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 next issue in this series:

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Manifest Destiny #2

• Interior artist Angel Hernandez and colorist Jose Luis del Rio are responsible for the regular cover that shows the reader exactly what to expect from this issue. Running along the hull of the Enterprise, Kirk and Spock have no place to hide from the Klingon ship that’s firing down at them.

  This is a good action cover, with the figures moving well and the perspective of the fighter and its blasts solid. The colors put a good spotlight on the running pair and the dead emerald of the ship behind them rightly makes it look like a dragon.

• The iconic Wrath of Khan poster by Bob Peak gets a slick updating from Tony Shasteen, the artist of IDW’s monthly Star Trek series. Ricardo Montalban has been replaced by Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirstie Alley by Zoe Saldana, Leonard Nimoy by Zachary Quinto, and William Shatner by Chris Pine.

  Regula I is receiving fire from the reboot Enterprise, and the classic desert setting of Ceti Alpha V, complete with Khan’s people, provides the remaining background. Seeing the new versions of the leads dressed in the clothing from the 1982 film is fantastic. This is perfection.

• J.K. Woodward is responsible for the retailer incentive cover. This is also an outstanding cover which shows Chekov with a Klingon helmet under this arm, surrounded by five of the aliens who have about two feet in height and 175 pounds over him. The Klingons make this look really cool and Pavel’s expression makes this humorous. Simply wonderful!

The last issue ended on a major cliffhanger: a force of Klingon warriors in environmental suits speeding to the Enterprise. This is no spoiler, Mike Johnson and Ryan Parrott spend the entire issue on this attack. It-is-absolutely-amazing.

Security forces race down the corridors of the Enterprise asking each other what’s going on; one says Romulans, another says Nausicaans. The talk stops when Kirk and Spock appear, already suited up to go outside the ship to stop the Klingon invaders. Kirk tells the men, “We’re on our own, light years from the nearest help. It’s fight or die. Today, we’re not explorers — We’re soldiers.” It’s only the first page and the tone of the issue is locked.

General Sho’Tokh, who made a terrific debut last issue, is even more impressive this issue. He’s leading his soldiers in the attack, he has fantastic commentary (Page 4), makes a brilliantly horrific decision (13), and makes a fantastically evil proclamation (24). This Klingon is shaping up to be the best original Klingon in Trek comic history since Mike W. Barr created Konom; though his personality is much, much more aggressive. Page 15 has the perfect summation about this antagonist.

The action is not confined to space because down on the planet McCoy is facing down six Klingons. The give and take between him and their leader Subcommander Divash is spectacular. Both characters reveal aspects of their personalities and species, concisely and thrillingly. McCoy spouts off to the Klingons as often as he does to his Federation allies and every word is gold. Divash has a fantastic moment on 20 that defines her and plants the seed for more chaos in the characters’ immediate future.

Johnson and Parrott build sensationally from the previous issue, delivering massive action sequences and sensational new characters. Why wasn’t this a story for a movie?

The first page of this book builds the tension well, starting with a security team running down a corridor, then transitioning to the team suiting up, and then to a heroic shot of Kirk and Spock ready for action, each holding a helmet in one hand and a phaser rifle in the other. This final panel is the largest on the page and is the perfect calm before the storm that starts on the full-paged splash of the next page. And what a second page! Klingons touching down on the ship’s hull with their cruiser racing by in the background. This is how to start a book!

Angel Hernandez kicks things into visual overdrive with both groups shooting phaser blasts at one another. There’s a shocking kill on Page 4 that crystallizes the villain’s character. The hand-to-hand combat is very impressive. Also impressive is the action on the planet. Divash is an incredibly strong figure in every panel she’s in, such as on Pages 6 – 8 and 9 – 20, with that final page defining her character completely; the second and last panels are awesome.

Special mention should also be make of 18 – 20 because of the setting’s resemblance to Vasquez Rocks, the iconic California location used for countless films and television shows, including the original series’ classic “Arena.” Hernandez wisely does not copy its famous profile, instead going all around the structure to create a familiarity to the reader.

Hernandez is doing some super work on this book.

Two new colorists appear in this issue: Doug Garbark and Adam Guzowski. Sometimes it’s very easy to tell one colorist’s work from the other, but not in this book. Both men are working perfectly in tandem.

The interiors of the Enterprise have a few appropriate opening lens flares to start things off, but when the destruction occurs within, debris, sparks, and smoke obscure the glow. It was also neat to see the red alert, which is constantly on, thankfully not dominate the individual characters’ coloring with crimson.

AndWorld Design provides the lettering for this installment, consisting of dialogue, communications in space, yells, a computer’s voice, sounds, and the tease for next issue. I was impressed to see the transition in fonts on Page 17 — very clever! And so nice to see that the shape of the dialogue balloons doesn’t solely define the text.