7 Interesting Worlds From The 2015/2016 Marvel 'Star Wars' Comic Series
Image Source: CultureSlate
Star Wars is full of incredible planets and moons, of various significance, be it to certain characters, eras of galactic history, or to people out of universe who just find them interesting! Today, CultureSlate will be taking a look at some of these interesting places found in the main comic runs of 2015 and 2016, meaning Star Wars (2015), Darth Vader (2015), and Doctor Aphra (2016). Some of these planets also crossed over between the series and were shown at different times or had different aspects highlighted over time. But all of them are united by some special fact, story, or character that rose to prominence there.
7. Arbiflux
Image Source: Wookieepedia
A world of minimal galactic importance, Arbiflux instead holds a great deal of significance to Doctor Aphra and perfectly encapsulates the evils of the Empire. Arbiflux was where Chelli Aphra’s mother, Lona, took her daughter after she left Korin, Chelli’s father. Their lives were not easy, and Chelli disliked the frontier lifestyle, but her mother insisted. However, elsewhere in the star system, plots were afoot. Arbiflux was not under Imperial control, and so hostile raiders attacked the surface. However, their presence was secretly allowed as part of a plan organized by Minister Pitina Voor to justify Imperial expansion and to show the evils that threatened Imperial peace and security.
The cost for this deal to succeed? Some meagre lives…like that of Lona. She died, urging her daughter to run, with the Empire swooping in too late to save the woman’s life. Aphra later returned to her old home with the orphaned girl Vulaada while trying to hide out, though this failed, and she was put on the run once again. The world’s safety was ultimately a mere pawn in the games of an ambitious woman seeking power, and the cost was the lives of those who looked up to the Empire as a protector. The events on Arbiflux also helped shape Dr. Aphra into who she became.
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6. Son-tuul
Image Source: Wookieepedia
Son-tuul is one of the worlds on this list to cross over between the various comic runs being discussed today. An arboreal world with densely inhabited regions, it was also the base of a powerful criminal syndicate, the Pride, which had considerable sway in the galaxy before A New Hope. However, events would repeatedly damage their reputation in the following years, even seeing them controlled by the sociopathic murder-droid 0-0-0 for a time. But after Magna Tolvan led Imperial forces in a raid on the Son-tuul Pride, the Rodian-dominated organization was freed from 0-0-0’s control.
They remained a notable galactic presence for some time after, and were even invited to Qi’ra’s auction for the carbonite-frozen Han Solo. But returning focus to their homeworld, Son-tuul sounds like many other worlds in the Star Wars galaxy, full of criminals and their activities, but likely also a non-criminal side that tries to keep out of such affairs. Tatooine is a good example of a world like this, and one can hope that this tree-coated planet gets some deeper exploration someday.
5. Cymoon 1
Image Source: Wookieepedia
The first location visited in Star Wars (2015), the moon is emblematic of the Empire’s evils. A trash planet covered in junk, it was nevertheless an Imperial world that had considerable industry operating on its surface. Likely recycling and scrapping the discarded parts that covered the terrain to help build brand new Imperial war machines at Weapons Factory Alpha, the Empire claimed everything was state-of-the-art and automated. This was a lie, as when the Rebel heroes infiltrated the facility, Luke discovered that the factories made use of slave labor.
The slaves were quickly freed by Luke, and the heroes successfully escaped after sabotaging the facilities, putting a dent in the Empire’s production capabilities. This plot detail, of supposedly machine-based activities actually being done by individuals who are barely scraping by, sure hits harder today with events like the collapse of Builder.ai and similar real-world companies. Cymoon 1 also seems to draw inspiration from the work camps of Nazi Germany, where incarcerated populations were kept as slaves and forced to work, often to the death. It would be interesting to revisit Cymoon 1 in the New Republic era, and see what has been done to reform the facilities on the moon’s surface or what memorials or museums might exist to preserve the memory of such horrors.
4. Vrogas Vas
Image Source: Wookieepedia
A new location, when initially introduced in the Vader Down crossover event, Vrogas Vas was gradually revealed to have once held a Jedi Temple. The High Republic mentioned some of the last Jedi activity on the world, when an ancient transmitter was transferred from the world to the Republic Fair. But by the time of the Skywalker Saga, the only remnants of the Jedi were the ruins of said Jedi Temple, which held a link to the Force. The Rebel Alliance had built a well-staffed base on the arid world’s surface, but then Darth Vader arrived, and the base’s troop complement was devastated alongside its airwing.
The subsequent battle left a number of Imperials dead as well when one of Vader’s replacements proposed by the brilliant Dr. Cylo arrived seeking to finish the Sith Lord off, only to be defeated himself. Vrogas Vas was ultimately abandoned by the Rebels, and the world has not been explored further in the Star Wars timeline. An exploration of Vrogas Vas’ history of the Jedi will hopefully come one day soon, but for now, it remains the site of one of the most well-remembered crossovers of Star Wars comics history.
3. Shu-Toran
Image Source: Wookieepedia
Shu-Toran was an incredibly unique planet. Covered in magma and theoretically uninhabitable, ancient redoubtable miners came to the world and crafted impressive structures and machines to help them delve into Shu-Toran’s depths. Extracting the world’s minerals created a wealthy elite with a sophisticated culture, with complex and murderous politics gripping this upper crust of society. By the era of the Galactic Empire, the tithes demanded of the planet led them to plot the murder of a specific Imperial envoy: Darth Vader. Of course, this effort failed, and the royal family was reduced to a single member who became Queen Trios. Joining with Vader to quell a rebellion against her reign, Trios later became a supposed ally of the Rebel Alliance while really working with Vader in secret.
Her deception was eventually revealed, and Leia Organa decided to target Trios’ homeworld to put a major Imperial ally out of commission. Hers was a mission of payback, which ruined the great works of industry Shu-Toran had built for processing and manufacturing, but at a minimal loss of life. Trios did die during this operation, but in the end, the world’s industrial capacity was neutralized. Shu-Toran’s fate after this point is unclear, and exploring the consequences of Leia’s actions years later, or delving further back into Shu-Toran history, would surely give an already thoroughly explored location yet more depth.
2. Milvayne
Image Source: Wookieepedia
Milvayne is an ecumenopolis like Coruscant, but is unique for its citizens’ obsessions with law and order. However, this obsession was to the detriment of the common citizen, as any flaw, any mistake, could see extremely harsh punishment, akin to the world of Judge Dredd. Milvayne was used as an example of an ideal world by the Ministry of Propaganda under the Galactic Empire due to its focus on law and order. However, in a matter of hours, Doctor Aphra changed things. When she and the murderous 0-0-0 were linked together by a pair of bombs that would go off if they got too far away from each other, their ensuing mad dash across Milvayne was broadcast to the planet’s inhabitants by the man responsible, Dr. Evazan.
Over the hours of seeing Aphra’s struggles, the lives of those in the undercity, and much more, the population gradually came to despise the Empire. In a dramatic moment of the broadcast, the usually selfish Aphra threw herself in front of an Imperial blaster bolt to save another, triggering angry protests and a rejection of the status quo. The Empire soon locked the planet down tight, but Milvayne still stands as a place where Dr. Aphra made a difference for the better, even if it was completely unintended. Revisiting Milvayne after the fall of the Empire would be fascinating to see if Aphra’s role as martyr has helped sustain a positive change, or if the whole event is sadly just a small incident on an otherwise spotless planetary record.
1. Bar’leth
Image Source: Wookieepedia
A world that has grown to great significance in Star Wars over the years, Bar’leth was originally introduced as the world from which Doctor Aphra acquired her degree. Throughout the events of the 2015 Vader comic, we were given some background on Aphra’s time at the University of Bar’leth, but later years have given us a great deal more. For instance, the world was a key site for the Ascendant, a technology-focused cult that became the enemies of the Sith.
Bar’leth was also the target of the Rebel Alliance when they attacked and destroyed significant military hardware on display during an Empire Day parade, signalling their continued existence to a galaxy that believed they had been wiped out. We unfortunately know little about the planet itself or who inhabits it, but its University has certainly given Star Wars fans plenty of interesting characters. Hopefully, like many other examples on this list, Bar’leth continues to see expansion in future years.
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Source(s): Vader Down, Aphra (2016) Volume 3 + Volume 5 + Volume 6, Star Wars (2015) Volume 1, Darth Vader (2015)
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