Star Trek: Hell's Mirror #1 - IDW Publishing

STAR TREK: HELL'S MIRROR No. 1, August 2020

Heralding the return of “legendary writer J.M. DeMatteis” to the science fiction franchise “for the first time in nearly forty years”, and featuring both the highly popular Khan Noonien Singh and the Mirror Universe, this particular one-shot probably landed reasonably well with Trekkies upon its arrival in September 2020. However, for those fans frothing at the mouths in anticipation of actor Ricardo Montalbán’s incarnation of the genetically engineered superhuman violently squaring up against the savage crew of the I.S.S Enterprise, this twenty-four page periodical’s pedestrian-paced plot probably proved something of a disappointment.

Indeed, with the exception of the enjoyably intense destruction of Captain Kirk’s legendary Terran Constitution-class battle cruiser during a confrontation with “one of Khan’s fellow gods”, the vast majority of “Star Trek: Hell’s Mirror” is a dialogue-driven insight into the motivations of Singh and the Botany Bay survivor’s almost desperate desire to turn both Spock and the Vulcan’s illustrious commanding officer over to his rebellion’s side; “I was told not to trust you when you joined us. But my intuition told me otherwise. Just as it tells me that we can trust Kirk.”

Fortunately though, such an arguably actionless story-line doesn’t mean that there still isn’t plenty of dramatic entertainment to be had from the Brooklyn-born writer’s penmanship, especially when Khan’s façade of benevolent leader occasionally drops to reveal his evident superiority complex and unmistakable anger at not being the master of all. Kirk’s apparent betrayal of the Empire is also very well crafted, with the American author repeatedly providing “the fiercely loyal Imperial captain” with the opportunity to reveal whether he is genuine in his willingness “to become a traitor to the cause” or not.

Perhaps therefore this comic’s only real disappointment is in some of Matthew Dow Smith’s interior illustrations. It’s very clear from some of the panels that the artist is highly proficient at pencilling the facial likenesses of notable thespians William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and the aforementioned Montalbán. But such dedication seems to also cause many of his figures, especially when sketched from a distance, to appear disconcertingly stiff in their body positions, as well as ungainly in their movements.

The regular cover art of "STAR TREK: HELL'S MIRROR No. 1 by Matthew Dow Smith