Villordsutch reviews Star Trek/Green Lantern #1…
Two iconic franchises collide for the blockbuster crossover event of 2015! The crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise meets the Green Lantern Corps for the first time in an all-new adventure that spans the cosmos! Don’t miss the thrilling first chapter of THE SPECTRUM WAR, as Kirk and Spock make a most unusual discovery on a lost world… igniting events that will change the fate of empires!
Before I continue with this review I’ll be honest I’m not much of a Green Lantern fan, I never have been. He’s always appeared in comics I’ve been reading more as a by proxy character and sparkled along with his green ring and his dislike of the colour yellow. So for the sub-heading to read, “The crossover event of 2015”, I’m instantly thinking, ‘It’s not mine!? We’ve had it with Trek and Apes!’, and this really isn’t a good foot to set off on to review a comic book; especially a Star Trek comic. So giving myself a firm good warning, it’s tabula rasa time and I set of with issue 1 of Star Trek / Green Lantern – “Spectrum War”.
With our opening chapter we start on Planet Mogo, with Ganthet being pursued across the said planet and we glean that the last Green Lantern is dead and soon Ganthet will be too as the entity chasing intends on having the rings of power. It’s here Ganthet – using his last remaining life essence – escapes by crossing universes; to the NuTrek Kirk and Co.’s universe to be more precise. Whilst scouting a dead starless planet, Kirk and the Away Team discover Ganthet’s skeletal remains and the rings laid out in front of him, beaming the lifeless husk and the rings aboard both are soon brought under investigation. Shortly after the Away Team return, an infamous Klingon warrior arrives to capture Kirk and the Enterprise, the warrior being the eye-patch wearing General Chang. Whilst being surrounded with a Tachyon Field the rings activate and seek out new owners; most worrying is the yellow ring making a bee-line for Chang and it’s here the Green Lantern arrives enquiring why Kirk has the corpse of Ganthet on his ship.
The opening chapter from Mike Johnson is quite fantastic – we’re given mystery of the entity chasing Ganthet on a dead planet, Star Trek fan service with General Chang, a good old fashion Bird of Prey and not the awful Nero amalgamated Klingon mess. It’s then we close with the rings activating and choosing their selected hosts on the Enterprise; and of course off it. All of this before we even get a glimpse of the Green Lantern, which as stated above for “not much of a Green Lantern fan” this still was a rather excellent introduction to him within this comic.
Our art and colours come from Angel Hernandez and Alejandro Sanchez and they both deliver a fantastic piece of work to this first issue. I especially loved Alejandro’s pallet used within the dead lifeless planet – when the Away Team beam down – as the bright NuTrek glare suddenly becomes dead and washed.
Spectrum War is clearly set to be a fantastic series. You would do well picking this comic up today and treating yourself. Perhaps this could be the crossover event of 2015?
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=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=IWWtOQOZSTI
Originally published July 8, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
