Star Trek: The Mirror War #7 - IDW Publishing

STAR TREK: THE MIRROR WAR No. 7, July 2022

Positively packed with scintillating spaceship action, just the sort of edge-of-seat political intrigues one would expect from the deadly Mirror Universe, and the increasingly zealous aggression of the maniacal Jean-Luc Picard, Scott and David Tipton’s narrative for Issue Seven of “Star Trek: The Mirror War” masterfully manipulates all the very best elements of Gene Roddenberry’s franchise into a veritable rollercoaster of a comic book ride. Sure, it’s somewhat hard to cheer on a cold-blooded killer who is perfectly capable of flushing his former friend out into the airless void once ‘the Outrageous Okona’ has evidently outlived his usefulness. Yet considering the duplicitous nature of the I.S.S. Enterprise-D’s senior officers, it’s arguably difficult for anyone upon the Galaxy-class starship’s bridge to legitimately cast aspersions against another.

Furthermore, when the sense-shattering shenanigans of a story are this good, it probably doesn’t matter who wins or loses, especially as its evident that despite the selfish motivation of the bald, goatee-bearded captain, he is fighting for the very survival of the Terran Empire against the overwhelming odds of an extra-terrestrial aggressor; “I want every vessel in my armada ready to deal death to the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance in hours, not days. I’m altering the plan. Crippling this Cardassian rabble is no longer enough.”

Perhaps this publication’s biggest asset, however, is in the attention to detail of its considerably sized cast as opposed to the blockbuster space battles. Picard’s descent into a berserker-fury unsurprisingly captures most of the ‘spotlight’. But there’s still plenty of double-dealing to enjoy with the likes of Riker, Troi, La Forge and Crusher unwisely deciding that now is precisely the right time to eliminate Jean-Luc and claim the captain’s chair for themselves. These vying perfidious personalities really are extremely well-penned and contain some nice touches, such as Geordi’s greed making him hesitant at ruining such a successful command, and Miles O’Brien’s evident irritation at not being addressed by Data as “Captain” whilst he’s in charge of the I.S.S. Defiant.

Equally as engrossing as the script though must be Gavin Smith’s layouts and Charlie Kirchoff’s colours. The artistic team do a first-rate job in depicting the sheer grandeur of two antagonistic armadas beating the hell out of each other with “full volleys of photon torpedoes and focused phaser spreads.” Plus, there’s a plethora of proficiently pencilled human touches dotted throughout the interior-set panels, like Beverley scowling at Picard as she tends to her badly injured son, and ‘Captain Brahms’ horror when her attempt to commandeer the Enterprise fails miserably.

Writers: Scott & David Tipton, Artist: Gavin Smith, and Colorist: Charlie Kirchoff