It’s this month’s issue of IDW Publishing’s Star Trek comic series: the third 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 first of three covers is by Tony Shasteen, the interior artist of this book. This cover is labeled the regular cover and comes as a bit of surprise, not because it features Spock, but because it includes Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

  Behind the pair is a planet whose sun is cresting. Good illustration of the characters. It looks like the artist was expecting the cover’s text to be larger, as Shasteen doesn’t normally leave that much empty space in his work.

• The subscription cover features art by Angel Hernandez with colors by Jose Luis del Rio. This features Spock front and center, looking solemnly at the reader. He’s flanked by Romulans Vella and Arix, both smiling, while behind them is the destruction of Vulcan. Excellent image that defines the key characters’ relationship and the incident that brought them together.

• The final cover, the retailer incentive cover, available exclusively from Merrymac Games and Comics, is the must get book. It’s an action figure cover that other publishers have been using and I’m ecstatic to see J.K. Woodward do this. A beautiful bust shot of Spock, with the Enterprise to his right, features a sensational quote from Leonard Nimoy.

  Below the iconic ship is a Spock action figure, with a tricorder slung over its shoulder, sporting a phaser in one hand and a communicator in the other. There’s no peghole at the top, nor is it constructed in the fashion of the Playmates action figures, but it’s still fantastic. More of this, IDW, please! And keep Woodward as the artist.

The penultimate chapter of “Legacy of Spock” by Mike Johnson begins in “An alternate timeline. The 24th century. The planet Romulus.” It’s a hitherto untold scene from “Unification II” as Spock, Picard, and Data are making their way through the tunnels under the capitol.

The Vulcan and the Parisian discuss Spock’s father as they make their way, culminating in their meeting with the Romulans who are against going to war with the Federation. It’s a high point for Spock, but the final panel on the fourth page transitions to the depressing present: Spock bound before the Romulan Senate, accused of plotting the destruction of Romulus in this timeline. Spock’s response to the charges are fantastic.

The proceedings against the Vulcan go on until Page 8 and are a terrific example of another world’s sense of justice, which is always incredibly fascinating to see in Star Trek. The dialogue from Pardek on 9 and 10 is a beautiful lead in to what immediately follows. Page 11 is brief; it could have gone on for a much longer time, but moves the story forward quickly. The character that appears on 14 is a delight to revisit and his justification for joining the group sums up his character perfectly.

The give and take between both parties of antagonists on 16 and 17 is great to see: witnessing the friction between the groups is good, with the males having the hotter tempers, which is a nice bit of differentiation and similarity between them. The final lines on 17 are utter brilliance from Johnson. These two pages focusing on the Romulans are a great introduction to Spock meeting with a specific group’s leader, with his final dialogue also being brilliant.

Tony Shasteen continues to be an outstanding character illustrator. Seeing his work with Picard and Data leaves a reader hoping he gets future opportunities to illustrate this arm of the franchise again. As this pair makes their way through the tunnels with Spock, Shasteen has them emote excellently.

The close up on Spock at the bottom of 4 is a perfect match for the text. The artist tops this moment with the second panel on 6. The Romulans from this timeline are glorious in familiar looking clothes. The returning character on 12 creates a smile with his introduction, and the somber character on 14 creates a sense of authority that the actress, whom her design is based on, commands.

There are also several ships in this issue illustrated by Shasteen and they, too, look outstanding. One vessel first shown on 9 is tremendous and only improves when it takes flight. Two additional ships appear on 11 and they’re great. Their scenes looked so good I wanted to see more of them. A different race’s ships appear on 14 and they’re terrific. Even when shown in holographic form, they’re awesome.

The interiors of the caves, the throng of the senate, the first panel on 9, the cockpit at the bottom of 9, and the blurry backgrounds on 16 and 17 tear away at Shasteen’s other work. It’s frustrating to look at items in the foreground be so good, while those in the background are done in this fashion. He is capable of excellent set pieces as shown on Pages 18 and 19. Just disappointing.

Good coloring work throughout the issue by Davide Mastrolonardo. The coloring done on the characters as they go through the tunnels nicely highlights the light source that Data carries. The Praetor prosecuting Spock always has the imperial emerald behind him.

Oranges are used to increase the tension on Pages 10 and 11. The rust red used for the ships on 14 instantly classify them as belonging to a specific series. The hologram work on 17 is very well done, and it’s nice to see it be done differently from the blues of Star Wars’ holograms.

AndWorld Design creates scene settings, narration, and dialogue (all three the same font), an editorial note, sounds, ship transmissions, yells, and the tease for next issue.

Some differentiation should really be done between the scene settings and the narration; were it not for the coloring of their dialogue balloons there would be no telling them apart.