. The villain in this arc has been Ronen Tagge, of the long time famous aristocratic Tagge family. The Tagges have been present in Star Wars from the very beginning. Not only does the issue name drop Cassio Tagge, who was Force choked on screen by Vader during a staff meeting in the original Star wars film, but it also mentions Domina Tagge. She was a character from the original run of Star Wars comics starting before the release of the very first film. Cassio has been long dead since by the time of this series, but Domina being made canon again by metion opens her up to full usage. Marvel, and IDW to an even larger degree, have show a large urge to return to fan favorite characters from older Star wars comics, and the galaxy has been better because of it. This seems in line with that.