Villordsutch reviews Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness #3…
“The lead up to this Spring’s Star Trek Into Darkness continues here, in this official prequel mini-series overseen by writer/producer Roberto Orci. Captain Kirk and his crew will face an all-new adversary that threatens the future of the entire Federation. Don’t miss this exclusive all-new story that sets the stage for the upcoming blockbuster movie!“
I enjoy a good Trek comic. I always did, through my younger boy days to mid-twenties, then that faded for car insurance and mortgage payments. A few years back I bought, on my Kindle, the four comic release “Countdown” to tie in for the first Trek movie. That just limped along at the “Okay Level” but didn’t really entertain or keep me wanting more. The four issue series was dragged out with little to no action in the panels and I filed it under “Not Overly Impressed”.
Four years on and #3 of Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness, from IDW, arrives on my Nexus 7 and I am :-
1) Eager to get reading as this is a Trek comic.
2) Apprehensive as Mike Johnson is co-author for this Trek comic like last time (the other author being Roberto Orci).
3) Entering a story at #3 is never a really good place to begin in a four part mini-series, but I have to start somewhere.
The first thing I noticed was the art of David Messina. Everything is clean and crisp, nothing blurs together and all characters are separated from the locations by bold black lines, all very clinical and sterile. The faces, initially, are featureless too with no worry lines or subtle shading. Then out of the blue details appear and take you by surprise. You wonder ‘How did I miss that?’- for example Sulus Federation issue socks and Mudd’s Bajorian nose ridges. On the bridge the J.J. Abrams lens flare suddenly appears. Six pages in on the re-read and I’m in love with the artwork and colours. Yes the characters’ face definition begins to lose shape in certain panels, but that is few and far between.
Now we fall to the story. As my three points made above show there is a bit of trepidation when it comes to this. Entering into any series at its penultimate issue I should be shrugging my shoulders and wondering ‘WTHIAGOH!?’* but I do not, not at all. The writers have made it easy to drop in, even this late on, and get taken along with the story. Through the pages it throws the odd subtle recap panel or speech bubble into let know where the tale is. Yes I don’t know how Mudd’s daughter got there and no I am unsure why Captain Robert April is on the planet, but this issue forgives me. If anything IDW have made me want to go and buy the back issues so I can fill in these questions.
This Trek comic I enjoyed alot. The tainted memory for the previous film tie-in comic has now been filed away under “Forgiven”. Pop down to you local comic shop and give IDW your pennies with a smile on your face.
*What the heck is actually going on here.
Villordsutch – Follow me on Twitter.
Originally published March 19, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
