Doctor Aphra — Star Wars The Black Series #87
The Black Series Doctor Aphra — Red Line #87, 2019. The rogue archaeologist from Marvel's Darth Vader and Doctor Aphra comics. Removable vest and blasters. 20 joints. The first comics-origin character in the Red Line.
Overview
Red Line #87 is Doctor Aphra — Chelli Aphra, rogue archaeologist, former Darth Vader operative, and the protagonist of Marvel Comics’ Doctor Aphra series — the first Star Wars comics character to headline her own ongoing title and one of the franchise’s most distinctive original characters of the Disney era. Aphra’s inclusion at #87 marks a significant expansion of the Black Series’ source material scope: the line had previously drawn from films, animated series, and Legends novels, but Aphra is the first comics-primary character to enter the numbered Red Line sequence.
20 joints, 3 accessories including a removable vest. Three total releases. MSRP $19.99.
The Character
Doctor Aphra first appeared in Kieron Gillen’s Darth Vader comic series (2015) as Vader’s clandestine operative — an archaeologist who combined genuine academic expertise with total moral flexibility, working for Vader because the alternative was death and staying because the work was interesting. Her personality is the specific quality that made her an immediate fan favourite: relentlessly self-interested, genuinely brilliant, incapable of leaving well enough alone, and deeply unlucky in the sense that her own cleverness consistently generates the specific disasters she then has to escape.
Her own series continued the pattern: Aphra tumbles from one impossible situation to the next, betraying and being betrayed, occasionally doing something that resembles heroism while strenuously maintaining that she isn’t heroic, and surviving through a combination of intelligence, adaptability, and the specific chaos that surrounds her.
The Doctor Aphra Comic Wave
#87 Aphra alongside #88 BT-1 and #89 0-0-0 represents the Red Line’s dedicated Doctor Aphra comics wave — three consecutive numbers covering Aphra and her two droid companions. It is the most comics-concentrated stretch in the numbered sequence and a statement that the Black Series had expanded its source material scope beyond film and animation to embrace the comics canon directly.
Accessories
Removable vest — the specific layered costume that is Aphra’s signature look. Blaster pistol — her primary weapon. 20-point dual neck articulation. The vest is the key display configuration element: vest on for the full Aphra silhouette, vest off for a different configuration option.
Three Aphra Releases
Doctor Aphra Comic Set (2019): A set release. Doctor Aphra #87 (2019) — this figure: The single-carded Red Line numbered release. Doctor Aphra (Comic) (2023): Phase 4 comic-art style update.
Secondary Market
Above-retail secondary market prices — fan-favourite comics character, first comics-primary figure in the numbered sequence, companion to BT-1 and 0-0-0. Verify the vest is present on secondary market loose purchases. No production variants documented.
Verdict
Buy for the Doctor Aphra comics display, the complete Aphra/BT-1/0-0-0 trio, or Red Line sequence completion.
Doctor Aphra’s Comics Significance
The Doctor Aphra ongoing comic series — launched in 2016 as a spin-off from the Darth Vader run that introduced her — became one of Marvel’s most sustained Star Wars titles, running for multiple volumes and continuing into the current era. Aphra’s specific appeal: she is the franchise’s first female-led Star Wars ongoing title, she is openly queer in a way that is treated as unremarkable rather than dramatic, and her stories consistently engage with the galaxy’s moral complexity from a position of self-interested pragmatism rather than heroic idealism.
Her relationship with Vader — she works for him, survives one of his rare moments of non-lethal restraint, and spends the rest of her existence trying to stay alive while remaining interesting enough that powerful people don’t decide to eliminate her — is the specific dynamic that made the original Darth Vader run memorable and launched her independent title.
The Removable Vest as Character Detail
Aphra’s layered costume — the vest over the base layer — is a practical adventurer’s configuration rather than a fashion choice. The removable vest creates the display option of the casual Aphra (vest off, more exposed) or the fully-equipped field Aphra (vest on, ready to run). For collectors who want to represent both modes, the removal capability is the specific design feature that enables it.
Her blaster pistol reflects the same practical orientation: she is not a Jedi and does not pretend to be. She has survival skills, academic credentials, and a blaster. In that order of operational preference.
Doctor Aphra at #87 opens the Red Line’s most comics-concentrated stretch and closes the sequence’s representation of the franchise’s expanded media output. The specific irony of Aphra’s Red Line slot: she is placed immediately after two animated characters (Chopper and Ezra) and immediately before two comics characters (BT-1 and 0-0-0), which accurately represents her position in the franchise — existing at the intersection of print and the broader canon. No production variants documented for the single-carded #87.
Secondary market prices hold above retail. The removable vest is the primary verification accessory — a Doctor Aphra without her vest is missing the specific costume layer that defines her silhouette. Blaster pistol should also be present. Three releases across five years confirm Hasbro’s sustained commitment to the character.
The Doctor Aphra display at #87-#89 is also the most immediately discussion-generating comics display in the line. Collectors who know the comics bring extensive context to the trio; collectors who don’t know them immediately want to know why the Dark C-3PO and the weapons astromech are standing next to the archaeologist.
Doctor Aphra’s figure at #87 also marks the beginning of the end of the Red Line sequence in terms of source material breadth. Every subsequent numbered slot through #89 is a comics character. The Red Line, which started with TFA figures in 2015, closes its numbered stretch with the most obscure-to-casual-viewer characters in its entire run — which is exactly the statement a collector-focused line should make at the end of its numbered sequence.
The line’s first comics-primary numbered character holds her own in any display context — placed alongside film and animation characters, Aphra reads as an original rather than a derivative, which is the highest compliment for a character who exists entirely in print.
Part of Star Wars The Black Series | Red Line. Related: BT-1 P3-88 | 0-0-0 P3-89 | Comics characters | Galactic Empire faction.