Recommendation requested: Doctor Aphra

[Captain Comics]

Legionnaires:

Marvel is offering a Doctor Aphra Omnibus. I didn't know there was that much material available for the character. Perhaps a lot of it is Dark Horse. Anyway, I've never read anything with Doctor Aphra in it, and I'm wondering if I'd be interested -- but I'm not willing to spend $100 to find out. I want a sure thing!

So what do you say Star Warriors? Is Doctor Aphra fun and/or interesting? Should I take the plunge?

[Jeff of Earth-J]

When Marvel got the Star Wars license back, I bought the first six issues of the main series, the first two of Darth Vader, the Princess Leia limited series and the C-3PO one-shot (which explained the "red arm"). I think Dr. Aphra was set to be introduced in Darth Vader #3, so I happened to stop one short. I liked the first six issues Star Wars, but I really didn't want to collect anything else. I can't answer your question, cap, but I was hoping tp piggyback on it about the main series. If you (or anyone else) can tell me anuthing about that, I'd appreciate it. \

I've been liquidating comics and have about $600 worth of store credit built up. I don't like to use it on pre-orders because if I use store credit I forgo my discount (Cash is King!), but I've had my eye on that Star Wars omnibus. Worth it? 

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

I felt and disturbance in the Force...well, actually a small hologram of the Baron was sent to me via this droid that I don't quite remember ever owning...

Doctor Aphra was the first really new Star Wars character created after the saga moved back to Marvel. She's a rogue archeologist...really a combination of Harrison Ford characters...only her moral compass, especially early on in her Vader days, tended toward more self-interest. She was saddled with murderous version of C-3PO and R2 in Vader...just nasty guys. She also has connections to Sana Starros, who was once sorta-married to Han Solo as part of a bigger scam. Anyway, she's a fun character who runs with the seedier crews of the Star Wars universe, finds ways out of scrapes the take down lesser beings, and isn't bogged down with a lot of Force or Jedi/Sith mythology. Is it worth $100? I would say that you'd get your entertainment value out of it. 

[Captain Comics]

I actually don't have any Star Wars on my bookshelf (although I've got a ton of floppies), so maybe this is where I start. Thanks, guys!

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

If you're buying a Star Wars Omnibus, I would humbly suggest thinking about getting the Darth Vader one. I just think it was better written during those first few years than the the main title was. In fact, I think I like the writers on the main title that came after Aaron (Gillen and Soule) better.

Jeff of Earth-J said:

When Marvel got the Star Wars license back, I bought the first six issues of the main series, the first two of Darth Vader, the Princess Leia limited series and the C-3PO one-shot (which explained the "red arm"). I think Dr. Aphra was set to be introduced in Darth Vader #3, so I happened to stop one short. I liked the first six issues Star Wars, but I really didn't want to collect anything else. I can't answer your question, cap, but I was hoping tp piggyback on it about the main series. If you (or anyone else) can tell me anuthing about that, I'd appreciate it. \

I've been liquidating comics and have about $600 worth of store credit built up. I don't like to use it on pre-orders because if I use store credit I forgo my discount (Cash is King!), but I've had my eye on that Star Wars omnibus. Worth it? 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Thanks, Bill!

You should drop in more often.

Holly, too.

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

Thanks, dude. I almost forgot. If you can still find it, the Marvel UK Star Wars Omnibus is AMAZING. Alan Moore and Walt Simonson and Archie Goodwin doing Star Wars stories in the 70s that weren't seen in the US. PLUS tons of Marvel UK Star Wars fan magazine reprints in it! 

Jeff of Earth-J said:

Thanks, Bill!

You should drop in more often.

Holly, too.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I'm unfamiliar with that Marvel UK omnibus, but my LCS is pretty well-stocked. A couple of years ago, I bought the whole set of tpbs (new, on clearance) collecting the original Marvel series at Half Price Books for some ridiculously low price. Those are corny, but I've come to appreciate them (turned my nose up at them when they were being published). The last time I was in a "Star Wars" mood, I read the first (of three) IDW volumes collecting the newspaper strips. Next time I'm in that mood, I'll probably pick up where I left off. Regarding the omnibuses, I'll probably re-read the six Star Wars and two Darth Vader I have before I pull the trigger.

[Richard Willis]

Doc Beechler (mod-MD) said:

She's a rogue archeologist...

Like the students who thought they wanted to be CSIs, I think students who think they want to be archeologists might be disappointed by what archeologists actually do.

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

Medical shows never spend entire episodes on charting or report writing, either. 

Richard Willis said:

Doc Beechler (mod-MD) said:

She's a rogue archeologist...

Like the students who thought they wanted to be CSIs, I think students who think they want to be archeologists might be disappointed by what archeologists actually do.

[Captain Comics]

Wait, WHAT? I was just asking about something coming up in the current solicits, but there's cool stuff from BEFORE? I mean, I knew DH had been doing it for ages, but I thought I had to wait for Marvel to reprint it. Where do I get these tomes, Doc?

[Captain Comics]

Doc Beechler (mod-MD) said:

Medical shows never spend entire episodes on charting or report writing, either. 

Richard Willis said:

Doc Beechler (mod-MD) said:

She's a rogue archeologist...

Like the students who thought they wanted to be CSIs, I think students who think they want to be archeologists might be disappointed by what archeologists actually do.

My brother (a doctor) and my other brother (also a doctor) laugh about some show, I dunno, ER? Where in the credits sequence the doctors all race up to the roof to receive a patient from a helicopter. They both point out that A) modern medicine isn't M*A*S*H and B) you're not sterile on the damn roof and C) you would be fired if you did that, because you would be violating so many hospital rules, insurance rules and federal rules that you have no business being a doctor.

I feel that way to a lesser extent about journalism, but only because journalism isn't a life-or-death thing. But the misrepresentation is of the same magnitude. What you see on TV isn't what journalists do. At all.

Even on a recent show like Superman & Lois, the titular journalist writes what we in the business call "editorials" but on the show are "news articles." If Lois is writing the sort of articles we see, she should have been sacked long ago.

The crusading reporters we see on TV and in movies are, by and large, the sort of people who wash out of journalism on Day One. And they don't exist in the real world, except in the non-news arena of cable "news," which, again, is opinion, not news.

And you don't see any lefties there, do you? The only Lois Lane I can find is Rachel Maddow and, again, Not news. Just opinion.

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

It seems like the writers at Politico kind of straddle that line. And the articles labeled as “new analysis” on the front page of The NY Times have a more crusading focus...or it seems to me.

Captain Comics said:

Doc Beechler (mod-MD) said:

Medical shows never spend entire episodes on charting or report writing, either. 

Richard Willis said:

Doc Beechler (mod-MD) said:

She's a rogue archeologist...

Like the students who thought they wanted to be CSIs, I think students who think they want to be archeologists might be disappointed by what archeologists actually do.

My brother (a doctor) and my other brother (also a doctor) laugh about some show, I dunno, ER? Where in the credits sequence the doctors all race up to the roof to receive a patient from a helicopter. They both point out that A) modern medicine isn't M*A*S*H and B) you're not sterile on the damn roof and C) you would be fired if you did that, because you would be violating so many hospital rules, insurance rules and federal rules that you have no business being a doctor.

I feel that way to a lesser extent about journalism, but only because journalism isn't a life-or-death thing. But the misrepresentation is of the same magnitude. What you see on TV isn't what journalists do. At all.

Even on a recent show like Superman & Lois, the titular journalist writes what we in the business call "editorials" but on the show are "news articles." If Lois is writing the sort of articles we see, she should have been sacked long ago.

The crusading reporters we see on TV and in movies are, by and large, the sort of people who wash out of journalism on Day One. And they don't exist in the real world, except in the non-news arena of cable "news," which, again, is opinion, not news.

And you don't see any lefties there, do you? The only Lois Lane I can find is Rachel Maddow and, again, Not news. Just opinion.