In brightest day, in blackest night… our Trek Comics editor Patrick Hayes is here with his review of the fourth chapter of IDW Publishing’s Star Trek crossover comic: Star Trek / Green Lantern: The Spectrum War!

The fourth of this miniseries adds three more covers for your collection:

Order Star Trek / Green Lantern #4

• Marc Laming provides the illustration and Lara Margarida the coloring on the A cover which has the deadliest villain in Green Lantern’s history, and perhaps the DC Universe, Nekron. This is a spectacular image of the dark villain in gigantic stature swinging his scythe at the Enterprise. He looks terrific, with the clothing on his shoulders shredded, seemingly swarming about the Federation’s flagship. The look of evil glee on his face is perfect. Also perfect are the colors, with the back lighting on him excellent and the pale blue heart of his chest matching the deflector shield of the Enterprise. This is the cover I went with.

• The B cover features three Klingon Birds of Prey under fire from the Enterprise. To the left of this encounter are head shots of Kirk and Spock looking worried, with Chang below them looking at the action occurring just below him. The battle he’s looking at is the Romulan wearing the orange power ring throwing energy at the red wearing Gorn, who’s returning fire. Below the pair are the Romulan Senate constructs. On the far left is a huge head shot of Hal Jordan as Green Lantern. This cover is painted by J.K Woodward, and I would have picked this up along with the A cover if my store had it in stock.

• The final cover has Garry Brown handling the art chores with Doug Garbark on the colors. This is a great idea for cover that’s just a little too rough for my liking. An enormous Decius, bathed in the light of his orange ring, is about to capture the Enterprise. It reminds me of “Who Mourns for Adonais?” with the giant hands (okay, there are two instead of one) grasping the ship. The linework on the Romulan’s shoulders and the distorted work on the Enterprise keeps me from giving this a high grade.

Star Sapphire relates to the crew of the USS Enterprise how her universe was destroyed by Nekron. She worries what he may do the same to this new universe — the Star Trek universe — that they’ve been sent into.

Hal believes that Nekron can’t come to this new universe since the wielder of the black ring is not part of the emotional spectrum, he’s “the exact opposite of that. He’s darkness, decay… Pure entropy.” Leave it to Spock to bring up that entropy is an intrinsic part of every universe, so the villain could exist in their universe, too.

Kirk asks if the Lanterns can defeat him again; Hal doesn’t think so. The first time it was Kyle, the white ringed Lantern, that defeated him, but the second time they fought he killed Kyle. Plus there’s an addition problem: their rings need to be recharged by power batteries, but they were all destroyed by Nekron. Only the Blue Lantern, Saint Walker, can recharge them, but he’s in sick bay being nursed to health by Dr. McCoy.

Dejected, Hal says, “If we couldn’t stop Nekron will the combined might of all the corps, the odds are even lower now.” Which has Kirk responding, “A no-win scenario, Jordan? You’ve come to the right ship.”

Mike Johnson then has his story return to Romulus as Larfleeze teaches Decius a thing or two about his new ring. Back on the Enterprise, Mr. Scott has decided to see if something can be replicated, but this is interrupted by a starbase under attack from Atrocitus and Glocon. However, before Hal and the Enterprise can arrive, another ring wielder arrives at the base and things escalate in an unexpected direction.

Pages 14 and 15 have more Lanterns arriving and things get even more chaotic. Rather than have this become a ring slinging fest, Johnson has one character show why he’s considered a villain on 17. This moment is so in line with his persona from DC Comics that I wish that Johnson could have taken two more pages to show exactly what each character is seeing, but the words spoken will have to suffice — and they are good, don’t get me wrong, but I really wanted to see what each character sees.

The cliffhanger for the battle is great, and the final page hints at bigger foes to come. This is going to get really interesting next issue!

The visuals on this issue by Angel Hernandez are good. The first page is a good introduction to the horrors that the Lanterns encountered from Nekron and his undead minions. The second page opens with a solid emotional shot of Star Sapphire showing fear at what may happen to her new home. In the background of this panel are four lead characters listening in silence.

I don’t know what part of the Enterprise this is, but its huge windows provide an immediate setting for readers. The top of Page 3 has a nice face on Uhura that matches her dialogue, and the third panel has a terrific, though grotesque, image of Kyle Rayner. Decius and his Senate constructs look great. There are several exterior shots in this issue due to the number of Lanterns zipping about and doing battle.

Page 10 is a great sci-fi fantasy shot of the pair of red lanterns attacking the starbase. This captures the fantastical elements of their rings and is completely topped by the full page splash on 12, which is a major “WOW!” moment. Hernandez has got a strong handle on Sinestro’s face and every time he appears he looks fantastic.

There are a few speed bumps in the art: Spock looks odd in most of his panels and Larfleeze is the most human looking I’ve ever seen — what happened to his snout? I don’t like Chekov and Spock on 17, and there aren’t enough figures in the final panel. Yes, they’re just appearing, but the first three panels on the page could have been shortened to two to allow more figures in the final panel. Still, these are speed bumps, not deal breakers.

With all the different colors being thrown about the Lanterns, Alejandro Sanchez really gets to explode all over this book. The issue begins with dark sedate colors for the retelling of Nekron’s win and these continue when the scene transitions to the Enterprise.

Granted, the lanterns are bright, but not luminescent. That happens when the story shifts to Romulus and the oranges come to life boldly. The attack on the starbase has strong colors that make the energy unleashed by the lanterns seem real. However, the coloring is spectacular on 12, which is the “WOW” moment. The art is good, but the coloring really sells the dramatic arrival. The partial double-paged spread on 14 and 15 has several different Lanterns’ light, so it looks spectacular.

Green dominates a surprising setting on 18, and goes really big on 19. Sanchez is sensational on this issue.

Neil Uyetake provides dialogue, transmissions, and scene settings (the same font for all three), sounds, yells, one word of dialogue, and next issue’s tease.

I wish that a different font had been used for the first three elements, because having all three as the same makes this look like a rush job, and I know Uyetake can do better.