Character backgrounds aren’t always well publicized in a franchise like Star Trek, but when they do get some time in the spotlight, that’s when they catch fan attention.

How many awesome stories have Trek novelists created that feature characters who only appeared for a few episodes and how well do fans respond to them? It’s a very familiar effect and it serves as the backbone for this look at T’Kuvma, the Klingon we hardly knew, in The Light of Kahless #3.

Written by Star Trek: Discovery’s Kirsten Beyer and IDW’s own Mike Johnson, we continue to look at T’kuvma’s background told to Voq by his most loyal supporter. L’Rell recounts the betrayal of his sister, the death of his nephew and other family histories that saw his beginnings as the herald of Kahless’s light in bringing the Klingon Houses together.

The story so far: we learn about T’Kuvma’s return to his home, only to see his sister standing with his enemies… and his dead brothers and father on the floor. It is a betrayal, but one that T’Kuvma can recover from. His time at the Boreth monastery has taught him patience, resolve and given him great endurance.

He can recover from a great deal of adversity because of his ideals, but these form the basis of his character and these traits serve him well as as he eventually takes his loyal retainers out into space. There, they begin the search for the symbol that will hopefully bring his people together as a unified force to feed the Klingon desire for conquest.

And that’s the basis for the T’Kuvma who we were briefly introduced to in the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery. This comic is all about backstory, which means that a character vital to the fabric of our understanding of Klingon history and culture in this new iteration of Star Trek finally gets his due. However, it is a somewhat frustrating story as we all know his eventual and premature demise.

But the motivations for this book are the real story here. Beyer is getting a shot at developing this character further in this book; that’s clearly a driving motivation for her. Mike Johnson is steadily continuing to build up his undisputed claim as THE Star Trek authority at IDW. His longstanding pedigree is without stain and it’s clear that any more he can add to the Trek mythos is clearly a sensible career move and working with the characters from Discovery can only add to his repertoire.

The Light of Kahless #2 sold about just over 8000 units back in January, according to comichron.com. That’s hardly an overwhelming number, but despite the sales, my personal opinion is that it’s more about getting a chance to play with the character more in a medium that allows for a greater degree of flexibility of storytelling.

Chris Claremont once told me that the greatest feature of comics is that he and a gifted artist like John Byrne or Walter Simonson could tell a story that would take Steven Spielberg millions of dollars to produce. It’s not a stretch of imagination to see that idea means that Beyer might get a wider latitudet IDW to contribute ideas that might not see ground in the Star Trek writers’ room.

As for Mike Johnson – well, this is clearly just fun for this master writer. Johnson is adding major Trek-credit to his portfolio by writing about the new version of Klingons that Discovery has introduced in this latest, and we have to acknowledge, canonical addition to Trek lore.

The question I want answered though, is will this series add something relevant to the new season of DISCO that’s shooting within the next month in my backyard, up here in Toronto? It’s a good question, because Trek fans all know how much influence ancillary medium like comics and novels add to the continuum of Trek.

After all, we all know how much of an influence The Final Reflection by John M. Ford has played in determining the important aspects of Klingon culture. The same can be applied to the work of Johnson. While numbers of the comic are not overpowering, they are read by the core of fans who influence the others.

The covers for this book aren’t as outstanding as I’d like to see, save for the main one by Tony Shasteen.

• There are two IDW artists who differ in techniques that I absolutely am stunned by: J.K. Woodward’s painting and Tony Shasteen’s pencils. In this case, it’s Shasteen who does the art work on the main cover for this book and it is truly astounding in the simplicity of its delivery.
   
  Shasteen has a gift for likenesses and his speed is pretty much the envy of many an artist, according to the comic gossip that I’ve been privy to. This cover is probably my favourite not only because of its accuracy but because of the emotional intensity. Because of the overpowering dental prosthetics the Klingon characters are forced to wear, the volume of their line delivery is perhaps subconsciously louder than one would expect.
   
  Of course, Klingons shout, but when a reader looks at this cover, it’s very easy to imagine that volume and emotional expression. Shasteen manages to capture that in this image and it’s definitely a success in my book.
   
• Cover B is a photo of actor Ken Mitchell as Kol — enough said.
   
• The first retailer-incentive cover is from George Caltsoudas, and while I normally am not a fan of figurative illustrations that he often comes up with, he has been known to take my breath away sometimes. This one truly captures the spirit of the “new” Klingons of this series and should really be a main cover instead of a photograph.
   
• The same applies to Declan Shalvey’s wonderful illustration of a Klingon combat vessel on the second retailer-incentive cover; the ‘cleave ship’ which cut the USS Europa in half during the Battle of the Binary Stars. Shalvey’s illustration has generated a curiosity in me; I’d like to learn more about this ship. But, in my opinion, that’s what a cover is supposed to do: foment interest in the details of the story.

Of course, that’s the drive of this book: generate more interest in the character and the background of the television series in order to add more viewer investment. There is so much that fans want answered that can’t come out in the limitations of the episode. Supplementary media like comics and novels help to fill in the gap and give fans that sense of fulfillment and these are the comic creators who can make that happen.

I’m looking forward to the end of this miniseries in April, to not only learn if there is any more content that will tie into the second season of Discovery, but also to see what was hoped for T’Kuvma’s character. In addition to The Light of Kahless #4, IDW has both the first Discovery Annual coming soon, as well as their next four-issue miniseries Succession, set in Discovery‘s Mirror Universe.

Lots of Star Trek: Discovery comic action is still on the way — watch for my reviews as those stories arrive.