Villordsutch reviews Star Trek #29…
“The all-new Five Year Mission of the Enterprise continues as Captain Jane Tiberius Kirk and her crew encounter a never-before-seen enemy in deep space! Wait… Jane Kirk? What’s going on?!”
I love my Star Trek. People who know me from long ago will recall how much love I had – so much so I didn’t have a girlfriend until I was 18. I didn’t need one as I had a shrine in my bedroom to worship Trek and at the head of the shrine was a signed picture of Riker (which I still have). That being said I did have one hate nesting in my Trek Love – not Wesley Crusher, I’m talking The Animated Series. It was dire with poor stories and even worse animation. To me, it was a mockery of everything I held dear. There was nothing on my shrine dedicated to the Animated Series.
Now issue #29 of Star Trek (Parallel Lives – Part 1) reeks of the Animated Series. It’s steeped in everything I despised from The Animated Series with its rather empty story and in this issue we have an awful gimmick that if it wasn’t for the fact I’m reviewing this comic I wouldn’t have entertained it whatsoever. I find it difficult to believe that Mike Johnson didn’t write this just too really wind up the Trek fans who shell out their hard earned cash evey month for this comic; what’s rather upsetting is that I’ve read previous stories by Mike Johnson and he can spin a good yarn so this to me just screams lazy.
To quickly fill you in on what has made me rather miffed at all of this is the fact that in this Trek universe all the male gender roles are now occupied by females roles and vice versa e.g. James Kirk is now Jane Kirk and Nyota Uhuru is now Nnamdi Uhuro and even Khan is XX not XY. However, this entire universe has followed the same story as we’ve seen since the reboot film with Nero popping through and this throws up and number of things. This isn’t a woman hating rant but rather is a lazy story rant. Another example which irks me is Kirk’s (Jane) mother piloted the Kelvin into Nero’s vessel; my brain can’t allow this as only six years back did we not witness Kirk’s (James) mother in the throes of labour at that time-line changing crash? This comic is purely designed to bait Trekkies and it’s doing a damned fine job here.
Before I explode with frustration at this story I’d like to say that Yasmin Lang’s art is okay to look at but occasionally the continuity between faces and the lack of features on the characters ‘faces makes it all a wee bit samey to look at. However, the cover however to this issue is rather excellent and I’d like to see more of that art within Star Trek comics.
If you’re not an avid collector you’re lucky this month – go and give another IDW title a chance. However, if you are an avid collector you have my sympathies.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
Originally published January 28, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
