Star Trek: Boldly Go #13 - IDW Publishing

STAR TREK: BOLDLY GO No. 13, October 2017

Described by “IDW Publishing” group editor Sarah Gaydos as “the most prolific writer ever to hit the pages of Star Trek comics”, Mike Johnson’s script for Issue Thirteen of “Star Trek: Boldly Go” most definitely must have entertained the vast majority of its 6,779 readers in October 2017, with its utterly compelling reimagining of James Tiberius Kirk actually being the commander of the Klingon warship I.K.S. Chonnaq. Indeed, the story behind “the mighty orphan”, his capture “as a baby from a Starfleet shuttle” and subsequent raising “in the battle-slums of Kronos” is arguably one of the more innovative takes upon actor Christopher Pine’s character seen this side of the Mirror Universe.

Fortunately, the surprise appearance of the “veteran of countless wars” on the Klingon prison planet, Rura Pente, so as “to administer the punishment decreed by the High Command” upon two incompetent guards, doesn’t appear to be a simple writing gimmick either, with the cold-blooded one-eyed killer shockingly serving the more foolish of the security detail their own father’s severed head; “The last guards who allowed a prisoner to escape were hung by their own entrails and their family name scorched from the histories forever. I don’t have time to hang you by your entrails.” This comic’s American author even provides his audience with an opportunity to have the ruthless Captain exchange ‘pleasantries’ and photon torpedoes with his opposite number aboard a certain Constitution-class starship… 

Enjoyably, the “legend in his own time” isn’t the only U.S.S. Enterprise bridge crew member to have ‘changed’ either, with this opening instalment to “Infinite Diversity In Infinite Combinations” portraying Mister Spock as a half-Vulcan known as Simon Grayson, whose ears have been “surgically altered” in order to make him look more human. About to be court-martialled for violating the Prime Directive by Christopher Pike, and grief-stricken at the death of his murdered wife, Nyota, this incarnation of the Starfleet Officer seemingly appears far more inclined to get drunk alongside “Bones” than simply keep his emotions in check with logic.

Sadly somewhat less successful than its storyline, though only marginally so, are Josh Hood’s drawings for this twenty-page periodical. Admittedly the “previous artist on The Flash… and a host of other DC and Marvel titles” is able to imbue all of his figures with the facial likenesses of their ‘Silver Screen’ counterparts, and additionally his pencilling of the Enterprise being attacked by Kirk’s Klingon vessel is outstanding. But there is a discernible inconsistency to the quality of his panels, such as Pike furiously confining Commander Grayson “to quarters until we return to Earth”, which increasingly grates upon the eye.

Writer: Mike Johnson, Art: Josh Hood, and Colors: Jason Lewis