36 BBY: Aurra's Song

Aurra’s Song, written by Dean Motter, is the origin-story of Aurra Sing, a bounty hunter in the time of the dwindling decades of the Republic. First featured in The Phantom Menace as a bounty hunter observing the actions of a young Anakin Skywalker, Aurra’s Song begins to fill in the backstory of this enigmatic hunter. Though she made her first appearance in a Star Wars film, this particular comic is Aurra’s introduction into the annuls of Star Wars mythology (I think, she may have made an appearance in one of the flashbacks prior to this date that I skipped).


Though this comic is fairly short there are a lot of neat little elements going off in this tale that I want to talk about, aspects such as ship design, The Dark Woman, and Aurra Sing the Bounty Hunter.

Firstly, I’ve always thought that the Republic consular-class cruiser featured at the start of The Phantom Menace (a ship making an appearance in this comic) is very cool in design. There’s something about it that seems like it would make an awesome pirate vessel. Small for a capital ship and very maneuverable with its three engines in the back, it’s a ship I can see being modified and tricked out with large scale weaponry. Just as cool as the Republic cruiser is Aurra’s blockade runner featured at the end of this story. Both ships just seem really cool to me. I think after the Fairwind, my next favorite Star Wars ship is the Republic cruiser.

Though the ships featured in this time period of Star Wars are very cool, another interesting element of this story is the mention of The Dark Woman, Aurra’s “rouge Jedi” instructor. Not much is given about her except that some figure her as a myth or legend. But her tutelage of Aurra Sing demonstrates that the bounty hunter is at least trained in the Jedi arts (that and the red saber she is sporting at the beginning of this story).

According to the hutt in this narrative, (the hutt is not named) The Dark Woman sold to him Aurra as a pleasure slave. As it turned out however, Aurra’s abilities as a pleasure slave were sub-par, and not wanting to chase good money after bad, the hutt decided to have her trained as an assassin by the Anzati, a race of aliens who enjoy eating brains.

Though only mentioned briefly in this comic, at first glance The Dark Woman reminds me of Kreia from the KOTOR 2 video game. I wonder if she’s as morally relativistic or as borderline nihilist as Kreia was. If her name is anything to go by, the fact that Aurra Sing is trained in the Jedi arts as an assassin seems to indicate that The Dark Woman is probably a dark Jedi. As it is, I’m looking forward to finding out more about her as I continue through the story of Star Wars.

Not only am I looking forward to uncovering in depth who The Dark Woman is, but I am also looking forward to learning about Aurra Sing. Since her appearances in The Phantom Menace, and now in The Clone Wars, she has been a bounty hunter that has been on my radar for a while. We have yet to see her handle a lightsaber in The Clone Wars, and as far as bounty hunters goes, she seems as ruthless and as dangerous as Cad Bane.

For my next post I’m going to head to the last entry of 34 BBY, the hyperspace short story Monster, and pass over the flashback entries of Jedi Quest and Jango Fett, and deal with them at their proper dates. Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.