It’s this month’s issue of IDW Publishing’s Star Trek comic series: the second installment of “Legacy of Spock,” the next adventure in the new Five Year Mission.

There’s three choices of comic covers to pick from this month:

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• The regular cover hails from interior artist Tony Shasteen. It’s a shot of the original Spock, Kirk, and McCoy facing the reader with the saucer section of the Enterprise behind them. The likenesses of the characters are good, but the coloring is too pale. All the reflections, on the saucer and the characters, make it difficult to find a focus.

• John Watson takes a unique spin on the subscription cover. This is a beautiful rendering of The Girl with the Silver Earpiece. I don’t think Vermeer would have imagined that his painting would receive a re-imagining 351 years after its creation. Watson’s done a great job, even mirroring the expression of the original model onto Zoe Saldana’s face.
  

• The retailer exclusive cover can only be found at the EMP Museum in Seattle, Washington. Why there? The Experience Music Project also houses the Icons of Science Fiction, featuring memorabilia from classic sci-fi films and shows. This cover by Jeffrey Vergee is a terrific pop presentation.Standing atop the saucer section of the Enterprise, Kirk is flanked by young and old versions of Spock. Bold blue and yellow stripes of lateral energy project behind the characters. The design is cool and the coloring strong. This is the cover to seek out.

The second chapter of Mike Johnson’s Legacy of Spock opens just after the events of the classic Star Trek episode “Amok Time.” Before the Enterprise takes its leave of Vulcan, Kirk asks his first officer if he’d like to spend more time at home. Spock responds, “Humans’ use of the word ‘home’ carries with it a sentimental meaning to which Vulcans are immune. I was born on Vulcan, yes. But I have no emotional attachment to it.”

The ship breaks orbit and the story transitions to the present, where Spock has been asked to leave the Vulcan orbital ship, as the elders consider him partially responsible for their homeworld’s destruction. His father escorts him from the ship and their parting is an emotional one, at least for one of them. Spock is then transported to a destination that surprises the Starfleet captain, but will be very familiar to Trek fans: Deep Space Station K-7.

Before Spock encounters a famous character, Johnson moves the story to the Romulan border of the Neutral Zone, where a Romulan warship catches a Klingon ship with two crew members that will move the story into deadly territory.

Any scene with Spock is fantastic. Watching him relive the past was just awesome. Listening to his thoughts on the differences he encounters in this new universe creates an undeniable sense of melancholy. Beginning on Page 10 Spock finds whom he’s been looking for. The scenes between the character and Spock are great because the Vulcan knows everything about this man, so there’s no way this individual can take advantage of him.

Pages 9 and 13 are just a bore, and that’s a shame because they’re the antagonists of this story. Fans dealt with this threat in a film and in previous IDW comics. This horse has been beaten to death. Loving Spock, but tired of another trip to this well.

Tony Shasteen’s artwork continues to have outstanding character work. His illustrations on the first two pages and on 7 and 8 are wonderful. Old Spock looks great as he makes his way through several locations, with his slight smile on 8 infectious.

The slight changes done to the familiar character on 10 are excellent — he retains just enough of this past look to create recognition in readers, but has just enough variation in him to be new. Several alien characters populate K-7 and they are strange and exotic. The best looking characters of the book are the pair of originals that appear on Pages 5 and 6; I would love to see more of this pair.

The backgrounds, once again, pull Shasteen’s character work down. This is doubly surprising this issue because the work on the interiors on Page 4 are clean and sharp; they’re not given the blurry treatment that follows. Also on this page is the refashioned K-7 which looks fantastic.

This page is followed with the interiors of a different ship which contains a great looking chair for the captain, but only rudimentary shapes for a crew member’s station and a muddled screen that contains a perfectly focused image. The backgrounds only worsen at the new setting that begins on 14; they’re made to look blurry. Why this is done escapes me.

The work by Davide Mastrolonardo starts with bright colors and begin to consecutively dim starting on Page 9. Before this, the colors of the classic series bring some familiar warmth to the characters, and Page 5 uses a specific color to great effect for an iconic Trek race.

Starting on 9 espionage begins and the colors might be darkened to enhance the secretive nature of the story, but it never recovers. Worse, the backgrounds, if there are any, are continually paled behind the characters. This filtering effect is bizarre.

This issue introduces AndWorld Design to lettering Star Trek comics. They create narration, dialogue, scene settings, whispers (all four are the same font), transmissions, yells, and the tease for next issue.

It’s disappointing to see colors used to differentiate the first four types of text, rather than have them employ a unique design.