Robert Cast Comic Reviews

Thankfully long gone are the days of newspapers strips and Gold Key comics featuring the original series Star Trek crew. Most Trek writers in the 60's and 70's wrote the books on guess work without watching a single episode of the series that they were based on. This book stays in cannon with its general look and characters. Star Trek Boldly Go #1 is a decent set up with an interesting cliff hanger that has me looking forward to issue #2.

This may be the grumblings of a long time Trekker. I understand the appeal of having the Kirk's crew face off against a TNG foe. I was just hopeful that the different era's of Star Trek would left separate. All that aside. When I take my Trek glasses off the story its self is pretty decent and the art stays on point. This book still scratches my Trek itch. I am just hoping for a better direction in future issues.

Mike Johnson has really turned this arc around for me. As I learn more about the story in this issue,I can see the dominoes he was setting up the previous book. It makes it easier to start letting go of what I think are the unwritten rules for writing Trek and enjoy the story. My faith in this new series is being renewed and I am looking forward to see how this arc unfolds.

Through this first story arc, the partnership of Mike Johnson and Tony Shasteen have done an outstanding job. I completely enjoyed this book even though I was reading it with my usual Trekker pessimism. I was highly entertained and look forward to more collaborations from Mike and Tony.

All in all this is a pretty decent stand alone book. Mike Johnson had a ton of information to squeeze in to satisfy the the mandate of a characters complete back story. He also left plenty of room to revisit Jaylah's youth to weave in some more adventures and really flush out her species. Through out this entire Boldly Go run, I am really enjoying the artists interpretation of all the different races in the Star Trek universe. I am looking forward to more!

With thirteen movies and seven hundred plus television shows from six different series it must be getting difficult to come up with new and exciting stories to tell, but IDW has done just that.

I personally enjoyed this story arc (issues #6-8). Until the Enterprise A construction is complete, we have an interesting scenario seeing our heroes on a different ship surrounded by new crew mates and new adventures.

The quick elevator pitch to convince a Star Wars fan to pick up this book. A female Han Solo/Indiana Jones hero goes on adventures with a violent wookiee and are joined by C3P0's & R2D2's evil twins. I know it may sound odd on the surface, but Gillen and Larroca make it work. Also as an interesting side note, all of the new Star Wars Saga books currently being released by Marvel are official story canon. It will be interesting to see if our new characters make their way into different comic runs, new novels or maybe even a movie on the big screen.

This is not your typical Star Trek Story. No Kirk, no Enterprise, and no space travel. Maybe this isn't the best issue to pick up if you are new to the Boldly Go series, but with a decent character story and a chance to explore New Vulcan, it should satisfy any hardcore Star Trek fan.