Villordsutch reviews Star Trek #22…
“The fallout from this summer’s blockbuster movie STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS continues here, in the fan-favorite ongoing series overseen by TREK writer/producer Roberto Orci! Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise face a dire new threat rising in the wake of the movie’s momentous events!”“
Star Trek #22 is a poor comic. If this was a Trek episode it would be found in the middle of Season 3 of The Original Series. It really is that poor. Take a look at the synopsis above – this alone tells you that there is no story to speak of here.
Why does this comic fail? It fails due to story, art, editing etc. the whole shebang. I’ll drag to you by the scruff of the neck the story by Mike Johnson (Supergirl, Superman/Batman). My guess is that this tale was written in minutes on the back of an envelope, throwing any sort of logic, reasoning or continuity out of the window. Take, for example, New Vulcan where in the space of a couple of months, since the destruction of Vulcan, there is already a splinter group of Vulcans called “The Vanished”. This group have regressed due to the grief they have felt by the destruction of their home. “The Vanished” appear to be feral Vulcans that can with withstand molten rock in a naked state. This is on top of the rather odd jumping backwards and forwards from ship to planet, and Spock’s red-eyed glow due to his Pon Farr (I kid you not); tied to this are Romulans discussing Section 31 and armoured Klingons flying Nero Ship-inspired Birds of Prey.
The art by Erfan Fajar (Jericho, Dark Stalkers) also isn’t very good. The characters seem to have been drawn with warm candle wax and the shiny faced people slowly begin to droop and look unrecognisable, then snap back to normal on the next page and begin the slow melt again. It doesn’t look good at all.
Nothing in this comic is enjoyable, but a lot is frustrating and makes you wonder whether Roberto Orci did actually oversee this or if it was accidentally paper-clipped to the bottom of a good comic and he didn’t get chance to see it.
Leave this issue and pick up another comic. If however you’re an avid collector, then I pity you this week.
Villordsutch is married with kids and pets. He looks like a tubby Viking and enjoys science fiction. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published June 19, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
