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Rating:  -
I managed to come across this TPB, in a brick-and-mortar bookstore while waiting to see the Star Trek movie again. It's okay that it gave a visual back-story leading up the the feature film and good for a souvenir.
Rating:  -
If you want REAL Star Trek, watch REAL Star Trek: the 5 series, and the 10 movies. This stuff (as well as the new movie)is trash.
Rating:  -
This is the first comic book I ever bought and read, and it slipped by very quickly.
It was enjoyable to a degree that I wanted to read more. But while it resolves the sort of questions that could be answered by watching the movie again or reading trivia facts on IMDB or the like, it only raises further questions, particularly into Nero's psyche.
The drawings are decent and not unpleasant, in that Spock and Picard and Worf look like they should, but some of the designs are questionable, such as Data, and some are completely unrecognizeable, notably Nero, who looks absolutely nothing like Eric Bana for much of the books.
The story itself is one that really could've used more substance, or else they could have settled for a far shorter story (not a chance). It's really of little importance beyond the summary Spock gives in the movie. However, it leaves untapped a hugely potential-filled plot involving a Vulcan-Romulan feud, which I had read would be the center conflict in the prelude to the MMORPG "Star Trek Online".
Instead, this story plays out longer than it needs to, as we get a completely pointless encounter with the Remans that only serves to bring the Enterprise out and show us CAPTAIN DATA! via B4's body. We get overly self-indulgent fanservice in seeing familiar TNG characters, similar to the sort of story-dragging nostalgia of seeing the TOS characters in Star Trek The Motion Picture. It slogs the story, and aside from just being there, characters like Picard and Data serve absolutely no purpose to the story.
The one part where the comic REALLY shined magnificently is page 49, which has interconnecting panels showing Romulus's destruction, with the next panel showing Nero watching, to the next showing Romulus again, and gradually zooming in to Nero's face, while overlaying text re-plays the last dialogue Nero and his wife exchanged earlier in the comic. The final panel has one of Nero's eyes in closeup, gapingly huge and wet with tears, one of which drips down his cheek.
It was enough to choke me up.
But...
And there is the but. The story set up the destruction of Romulus as essentially the Romulans own fault, as they refused to even admit that they were in danger, and didn't even trust Spock's idea even after it was confirmed, Nero backed it, and the Vulcans offered it to the Romulans.
The Romulans stall until it's too late.
So then where does this total arse-pull come from of Nero hunting Spock and holding him responsible? Honestly, even I didn't see it coming. It just comes out of nowhere, AND it happens after Nero EXPLICITLY BLAMES THE ROMULAN SENATE and exacts vengeance upon them. SO WHY WOULD NERO TURN ON THE ONE MAN WHO TRIED TO HELP ROMULUS AND WHO NERO HIMSELF EVEN HELPED SUPPORT HIM AND BRING HIM TO VULCAN?!
Again, this is something squandered, stemming from the Romulans vs Vulcans plot that was described in "Star Trek Online". I can only interpret Nero's actions based on what other Romulans TELL HIM in the comic: that it's the Vulcans' fault for holding their technology back so long and hesitating. If it weren't for this bit of droning exposition, Nero's hatred of Spock is seemingly completely out of nowhere and makes no sense even to a grief-filled man.
So while you're bound to get all the easy questions raised by "Star Trek" answered by this, it only raises FURTHER questions, which may or may not be answered by the "between now and 2012-2013" release of "Star Trek Online"
Rating: -
Okay, I was expecting this to be fun, interesting, and a sort of "fill-in-the-gaps" to the movie (not that there were really gaps in the movie, just loads to take in during one sitting - I loved the movie, btw, if that helps;>). What I wasn't expecting was to be um... *totally* enraptured, glued to the pages, and thinking about the story when I wasn't reading it! I feel so embarrassed that I was SO addicted to it - but it was awesome! :)
You don't need to have seen the ...more Okay, I was expecting this to be fun, interesting, and a sort of "fill-in-the-gaps" to the movie (not that there were really gaps in the movie, just loads to take in during one sitting - I loved the movie, btw, if that helps;>). What I wasn't expecting was to be um... *totally* enraptured, glued to the pages, and thinking about the story when I wasn't reading it! I feel so embarrassed that I was SO addicted to it - but it was awesome! :)
You don't need to have seen the new film to read this, but it does add another element if you have. COUNTDOWN features Nero and Spock. There's no Kirk in this story, no Dr. McCoy, nor Scotty. Instead, we Next Generation fans get loads of pleasant surprises when NG crew start showing up from page to page (huzzah!). Anyway, I hadn't realized the initial Star Trek and the Next Generation were so close in time (though, had I thought about it, I'm sure I would have figured it out) and it was fun to see what happened to certain NG members since I haven't seen the NG films (terrible of me, I know). Anyway, back to the story! Here we learn just what transpired between Spock and Nero and why their relationship evolved as it did.
So, why the four stars? Part of it may be my own doing. Since I've never really read graphic novels before I wasn't entirely sure how to read it, and because of that I was lost a few times trying to figure out where or when the story was. But, once I caught on it was fine. Also, I felt at times the story was a tad over-dramatic, and that the scene-enders were a tad too many (what I mean is, most of the scenes ended with a character making a great, revolutionary statement. Most of these were fantastic, but sometimes it felt like there were so many it took away from them all... like they lost some of their impact because they were so frequent). And as for the over-dramatic-ness of it, well, in a way that's part of the charm of Star Trek, isn't it? :) What's more, this novel was surprisingly sprinkled with the great Star Trek philosophy.
I thought the illustrations were wonderful, and some of them were spot on to the actors' likenesses.
I'm curious to find out if they'll be another of these, because there is a lot left up in the air at the end. Now, yes, it's because it's a prequel to the film, but there's lots from this novel that doesn't get explained in the movie. If there's another novel, I'll probably hunt it down and devour it.
One more thing I wasn't expecting... to get choked up there at the end...
Very well done! And highly recommended:)
Rating: -
I've seen it written elsewhere that this book really sets up the movie quite well. I don't know if quite agree with that; while it did provide some back information, it wasn't pivotal to understanding or following the film, which was a lot of fun and fully discernible on its own.
Additionally, it created questions on its own, like: how did Data/B4 come to be captain of the Enterprise? Where's the backstory there? How did Picard jump from being a starship captain to an ambassador to Vulcan? Why did he not become a Starfleet admiral? Maybe these and other questions are covered in some of the "expanded universe" material created in the novels, I don't know.
All in all, though, the book was enjoyable. The printing and binding are of good quality (none of the ink smudged off on my fingers); the art is, for the most part, pretty good (there were some distortions of humanoid figures), and the facial depictions, I thought, were generally spot on--I rarely had trouble identifying the characters from frame to frame, even when they all seemed to have the same pointy ears. ;-)
I would say that I'm glad I got it at somewhat of a discount, for I'm not certain it was truly worth the full price. It was a quick and easy read, and added some nice filler (not foundation) to the back story of the film.
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