Villordsutch reviews Star Trek: New Visions – “Resistance”…
If I were to tell you that the Borg are about to enter Kirk and Co.’s universe, you’d quite possible have two sensations, as I did – the first being excitement for seeing the Borg and Kirk go toe-to-toe and secondly have a sense of dread knowing the power of the Borg is about to be diluted – once again – for the sake of a quick grab of cash and fan baiting. Well would you be interested to read that in this issue Kirk doesn’t physically go toe-to-toe with the Borg and I also don’t feel – in anyway – that the Borg have been watered down; if anything John Byrne has given them back a boost of power and mystery.
The Enterprise is currently en route to the distant Outpost Omega-70 to investigate the reason for it suddenly falling silent, after their final dread filled message which contained such lines as, “Unstoppable”, “They want our souls!”, “They want our bodies!”. Dropping out of warp the Enterprise is surrounded by the shattered remains of Omega-70. Discovering that one remaining chunk of Omega-70 contains a handful of survivors, a small Away Team rapidly beams to the remnants of the planet and return with the remaining survivor. It’s here we see the Borg Sphere begin to leave the scene of the crime, the Enterprise attempts to halt their departure and the original NCC-1701 is shown to be massively out-gunned by this Borg sphere as their warning shot inflicts some serious damage upon the Enterprise. With failed attempts at hailing, the crew discover this unknown destructive race is heading straight for a populated planet of 3 Billion lives and they need to find a way to stop this mysterious enemy.
The entire comic is dedicated to “Resistance” and it is quite excellent I have to say; it moves along at a rather brilliant pace with no time given to stop and breath. You are truly a member of the Enterprise crew here as you are barrelling along, oblivious of your enemy’s name, wants or needs, with lives to save but no power at all to do this. John Byrne practically keeps most of the action wrapped up on the Bridge giving this a true Starship battle feeling, but at the same time ringing of old time Naval War films with Captain’s chasing down the enemy.
There are little to no faults that are overly visible in this issue due to the fact of that most of the work John focuses on is the within Enterprise. The only real obvious stand out moment is the pink and blonde character called Doctor Kalwanay, but with the rest of the comic being rather fantastic I am more than happy to look the opposite direction for the very few panels that he inhabits. The only other fault which may irate the die-hards more than myself was the use of the Delta Quadrant and that the original Enterprise being close to the edge of it, but for me – again – I’m letting this ride, as even the Enterprise attempted to leave the galaxy’s edge in the very first episode of Star Trek and knowing what we know now about our big wide galaxy, their five year mission would need an extension to get there and back.
If you have put off the New Visions comics in the past then today should be the day to pick up a copy as “Resistance” could be a pleasant surprise.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5&v=8HTiU_hrLms
Originally published May 13, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
