Review – Star Trek #38 (IDW Publishing)

Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Mike Johnson
Artist: Tony Shasteen
Release Date: 12th November 2014

IDW’s ongoing Star Trek comic has taken a slight detour in recent months to present a six-part epic, featuring the omnipresent Q and a tale of a possible, alternate, desolate, future. Moving into the latter half of the mini-series, can the high standard (the best yet seen in the ongoing series) be maintained?

Mike Johnson uses the lore of Deep Space Nine (perhaps the deepest and most unique in Star Trek as a whole) to deliver exciting alternate reality premises that send this nerd’s heart a flutter (A Dominion/Pah-Wraiths team-up? Oh this is way better than Sonic & Knuckles!). He also succeeds in translating the dry wit of Karl Urban’s McCoy to the page, making for a very for a very enjoyable read. The situation may be dark, but our main characters remain light and true to all their previous incarnations. Getting to once again see the rebellious sides of characters like Major Kira is also a great side-effect of this Q-inflicted shake-up of the status quo. Getting to see the Defiant and Enterprise crews working together, especially Scotty’s wide-eyed enthusiasm for future tech, is the highlight of the comic.

Q makes a return to proceedings after sitting out much of the action so far. His testing of Kirk, and his refusal to believe in no-win scenarios, continues to bring out the best in the Kirk brought to life by Chris Pine.

In some instances characters appear to have been drawn separately and are placed onto backgrounds, making some ‘pop’ and seem out of sync with their surroundings. This only really appears as a problem in larger panels, and in smaller ones detailing remains good, on props and faces especially. Tony Shasteen’s facial work remains entirely on-point and helps the characters’ voices leap straight into your skull as you read.

Ending on yet another escalation, Star Trek: The Q Gambit continues to set a high bar, one which I hope future IDW Star Trek comics will rise to meet.

Rating: 4/5.

The Writer of this piece was: Andrew Stevens
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