Review – Star Trek #48 (IDW Publishing)

Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Mike Johnson
Artist: Tony Shasteen
Release Date: 5th August 2015

Sorry for the late upload, I didn’t get to have this issue in my hands for a week for whatever reason.

Anyway… story-wise, this latest issue is strong, with more of a focus on one character, Hikaru Sulu, rather than an ensemble effort. Johnson also makes sure to address our young Kirk’s relative inexperience in this issue, something that the films haven’t managed deal with in as realistic a manner thus far.

I don’t want to spoil too much for this comic that I’m reviewing a week late but, man, this is one amazing premise for a Star Trek story. The appearance of a giant ship (larger than a Borg Cube or the Narada, by far) at the moment of an apparent sacrifice is both intriguing and terrifying. I genuinely can’t wait to see how this story plays out in part two.

Shasteen’s art is fantastic in this issue, with characters and backgrounds appearing as highly detailed as the characters themselves. I’m glad to see that Shasteen has found more time for his backgrounds, as they used to be my least favoured aspect of his art, and would occasionally make his hyper-detailed character models stand out awkwardly. No more of that, it seems, and when you add in some impressive alien vistas and you have a damn pretty comic. In fact, Shasteen has created one of the most beautiful alien planets in Trek lore here. It’s believable but also very alien in appearance.

Oh, and he has also managed to make a race of chicken people seem somewhat realistic. I still cracked up the first time I saw them though.

Star Trek #48 is exactly the kind of Star Trek story I want to read. Interesting, intriguing and frightening. It’s a great set-up that I hope pays off well. It really seems like every story Johnson writes could be a mini-series these days.

(Oh hey, bonus points if you spotted the NASA employee hiding in plain sight aboard the Enterprise.)

Rating: 5/5.

The Writer of this piece was: Andrew Stevens
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