Star Trek: Boldly Go #1 - IDW Publishing

STAR TREK: BOLDLY GO No. 1, October 2016

The first in a “new ongoing comic series” by “IDW Publishing” which chronicles the adventures of Captain Kirk following the 2016 “Star Trek: Beyond” motion picture and the publisher’s previous sixty-issue long title “penned primarily” under Mike Johnson’s watch, this premiere edition of “Star Trek: Boldly Go” must still have left something of a disheartening taste in the mouths of its 14,690 readers with its plodding plot cataloguing the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise’s re-assignments to “new ships and new roles.” It’s certainly doubtful many readers would have become thrilled by a narrative which focusses upon Spock’s father preparing “a special Plomeek Soup of his own recipe” for Nyota, and Bones’ gruff welcome aboard the U.S.S Endeavour by (Medical) Chief Groffus; a Tellarite “with decades more experience” than Doctor McCoy.

Fortunately however, the former “Transformers: Prime” tie-in author does finally inject some tension into his storyline by having the Iowa-born officer’s latest command pick up the “fragments of what appear to be a distress call from the U.S.S. Concord near the Delta Quadrant Border.” This interruption of the Captain’s “leisure time” with Pavel and Leonard, not only raises a concern as to the welfare of the apparently endangered starship’s new Commander, Hikaru Sulu, but also provides an opportunity to explore the somewhat taught relationship between James Tiberius and his potentially untrustworthy, yet clearly highly capable, Romulan First Officer, Valas.

In addition, the rescue mission also sets up the twenty-page periodical for a genuinely pulse-pounding cliff-hanger, as both Uhura and the “second-in-command of the Concord” repeat the ‘famous’ Trekkie phrase “resistance is futile…” and editor Sarah Gaydos arguably makes good on her promise that “Mike and Tony [Shasteen] are poised to take the series in such an exciting direction” including “some interesting friends and foes from the past.”

Without doubt this “all-new” title’s greatest asset though, is Shasteen’s crisp, albeit slightly cartoony, illustration work, which genuinely captures the likenesses of all of Kirk’s “iconic crew” from the franchise’s 2009 cinematic reboot. Indeed, the Art Institute of Atlanta graduate appears to have a particular penchant for pencilling actors Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. Whilst his ability to draw Federation starships really helps bring home the destruction of the Concord after the vessel has its saucer section just ‘taken away’ by the hostile “angry machine” it unexpectedly encounters.

The regular cover art of "STAR TREK: BOLDLY GO" No. 1 by George Caltsoudas