Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Star Trek franchise in 2016 with this all-new bi-weekly comics event, when Captain Kirk and the Enterprise crew faces off against the Klingons in an ultimate showdown!

There are a trio of covers to collect for the first issue in this series:

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Manifest Destiny #1

• A fearsome Klingon bears his teeth in smug anticipation of killing Kirk and Spock, whose images are shown in the alien’s d’k tahg. This is a terrific regular cover by Angel Hernandez, with colors by Jose Luis del Rio. The art is spectacular and is a great way to introduce the antagonist of the issue to the reader. The colors could have been a little brighter; the light choices are making this somewhat difficult to make out.

• Tony Shasteen, artist of the monthly Trek title, does an excellent homage to the poster from Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Bob Peak for the subscription cover. Below the classic rainbow streaks are Chris Pine’s Kirk, Zoe Saldana’s Uhura, and Zachary Quinto’s Spock – standing in for Shatner, Persis Khambatta, and Nimoy – while the alternate-universe Enterprise blazes forward under this trio. This is hitting all the right notes. (NOTE: Corrected description from original post.)

• The retailer incentive cover is by Rachael Stott, with Francesca Zambon doing the colors. This is a unique piece for focusing on McCoy, who hasn’t been a cover’s focus since John Byrne featured the good doctor in his own series. McCoy holds a bat’leth, his shirt doing the Shat proud by being torn, surrounded by several dead or dying Klingons. A great art job with some dim coloring. If this had been brighter it would have been outstanding.

This opening installment by Mike Johnson and Ryan Parrott opens on a primitive world whose inhabitants’ technology is at a level of America’s native peoples. Accompanied by narration from The Apocrypha of the Trials of Kahless, the people look up as fire rains down upon them. The Klingons are invading: their ships fill the skies and their troops massacre the inhabitants.

Their flag is raised and the command is given, “Swear fealty or die!” Commander Sho’Tokh is congratulated by an attache for a most efficient victory. “Perhaps,” he muses, “but without any test of our true strength.” With execution orders given to all save the “able-bodied males and the fertile females,” one soldier questions the command to include the children in their killing. This question does not go unanswered.

This exciting opening next moves to the Enterprise, where Doctor McCoy is involved in a procedure that has him waxing about the lack of change in the galaxy. This leads to a funny bit of Spock dialogue before a distress beacon comes to Uhura’s attention. An investigation occurs, naturally, and something unexpected occurs, naturally.

Making the Klingons the villains of this story is an excellent choice by Johnson and Parrott, and putting McCoy front and center in the story is another smart decision. The IDW main series has focused on everyone but McCoy it seems, and Bones finally gets some great lines and great scenes, with Pages 18 – 21 being awesome: if only Karl Urban got to do some of this in a film.

The crew of the Enterprise has some exciting moments in orbit around the mystery planet, and the cliffhanger is outstanding. The page that ends this book features the Klingons doing something that’s been seen in the previous two films, so it makes perfect sense that they would be capable of the same ability… but it seems so much cooler with them doing it. This was a great read.

The invasion of the alien world in the first five pages is something even a non-Klingon would have to proclaim as “glorious.” The phaser blasts into the village on Page 1 are the perfect, violent way to open this tale. The full paged splash on 2 is the jaw-dropper it needs to be for the number of ships and characters creating chaos.

The reveal of Sho’Tokh on 3 is an excellent image of the book’s villain. As he walks in the wake of his troops, the backgrounds are a slick composition of ruins and billowing smoke. Artist Angel Hernandez has created a classic Klingon ground attack.

The crew of the Enterprise looks just as impressive, with Kirk, Spock, and Uhura being particular stand outs. The backgrounds are also well done. In the planet’s innards, Uhura looks great in the action sequences, with her ponytail being a sensational way to show her rapid movements.

I haven’t neglected McCoy because he really shines in an exceptional slam bang scene: Hernandez makes it very exciting with the characters’ movements easy to follow – and gasp at – in a tight space. The action on board the Enterprise is also good, highlighted by debris whipping around the characters.

Ester Sanz does the colors on this book and uses them to add to the action of Hernandez’s work. The first two pictures of the book employ peaceful and calming tans and greens that change to frantic oranges to show the devastation by the Klingons. The transition to cool blues on 6 create a technological mood.

When the ship goes to red alert, the characters have a light red reflection on them, rather than turning to a matching crimson of the backgrounds — a welcome change. The interiors of the planet have an eerily impressive shade of purple which reminds the reader that he or she is on an alien world with the characters.

Narration, sounds, yells, dialogue, a scene setting, and ship’s transmissions are transported onto each page by AndWorld Design.

They have created a nice variety of fonts; the sounds are a particularly sweet collection, owing much to the Klingon invasion. It’s impossible not to take joy from all the CHKOWs!