Can’t Judge a Gorn by its Fangs
No Good/Bad/Verdict structure can apply to a review of this book. It was just plain great.
Great Cine-Comic Continuity: Even though the “After Darkness” banner disappeared from this issue, Mike Johnson continues to weave connections back to the last movie into his script. A motivation for Kirk’s use of Spock in this mission is explained with reference to the last story in this book combined with two plot points from the movie. Kirk’s final decisions are given their context by the actions of the film’s Admiral Marcus. It is very cool how screen and panels make a single universe here.
Great Plotting: As usual, this series takes a familiar TOS concept and pumps it full of steroids. The Gorn shown in this book make the originals look like plush toys. Then right when the crew and the reader are scared witless by them, the story takes a hard left turn and the resolution is a complete surprise. You can’t judge a Gorn by the size of its fangs – who knew?
Great, GREAT Art: Claudia Balboni takes over for Fajar on this issue and the visuals just soar out of the book. Her characters are more consistent and more detailed. Her planet-scapes are so vivid they could be fantasy novel covers. The image of the Enterprise in orbit over Parthenon on p.2 needs to be poster in my office.
This book had been consistently good. With this pairing of writer and artist, it just clicked and became (surprise) great. Have I been clear it’s great? It’s great, you know. I really hope they keep this team together.