Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Mike Johnson
Artist: Tony Shasteen
Release Date: July 9th, 2014

The ongoing voyages of the starship Enterprise at IDW have certainly been faced with some less than smooth sailing. With art quality often fluctuating wildly between issues and story arcs rushing by at warp speed the series has never been as dependable a vessel as fans would hope. With issue 35 and the opening of what promises to be an epic, six-issue story, have these problems finally been put to bed? Yes and no.

First we should talk about the area where problems persist: the art. The style on this series has always shifted, to the point where it is a rare occurrence to have both good character and background design in the same issue. In issue 35 Tony Shasteen draws upon photo references, often lifted directly from the films, to create fantastically true-to-life characters. However, this does come with a compromise in background art, which generally seems undetailed or too painstakingly traced. Towards the end of this comic I found myself trying to tune out the backgrounds and focus on the excellent character work. The art certainly feels like the new Enterprise, but is too unappealing to focus on for any amount of time. Luckily, and speaking as someone with an unhealthy love for all things starship and whoosh, the photo-referencing also extends to NCC-1701 herself, and the space stuff is among the best and most vivid the series has seen so far.

Where this issue really succeeds is in its story. It’s a delight to see yet another insight into how Spock’s disappearance has affected the Prime universe, and to see such a fan-favourite character like Q interact with the new crew of the alternate Enterprise. Q is such a fantastic character to use, with his ability to show our favourite captains their own flaws and strengths helping to further explore what makes Chris Pine’s Kirk that much different from Picard, and indeed, Shatner’s interpretation. The interaction is not simply the Picard/Q conflict reskinned, as it plays up to the headstrong, ‘I’ve cheated death’ attitude of James T. Kirk. Finally, this issue, being just the first of six (the longest single story arc the series has seen outside of movie tie-ins) sets up dire stakes for the alternate timeline, and plays around with time travel in a way which will surely delight and frighten Trek fans in equal measures. I know I’m excited, and hope the longer run gives this story time to breathe and finally deliver a truly epic story.

Rating: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock/5

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The writer of this piece was: Andrew Stevens