Star Wars Black Series Doctor Aphra
Every Star Wars Black Series Doctor Aphra figure — the comics-original archaeologist who became one of Marvel Star Wars' most significant characters. Three releases from Red Line to 50th Anniversary, with the definitive Photo Real version explained.
Doctor Aphra is the Black Series’ most significant comics-original character — a creation of the Marvel Star Wars publishing era whose ongoing series made her the first comics-original character to receive a dedicated Star Wars comic since the old Expanded Universe, and whose three Black Series figures cover both the earlier Red Line treatment and the definitive 50th Anniversary Photo Real version. She represents the publishing side of the line’s commitment to the expanded universe, and her inclusion is one of the Black Series’ more meaningful statements about what counts as real Star Wars.
Doctor Aphra in Star Wars
Doctor Chelli Aphra is human — an archaeologist who specialises in ancient weapons systems, introduced in Kieron Gillen’s 2015 Darth Vader Marvel comic series as an amoral mercenary academic who becomes entangled with Vader after her expertise in forbidden droid technology proves useful to him. She’s been described as a dark mirror of Han Solo: the roguish adventurer archetype without the hidden heroism, someone who genuinely operates on self-interest and situational ethics rather than using pragmatism as cover for something more principled.
Her companions are BT-1 — a homicidal astromech designed to appear harmless while concealing weapons capable of destroying starships — and 0-0-0 Triple Zero, a protocol droid fluent in all torture and interrogation methods who speaks with cheerful politeness about violence. The trio gives the Aphra comics their specific dark comedy register: archaeology and ancient weapons and the kind of droid companionship that R2-D2 and C-3PO explicitly aren’t.
The Darth Vader comic established her as someone who survives through a combination of genuine expertise, calculated deception, and an accurate read of what powerful people want to hear. Her survival instinct is the character’s most consistent trait — she’s been in situations she shouldn’t have survived multiple times and has always found a way through, usually by sacrificing someone else’s interests while maintaining the appearance of loyalty until the last possible moment.
Her own ongoing series expanded her into Star Wars publishing’s most distinctive ongoing character outside the film casts. The lesbian romance arc with Sana Starros, the archaeological expeditions into genuinely dangerous Sith-adjacent territory, the complicated relationship with her parents and their Imperial collaboration — the Aphra comics are more tonally adventurous than most Star Wars comics and use her morality as a lens for examining the galaxy’s compromises more honestly than hero-protagonist stories can.
The Black Series’ decision to produce her — first in 2019, then definitively in 2023 — is the line’s acknowledgement that the publishing universe’s characters matter beyond the screen. She was among the most requested figures for years before her initial release, which itself says something about what the Black Series collector community reads.
The 2019 Figures
The Red Line Doctor Aphra from 2019 is the original Black Series treatment — standard figure and the Entertainment Earth exclusive Comic Set, both released simultaneously. The Comic Set packages Aphra with additional comic-specific accessories and packaging context, making it the more collector-complete option of the two early releases. Both are pre-Photo Real, with the face printing limitations of the 2019 Red Line era.
The 2019 figures broke ground by existing at all. Producing a comics-original character in a line primarily driven by film and television demand was a statement that the Black Series takes the publishing universe seriously, and collector response confirmed the demand had been real and sustained.
The 50th Anniversary Figure
The Doctor Aphra (Comic) 50th Anniversary release from 2023 is the definitive version — Photo Real face printing at the production quality of the Galaxy Collection era, the 50th Anniversary packaging that places her in the context of the franchise’s publishing history, and the figure that renders the 2019 releases largely redundant for display purposes. This is the Aphra collectors were waiting for from the moment the character was announced.
The Photo Real improvement for a comics character is more nuanced than for film characters — there’s no actor’s likeness to replicate, which means the face printing is working from the comic book design rather than photography. The improvement over the 2019 figures is in the precision and depth of the printing rather than the accuracy to a specific human face.
BT-1 and 0-0-0
Both of Aphra’s droid companions received Black Series figures — BT-1 and 0-0-0 Triple Zero are part of the comics release programme from the same era. For collectors building the Expanded Universe Display, all three figures together create the specific Aphra aesthetic that no individual figure can communicate alone. The trio is the display; the character without her companions is incomplete in the way that the Aphra comics would be without theirs.
Doctor Aphra and the Expanded Universe Display
Aphra is one of only a handful of Black Series characters who exists entirely outside screen media — no film appearance, no television episode, nothing beyond the comics and audio drama. Her three figures in the line sit alongside Jaxxon, Prince Xizor, Kyle Katarn, and the other publishing-universe inclusions as statements about the breadth of what the Black Series considers worth producing.
That breadth matters. The Black Series at its most interesting isn’t just a film merchandise programme. It’s a catalogue of Star Wars as a complete fictional universe — the screen productions and the comics and the games and the audio dramas. Aphra’s presence in the line is the clearest statement of that ambition. She’s here because she’s significant, because collectors asked for her, and because the Black Series is large enough to accommodate characters whose entire existence is ink and paper.
All Doctor Aphra Figures in the Black Series
Check off the figures you own with the Black Series Checklist.
Part of Star Wars The Black Series | Characters. Related: Human | Expanded Universe Display | 0-0-0 Triple Zero | BT-1.