“Star Trek: Lower Decks” Trade Paperback (IDW, 2023). Writer: Ryan North. Artist: Chris Fenoglio (including the colors, I’m assuming, as no separate c“Star Trek: Lower Decks” Trade Paperback (IDW, 2023). Writer: Ryan North. Artist: Chris Fenoglio (including the colors, I’m assuming, as no separate color artist credited). Reprints: Star Trek: Lower Decks #1-3 (September 2022 to November 2022). Read: 08/21/23 to 08/30/23. Opinion: Very good. If you like the animated “Star Trek: Lower Decks” Paramount+ series then I think you will like this comic book mini-series. (Although I saw one reviewer on GoodReads give it only two stars because he doesn’t like “holodeck stories”. Oh, well.) The ensigns accidentally create a sentient version of Dracula (that looks exactly like Boimler), similarly to what happened with Moriarty on “The Next Generation” (and, this being “Lower Decks”, they make numerous references to that earlier episode). While this is going on, the captain, chief of security, and doctor all embark on a second contact mission that ends them up, at first, about to be burned at stakes for being “witches”. Then, they are put on trial for (accidentally) violating that planet’s leading government’s own version of the Prime Directive (for their accidental encounter with the planet’s other, primitive, culture). They face execution for it, and a fleet of warships will destroy the Cerritos (if they can’t get out of it). Lots of fun Star Trek in jokes (just like on the series) and the artist does a very good job of making this appear visually like just another episode of the animated series. I gave it four out of five stars on GoodReads. I would like to see IDW do more “Lower Decks” comics....more
**spoiler alert** “Star Trek Volume 1: Godshock” Hardcover (IDW, 2023). Writers: Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing. Artists: Ramon Rosanas, Oleg Chudak**spoiler alert** “Star Trek Volume 1: Godshock” Hardcover (IDW, 2023). Writers: Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing. Artists: Ramon Rosanas, Oleg Chudakov, Joe Eisma, Erik Tamayo. Color art Lee Loughridge. Reprints: “Star Trek #400” (“A Perfect System” story, September 2022) and Star Trek #1-6 (October 2022 to April 2023). Read: 08/19/23 to 08/21/23. Opinion: Very good. This is the start of a new ongoing “Star Trek” series featuring a combination of characters from several separate series: Captain Benjamin Sisko from “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, Data and Doctor Beverly Crusher from “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, and Tom Parris from “Star Trek: Voyager” (plus, at least for awhile, Worf, from “TNG” and “DS9”). Oh, yeah, and a certain chief engineer with a Scottish accent. Plus a couple (younger) new characters. The time frame is, I believe, 2378. Soon after the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager made it safely back to Earth in the same year, and three years after the events of the TNG film, “Star Trek: Insurrection” and the end of the “Deep Space Nine” series. Something very powerful is killing the known “god like” beings of the galaxy. (The teaser short story from the “Star Trek #400” special issue shows this happen to Gary Mitchell, James Kirk’s friend from the original series second pilot episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before”.) The Prophets return Benjamin Sisko to his corporeal form to stop this. He goes to Captain Picard for a ship and Picard sets him up with a brand new experimental ship, the U.S.S. Theseus. He insists that Sisko take Data on as his first officer on this mission (and Dr. Crusher eagerly volunteers to go along too as Sisko’s return is a medical mystery). The others I mentioned are already part of this new crew or join up along the way. I really liked this. It’s very “comic booky” in all the right ways: the whole “crossover” element of blending characters from the separate series, and the universe threatening circumstances and powers that are much larger than life. The art (a tag team of alternating artists to keep the book on its original monthly schedule) is very appropriate for the type of story being told here. (My one real gripe is that the artist who draws the issue where Worf comes aboard apparently either cannot draw a Klingon that looks anything even remotely resembling Michael Dorn, or perhaps didn’t get the memo that it was supposed to be him. I swear, when we see him I immediately thought Sisko was meeting an entirety different Klingon character and was somewhat shocked when Sisko called him Ambassador Worf. The artists in the following issues do manage to draw him better though.) These first six issues (plus the teaser) did exactly what it should do, which is make me look forward to the next collected edition later on this year. (Worf goes on his own part way through the story, by the way, leading into a second series titled “Star Trek: Defiant”, which has its own “all star” blending of characters: Worf, Spock, Lore, and Ro Laren. That will also be getting its first collected edition soon, as well.) I gave “Godshock” four out of five stars on GoodReads....more
“Star Trek: Picard: Stargazer” Trade Paperback (IDW, 2023). Writers: Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson. Artist: Angel Hernandez. Color art by J.D. Mettle“Star Trek: Picard: Stargazer” Trade Paperback (IDW, 2023). Writers: Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson. Artist: Angel Hernandez. Color art by J.D. Mettler. Reprints: Star Trek: Picard: Stargazer #1-3 (August 2022 to November 2022). Read: 08/16/23 to 08/18/23. Opinion: Okay/average. Story takes place (and came out between) seasons two and three of the Paramount+ “Star Trek: Picard” series which this is obviously a tie-in to. Story is basically supposed to be about Seven of Nine, carrying her from where we see her at the end of season two to her being back in Starfleet already at the start of season three. Here, she still has her doubts about joining Starfleet and sticks with being a Fenris Ranger despite Picard’s attempts to lead her likewise. But then a mission to check up on a planet that Picard once visited decades earlier while Captain of *his* U.S.S. Stargazer (traveling there aboard the new version we saw in season two of the show) unexpectedly brings him and Seven back together again in a life or death situation, one that Picard is at least partially responsible for due to his actions the last time he was there (and involving Romulans). I thought it was an okay enough little story but pretty forgettable in the end. I don’t know if I would have thought differently if I read it back when it first came out, in between the two tv seasons, or not. I think I still would have felt it was a mostly irrelevant “filler” story. Everything was “okay” but not exceptional, including the art by Hernandez. (I felt his depictions of Seven were very inconsistent, though.) And my main “gripe” with this series is, why did they name this story “Stargazer”? Yes, the two versions of the Starfleet ship and their crews both appear, but not nearly enough to make the story about them. Again, while a fun little side adventure for Jean-Luc Picard, this is clearly a Seven of Nine story. I ended up giving it three out of five stars on GoodReads....more
“The Orville Season 2.5: Digressions” (published by Dark Horse Books, March 2022). Written by David A. Goodman, art by David Cabeza, colors by Michael“The Orville Season 2.5: Digressions” (published by Dark Horse Books, March 2022). Written by David A. Goodman, art by David Cabeza, colors by Michael Atiyeh, lettering by Richard Starkings and ComiCraft’s Jimmy Betancourt.
Dark Horse Books (a.k.a., Dark Horse Comics), third and last (so far) trade paperback collection of comics they released based on the Seth McFarlane sci-fi television series, “The Orville” (which ran on Fox for two seasons, 2017 to 2019, and a third season exclusively streaming on Hulu, June to August 2022).
Dark Horse released their “Orville” comics as mini-series, one or two per year in 2019, 2020, and 2021. They released some of these mini-series with somewhat confusingand contradictory titles, some with both an overall “The Orville” series title (numbered issues #1-4) but at the same time also titled as “The Orville: [First two-issue story title] Part 1 of 2” and “Part 2 of 2”, followed by “The Orville: [Second two-issue story title] Part 1 of 2” (as seen in the two Orville trade paperbacks that came out prior to this one, "The Orville Season 1.5: New Beginnings" (which contains two separate two-issue stories, "New Beginnings" and "The Word of Avis") and "The Orville Season 2.5: Launch Day" (which contains the stories "Launch Day" and "Heroes).
This third Orville trade paperback, “The Orville Season 2.5: Digressions” (2022), reprints “The Orville: Digressions” #1-2 (May 2021-June 2021) and “The Orville: Artifacts” #1-2 (October 2021-November 2021).
"Digressions" is by far the more interesting of the two stories in this collected edition as it follows upon the events of the season two Orville episode, "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow", in which a younger version of Commander Kelly Grayson (played by Adrianne Palicki) is accidentally brought through time to the show's present day and learns all of the things that has happened to her in the intervening years before the crew finally figures out a way to send her back to her proper time. As seen at the end of that episode, however, the "mind wipe" that was supposed to make her forget everything she has learned prior to being sent back fails and she remembers everything.
"Digressions" continues this story by showing how different decisions she makes in her life based on that knowledge have far reaching consequences, ones that ultimately threaten the survival of the Union and all of those on Earth when the inevitable Kaylon invasion occurs. This is a very well done two-issue story which, unfortunately, ends abruptly at the end of the second part with a note saying, "Continued in 'The Road Not Taken'..." (which isn't the second story in this collected edition but instead is where the story picks up on the television series). "Digressions" is basically a "filling in the gaps" bridging story between those two episodes, something which I didn't realize when I first started reading it (and therefore couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed when I realized it wasn't a complete story in and of itself).
The second story in this collection, "Artifacts", is a decent enough (if at the same time very forgettable) story of an old academy professor of Captain Mercer's convinces Mercer to take his ship into a dangerous region of space obscured from the rest of the galaxy by a unique four-star phenomenon, inside of which may be hidden an ancient legendary fleet of warships from a now extinct species. The professor has ulterior motives, however, that only perennial goof-off Orville helmsman, Gordon Malloy, seems to be suspicious of.
I ended up giving this Orville collected edition (as I did the previous two) three out of five stars on GoodReads.
(For those who might be interested, Dark Horse has also released a more expensive “The Orville: Library Edition” hardcover collection that is an omnibus of all three of the trade paperbacks (containing all of the Dark Horse “Orville” stories in one volume.)...more
I finished reading last night the “Star Trek: Picard” novel, “Rogue Elements” (2021), by John Jackson Miller. It is the third tie-in novel to that parI finished reading last night the “Star Trek: Picard” novel, “Rogue Elements” (2021), by John Jackson Miller. It is the third tie-in novel to that particular series.
Like with the previous two (“The Last Best Hope” and “The Dark Veil”), “Rogue Elements” is another prequel novel taking place entirely prior to the events of the first season of “Picard”.
This one focuses on the character of Cristóbal Rios right as he is acquiring his cargo freighter, La Sirena.
He is immediately in debt to the previous owner, though, and has to pay them off. Those owners just happen to be Iotians, from the same planet that Captain Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise discovered a century earlier that had patterned their entire civilization on a book about the Prohibition era mobs of Earth’s history. Which makes this more of a Star Trek the original series sequel in many ways than a Picard prequel (although we do get scenes of Rios communicating with Raffi, another “Picard” character, and Jackson does indeed fit bits of Jean-Luc Picard into the novel as well, even though Rios and Picard don’t actually meet until in the streaming tv series).
But then there are also TNG elements (a particularly nasty nemesis from a very memorable episode of TNG is a major character here), and there are also call backs to “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”.
I’m not going to go into any more detail than that here so as not to give away everything. I will say that I enjoyed this novel a lot. Aside from the very ending being a tad bit contrived (where Miller brings all of the various plot threads together and reveals what’s really been going on), this is a real fun read. Miller weaves the TOS and TNG callbacks in expertly and, more importantly, manages to make Rios a much more interesting character than we saw most of the time on the actual “Star Trek: Picard” series. Enough so that I’d actually like to see another Captain Rios novel by Miller (although that’s very unlikely at this point).
I gave “Rogue Elements” four out of five stars on GoodReads.
My next two Star Trek novels that I plan on reading are also by Miller. His “Star Trek: Discovery” novel, “The Enterprise War” (2019), which shows up what Captain Pike and the Enterprise were doing during the Federation-Klingon war in “Discovery” season one, and the first “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” novel, “The High Country”, which just came out this year. So, I’m on a bit of a John Jackson Miller marathon here. ...more
"Charlie's Angels vs. The Bionic Woman" by Cameron DeOrdio (writer), Soo Lee (artist), Addison Duke (colorist), Crank! and Tom Napolitano (letterers),"Charlie's Angels vs. The Bionic Woman" by Cameron DeOrdio (writer), Soo Lee (artist), Addison Duke (colorist), Crank! and Tom Napolitano (letterers), Cat Staggs (original primary covers and collection cover artist) (Dynamite Entertainment, 2021; originally released in single issue format as "Charlie's Angels vs. The Bionic Woman" #1-4 (2019-2019 (couldn't find the original months). Thoughts: I have to say that I was disappointed with the execution of this one. Supposedly taking place in 1983 (after the ends of both the "Bionic Woman" and "Charlie's Angels" tv series), what could have been a very interesting story (especially as depicted on the *covers* of the individual issues, which depicted very close likenesses of Lindsay Wagner and the three "Charlie's Angel" actresses, Jaclyn Smith, Cheryl Ladd, and Tanya Roberts) is sabotaged by both not bad but a poorly matched artist to this type of material (Soo Lee's art here is what I would call very "manga-esque", although I admit that I am not very knowledgeable about manga and some might disagree with that assessment; regardless, I found that Lee drew the three "Charlie's Angel's" ladies pretty much identical to each other with only their hair color as distinguishing characteristics). The other big fault I found here was that Jaime for the first part of the story acts very out of character, and that the Oscar Goldman shown here is *clearly* not the same character as portrayed by Richard Anderson on the tv series. He is drawn differently, he is shown sparring with Jaime in hand-to-hand fight training several times (something I could never see Anderson's Oscar doing), and (spoilers) is written in such a way to give me the same feeling I did at the end of the first "Mission Impossible" movie with Tom Cruise in regards to the use of the Jim Phelps character there (that's all I'll say about that for fear of going too much away). Again, I think Soo's art is nice in a general sort of way but not a very good match for a licensed tie-in comic book like this one. Oh, yeah, and not only do the three "Charlie's Angels" characters look alike here we also get pretty much zero character time with any of them except for a bit with Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith's character). We don't get any back story of them aside from a bit of the opening narration from the tv show ("Once upon a time, there were three little girls who went to the police academy...") And, of course, the requisite "Hello Charlie" meetings with Bosley and Charlie (over the desk loudspeaker) at the office. I gave this two out of five stars on GoodReads....more
"The Six Million Dollar Man: In Japan" by Christopher Hastings (writer), David Hahn (artist), Roshan Kurichiyanil (colorist), Arian Maher (letterer), "The Six Million Dollar Man: In Japan" by Christopher Hastings (writer), David Hahn (artist), Roshan Kurichiyanil (colorist), Arian Maher (letterer), Michael Walsh (original primary covers and collection cover artist) (Dynamite Entertainment, 2020; originally released in single issue format as "The Six Million Dollar Man" #1-5 (March 2019 to July 2019). Thoughts: Okay, this is probably one of the more polarizing Dynamite Six Million Dollar Man mini-series because it's clearly an attempt at a completely separate "reboot" version of the character (the mini-series when it initially came out in the monthly single issue format was simply titled "The Six Million Dollar Man"; they added the "In Japan" for the trade paperback), one more cartoony in the art style and humorous in the way the character is depicted. He's a bit Steve Austin and a bit Inspector Gadget. (He *clearly* has much more of his body replaced by cybernetic parts than just the one arm, one eye, and two legs that the tv Steve Austin did.) Since the writer and artist made it quite clear what sort of story this was going to be right from the outset, though, I was able to enjoy it for what it was, a fun different take on the character (as if for a possible spin-off cartoon series). I gave this three out of five stars on GoodReads....more
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