Our Trek Comics editor Patrick Hayes is back with a review of this month’s issue of IDW Publishing’s Star Trek comic series: the second chapter of “Eurydice,” the next adventure in the new Five Year Mission.

Order Star Trek #44:

• Uhura, McCoy, Sulu, and Kirk look spectacular on the regular cover, illustrated by Joe Corroney and colored by Brian Miller. With the exception of Kirk, who is, after all, the captain, the characters are slightly covered by a series of schemata that give this image a fantastic futuristic feel. The pose and facial expression of each character is great: Uhura, intrigued by some bit of data up high; McCoy, deadly serious as he looks forward; Sulu, confident with his phaser held ready; and Kirk, confident in the captain’s chair. The coloring by Miller evokes the lens flares of the Abrams’s films without overshadowing the figures. The backlit border around every character makes them pop against the surrounding technology.

• The photo cover is of Chris Pine as Kirk, holding a phaser rifle ready from Star Trek Into Darkness. It’s fine, and I’m a huge fan of photo covers, but unless the character is clearly seen, I’d prefer a vertical picture to that of a horizontal. Plus, I’d like the picture to somehow relate to the issue’s story.

The Enterprise is being towed by Eurydice’s ship, the Spectral. Kirk is not happy with this situation, but he realizes his job is to keep his crew safe. Stating his concerns to his ship’s savior, Eurydice transports him to her ship. She states her reasons for helping the Starfleet crew and in the process flirts very heavily with him.

This leads to one of the best page transitions at the top of 6. Once at their location, an away team and Eurydice make their way through some colorful characters until meeting the brains of the setting.

It’s difficult not to be thinking of Admiral Ackbar’s iconic phrase during this issue by writer Mike Johnson, and I’m glad to see that Kirk has the exact same concerns voiced on the very first page. Having the issue’s lead make this proclamation gives the reader a sense of menace throughout, but also an underlying sense of confidence in the captain which urges the reader on, even during a tense situation in the bottom two panels of Page 13.

The scene that begins on Page 16 is excellent. I wanted the crew to seek out new life and new civilizations, and this issue solidly goes there. The tone of the individuals introduced on this page is wonderfully dismissive and I’m looking forward to seeing how the crew can escape from this cliffhanger.

“Eurydice, Part 2” finally provides what I’ve been waiting for — an alien civilization that contains many new species and isn’t set in a wasteland of desert and/or rocks, or in a rural forest. Page 10 has the crew squarely set among a throng of new creatures. The exteriors are photo referenced, but artist Tony Shasteen has tweaked them just enough to make them alien. This follows the J.J. Abrams concept of familiar, yet different.

The first page that introduces this setting resembles New Orleans, but its characters are a wide menagerie of species. I liked that the character in the foreground was almost human looking, aside from the heroes, yet he requires a helmet to breathe. On this page are mammals, cyborgs, a plant creature, and two big headed individuals that look like Mardi Gras revelers.

A new batch of aliens appear on 11, also excellent looking, ending with the character the group interacts with on Page 12. This individual is humanoid and would easily fit into the cinematic adventures of the crew. The characters that appear on 16 are simple to describe (I won’t spoil them), but visually they are unlike anything seen in Star Trek. The different perspective shots of these creatures only made their size and obvious strength all the greater.

Kirk and his crew look great, as Shasteen has proven himself to be an excellent illustrator of all incarnations of Star Trek’s characters. Kirk is great on Pages 2, 4 (perhaps a tease?), and 17 – 20. Spock is emotionless perfection on 6, 7, 11, and 14. Eurydice, the major original character of this storyline, also looks good as she goes from seductress (5) to confident guide (10).

Special note should be made of the transporter effect that Eurydice uses, which is so startlingly different from the franchise’s standard effect as to be frightening.

Excellent color work throughout from Davide Mastrolonardo. The story’s wide tapestry of characters and locations allows him to really showcase his skills.

The electrical field that tows the Enterprise on the opening page is dynamically bright, the darker colors of the interior of the Spectral nicely contrast the brightness of the Enterprise, the violets, blues, and reds make the alien city alive, while the cool blues of those on 16 make them otherworldly.

Neil Uyetake does dialogue, narration, the voice of the Spectral’s computer, and the excellent voices of those on Page 16. I would like to see the Captain’s Log font be different from Kirk’s dialogue, but that’s a minor nit.