Star Trek #1

The Ronin here,

I am a huge Star Trek fan. I love it all, even some of Voyager. I also loved the 2009 movie. It was not flawless by any means but it was great fun. It brought tons of new viewers in as well, something that is never bad. IDW has the license to produce “Star Trek” comics and damnit they are going to use it.

Trek is an interesting property, because there is tons of crossover appeal between people already in comic shops and people who like Star Trek.

That means this cover, and this issue has a really easy job to do. Put Star Trek on the cover and put it out there, if people want to pick up some trek they will get it. Easy enough. This is a first issue and starts a new journey appropriately enough. The cover is pretty simple, well actually there were a bunch of covers all of them do a good job tying this issue into the 2009 movie.

We know the characters already except two 'new' characters that we are introduced to as academy friends of Kirk's. IDW is also fortunate in that Star Trek contains a built in exposition machine: the Captain's logs. Although in this case it is the Chief Engineer's logs and they are used to inform us the position and status of the ship.

Basically she was put out on an exploration mission shortly after the end of the 2009 movie and has a lot of repairs to make inflight. Scotty is less then pleased by this. 

Scotty should of upgraded his iPod years ago.

Old fans will feel a sense of deja vu as the plot unfolds, as this is literally an update of the original official pilot “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. (not to be confused with the original un-aired pilot my trekkers.) And that is really my issue with this. I opened it up expecting to see new adventures of the crew and I got what was basically a rerun. 

Things are a little different mind you and circumstances are changed a bit. None the less this follows “Where No Man Has Gone Before” very closely. Newer Trek fans who have only ever seen the later series, or who were introduced to the series by the reboot will be in a for a nice surprise though.

Gary worked hard in the academy and busted his butt, so hes probably not bitter or anything about Kirks promotion.

The issue ends on a pretty good cliff hanger, but again as a long time fan I am more curious about where the next issue will differ from the original episode. I am hoping they will pull a “Rebuild of Evangelion” on us and have the second issue go totally off the rails. Newer fans might find the cliff hanger good on its own.

Our five year mission: To find out just what the hell that purple stuff is.

Aside from that it is a good first act for the opening story line and the art is very pleasing. The panels and situations really feel like an episode of Trek, and the dialogue that comes out sounds like the versions of characters we were introduced to in the movie. Also Gary Mitchell looks really cool and creepy near the end. You get the real feeling that this is one dangerous and unhinged man. Something that the medium really excels out when the art is right. And the art is right.

Although one misstep was there were very few amusing Spock-McCoy interactions, which is obviously always a fun draw.  Hopefully next issue will bring us some. Like I said, I feel a little uneasy on this, only because it feels like I paid 3 bucks to see a rerun, but I will be getting the next few issues to see how things unfold and for the art. And let's face it, original trek reruns are still one of the best things on TV. New fan or old, give Star Trek a try.

And comic, I order you to surprise us next issue!

Hmm, that can't be good

 All-Losers Squad where run-on sentences are practically a requirement.