2016 is the first summer that both STAR TREK and X-MEN team films will be in theaters at the same time – not counting the ‘Wolverine’ standalone flicks – so we thought we’d take a jump back in time to Marvel’s 1996 crossover adventure between the crew of the original Enterprise and Professor Xavier’s team of mutant heroes!
The cover of this special issue features a head shot of Kirk looks to his left, while Cyclops looks straight into the reader’s eyes. Below this pair, from left to right, are Spock, Kirk, Bishop, Storm, Jean Grey, McCoy, Wolverine, Beast, and Gambit.
These running characters are superimposed over an orange gas giant, with the Enterprise speeding off to the right. This is a good introduction to the main characters by Marc Silvestri and Batt. The illustration of Kirk isn’t as good as Cyclops, but the artists are doing their best to have him look like William Shatner.
A much better job is done with the television figures at the bottom. The X-Men look really good, but they should since Silvestri drew them for a few years.
From the captain’s log: “The Enterprise has returned to Delta Vega, the Federation quarantined planet where the ship lost two of its finest crew members…and I lost my best friend.”
A spatial anomaly circles the planet and it looks to be a “variation of the psionic energy which mutated Lt. Gary Mitchell and Dr. Elizabeth Dehner.” Just as the Enterprise goes closer to the phenomena a ship appears that dwarfs the iconic ship. An attempt is made to contact the new vessel but something occurs that thrusts the two teams together.
Credit must be given to Scott Lobdell for coming up with a viable way for the two teams to meet, with it remaining true to each franchise. McCoy is the first of the Trek cast to encounter the mutants and it’s good to see him wanting to help an injured person regardless of who he or she is.
Nurse Chapel initiates a funny bit with the doctor and a blue mutant. Wolverine, naturally, acts before thinking when discovered by another Trek character, though that one dispatches him with ease. The interactions between the characters is half the fun of this book, with Kirk even making a play on Jean Grey; good thing Scott wasn’t there.
The villains of the issue are a worthy pair, with one from each franchise. The X-Men baddie is a particular favorite and has ample history with the mutants for them to want to stop her plans. The Trek antagonist, though only in one episode of the series, is always resurrected to guilt Kirk, and the character does so in this book. However, the way in which he and the villainess are thwarted is new and very enjoyable.
Hold on to something, there’s a slew of artists on this book.
The pencillers include Marc Silvestri (pages 1 – 21), Billy Tan (22 – 25 and 27 – 37), Anthony Winn (28 – 40), and David Finch (page 26). Background assists were done by Brian Ching on pages 1 – 21.
Inks were by Batt on pages 1 – 8, 10 – 13, 15 – 19, and 21; D-Tron did 22, 25, and 27 – 37; Billy Tan did 9, 14, 20, 23, and 24; Aaron Sowd did 38 – 40; and Joe Weems V took care of page 26. There were additional ink assists by the following, though no pages are specified: Victor Llamas, Team Tron, Jose “Jag” Guillen, Viet Troung, and Mike Manczarek.
Marc Silvestri is an obvious draw for fans to this book as he was a popular penciller on Uncanny X-Men. His version of these mutants look terrific. He uses a very thin line on his characters and his visuals also often have characters with big hair, usually with several strands falling in front of their faces: open to any pages he did and both traits will be instantly found.
His Trek characters don’t fare so well, with the likenesses to the actors being apparent but achieved with much less line work than done on the X-Men. When the characters share the same panel they look as though they’re drawn in two different styles.
Billy Tan gets the next largest portion of the artwork. He’s much more adept at having the characters look as though they co-exist, even when the build of some characters are immense, such as Bishop side by side with Scotty. Tan gets to illustrate the climax between the forces and he does an excellent job. The characters attack the primary villain on a full page splash and lot is shown on that page.
The visuals on this book are fine, but it is noticeable when a new penciller takes over.
There are also several colorists on this book: Tyson Wengler, Steve Firchow, Jonathan D. Smith, and Richard Isanove. Sadly, nowhere in the credits does it say who is responsible for which pages.
Compared to present day Star Trek comics, there are very many colors. The exterior shots of the ships and all that occurs there are particularly vivid, as is the confrontation with the villains on the planet. Narration and dialogue balloons are also given specific colors so the reader can tell who’s speaking aloud or telepathically.
This is a very strong element of the book.
Whew! Only one letterer, Dennis Heisler, and he creates dialogue, the captain’s log, sounds, character identification and narration, speech in the vacuum of space, telepathic conversations, and yells.
Having the dialogue employ italics at times allows the reader to hear the emphasis of a character’s speech makes the reading experience more real.
There are seven pin-ups in this book, each providing a unique mash-ups and interpretations of characters.
- Terry Dodson and Rachel Pinnock do the first and it’s a great illustration, by the future married couple, featuring head shots of Kirk and Cyclops with Uhura, Wolverine, and Gambit ready for action.
- Mike Deodato, Jr., has a reclined Dejah Thoris (sporting horns to make her different from the Edgar Rice Burroughs character) beckoning to an agape Spock.
- The three main Trek characters stand on transporter pads as the Enterprise files above them in a murky illustration by Steve Epting.
- Garry Frank and Cam Smith have Beast and Spock playing chess on a page that looks nothing like what Frank does today: interesting to see!
- Kirk is about to receive a massive blow from a huge Klingon as Spock aims his phaser in an exciting illustration by Joe Bennet.
- The penultimate piece is by Pascal Terry and John Dell. This looks like house art from a mid-90’s Marvel; it’s okay.
- Val Semeiks and Dell do the final pin-up showing Spock, Kirk, and McCoy encountering mechanical tentacled life.
Kirsten Beyer, who has been crafting the Star Trek: Voyager relaunch novel series since 2009, confirmed to TrekCore that she will be joining Bryan Fuller and the rest of the writing staff for the 2017 Star Trek series coming to CBS All Access.
