We’re playing a bit of comic catch-up this weekend! Our Trek Comics editor Patrick Hayes is here with his review of the second chapter of IDW Publishing’s Star Trek crossover comic: Star Trek / Green Lantern: The Spectrum War.
After last issue’s overdose of variants, there are only three different covers for you to go after as you wear your orange power ring.
Order Star Trek / Green Lantern #2
- The A cover features art by Paul Pope and color by Jordie Bellaire. It’s been used extensively to promote this issue and I’m really surprised. This has got a definite style, to be sure, but I just don’t like it. Kirk is trying to turn Hal Jordan’s hand as the lantern’s power ring begins to project emerald energy. In the background, between the men, are the remains of a castle-like structure, with Uhura dressed as a violet lantern. Kirk looks terrible: his lips are enormous and his body is at an odd tilted angle compared to his head. His left arm looks too long for his body, though Hal’s right looks the same. I don’t recall ever seeing Hal wear a lantern suit with shoulder pads like this. Uhura is practically skeletal — look at her arms! The coloring is good, I do like the pink sky, but with art like this, there’s not much else to enjoy.
- Darick Robertson does the art and Diego Rodriguez the colors on the B cover, and this is the one you’ll want to purchase. Kirk, Keenser, Kirk, Kilowog, Scotty, Hal, Tomar-Re, and Ch’p all look outstanding on this cover. I like how each looks ready for action, the lanterns with their rings, Spock and Kirk with phasers, Keenser with a welding torch, and Kilowog and Scotty just plain ole’ mad-dogging the reader. I really like the layout and the colors are perfect. I wish my local store had had a copy of this.
- Sinestro has his typical ominous look on his face as his yellow power ring hovers above his open fist, radiating energy about the dark space, illuminating the Klingons that surround him. This was a good idea for the Subscription cover by Garry Brown with colors by Doug Garbark, but this comes across as a sketch. All the characters’ faces look incomplete and the coloring is very splotchy. The neon yellow Klingon insignia behind them looks good, but it’s against a sloppily rendered sky of streaks. What they’re supposed to be, who can say? Not me. A let down.
This installment opens with an ancient Klingon proverb: “Fear is power.” Aboard his ship, General Chang is bathed in the yellow light of the power ring that invaded in the previous issue. He screams, “Viq hos!” and flies off the bridge. As this is occurring, Green Lantern Hal Jordan is assisting the U.S.S. Enterprise, keeping it flying while the crew is trying to get the power up. However, he wants to know why “…you’ve got my friend’s skeleton on board.”
Kirk answers he’d love to explain, but he’s got his hands full. The fourth page reveals that both Chekov and Uhura are now wearing rings, he blue and she violet. Making matters a little more startling is their ability to fly about the bridge. Their strange powers take a back seat when Chang arrives, reveling in his newfound strength.
If one were unfamiliar with any abilities of what a power ring can do, this issue addresses them. Mike Johnson has the lanterns show rather than tell what the rings can do. Not answered is why certain people received specific colors, with McCoy’s ring being a very odd choice, since that those who wear them in the DC Universe have been revealed to be serial killers. Does Bones have a secret he’s not told? I don’t think it’s anything as heinous as mass murder, but I’m really concerned why he has “that” ring.
Two things that are shown in this issue is who receives the orange and red rings. They both go to Star Trek aliens, and both surprised me. Orange represents avarice and red rage. The orange ring has become something of a joke of a ring in DC comics, and, as with McCoy, I was really stunned to see who got this. The red ring wearer makes more sense, as this race has had very little shown of them in television, film, or comics, so this series is a good way to remind fans of them, and get them past throwing rocks off of mounds in a Los Angeles National Park.
Starting on Page 18, Johnson has a character doing something major in Star Trek history. Though the world that’s effected by these actions has gone though many tumultuous changes, I don’t recall something like this being so quick and so violent. The reason behind it is absolutely in line with that character’s mindset, but he actually went and did it!
Smartly, his changes are undone in one panel, with the last page’s reveal having me smiling in glee. I didn’t think that this character would make an appearance in this series. When he appears in other books, the power structure is always thrown out of whack, and he’s obviously going to do the same thing in this series.
I’m rubbing my hand in devious glee at his inclusion.
On first glance, the visuals by Angel Hernandez are good. However, looking closely some small flaws become noticed, and, looked at as a whole, hurt the book.
The first page starts strong with Chang getting zapped with power. Throughout the book, Hernandez does do an excellent job on the energy that the all the ring wielders sling, such as on 5, 7, 9, 10, 14, 19, and 20. The construct made by the individual on Page 7 looks ripped right out of a DC comic. The poses he gives to the three Enterprise crewmembers as they float/fly about the ship are beautiful. Each person looks lost in the wonder of what they are now capable, which is what anyone would feel. Chekov is particularly cool as he embraces his power.
It’s the non-ring wears that begin to bring the book down. The design of the characters on Page 8 doesn’t sit right. They are very different from how they were shown in their two television appearances, and are so hunched over to make them look as though they’ll fall over at any moment. Lovecraft seems more of source for their heads than the species for which they’re supposed to be related.
Take a look at the panel when one individual gets a ring. It’s very difficult to make out any details in either, with the one witnessing the event being severely undrawn. The next species to get a ring is shown on 13. The second panel is a huge crowd shot with faces sadly disappearing the farther they are from the focus of the image. The last panel on the page focuses on four characters, and even they, in a close-up, are generic. On the following page when the chosen person receives their ring, he flies above the crowd, which has become a faceless throng. This is really disappointing.
The most painful character is Hal Jordan when he arrives on the bridge to face off with Kirk, Page 16. Why is his head so flat? On 17 Hal’s hair has a part in the first panel that makes him look like he doing a comb-over on his ‘do.
The settings are also a mixed bag. The interiors on the Enterprise are strong. I really liked the different perspectives that Hernandez put into them, with Page 4 being really sharp. They continue to look good on 5 as the same set is shown from four different angles. Again, things begin to slump with the two new species. Page 8’s first panel suggests a structure with no real detail. The second panel has the characters in a room filled with gigantic statues of heroes from their past. Foreshadowing what’s to come with the next species, the farther the statues are from the reader the more their features disappear.
Page 9 is filled with a random series of rough columns to suggest an interior. The setting encountered on Page 18 is instantly recognizable, and this is good, but the second panel has me completely at a loss where the character is entering from. I can’t tell. I’m also surprised at the lack of items in the room in the third panel — it’s not designed in any way with what I’m accustomed to seeing with this species on television or film.
There are visual highs and lows throughout.
A Green Lantern book has got to be bright. There’s not a chance of readers believing in the power of the power rings unless the light emanating from them is strong — and Alejandro Sanchez does a fantastic job in bringing them to life.
When Chang is hit by the yellow power ring, Sanchez has the yellow dominate the rust colors inside the Klingon ship. When he flies out of his ship into space, the yellow illuminates his vessel. Even his dialogue balloons are now outlined in yellow to show how the ring dominates his being. Hal’s narration is nicely put in a calming green that is darker than the energy that he flings from his ring.
All characters wearing a ring have a neon outline around their bodies that matches their ring’s color. This is as it’s done in the DC comics, and it looks great on the Trek characters. The oranges that come out of the character that wears the orange ring are spectacular. Page 19 has the strongest work of the book, with a ring’s energy lighting up a very dark interior. It looks realistic.
Neil Uyetake’s lettering this time around includes a quote, narration, dialogue, and scene settings (all three the same font), ring speak, sounds, and the “To Be Continued!” I was really taken aback that the new species shown on Page 8 didn’t have a unique font for their speech; of all the races in Star Trek, they truly deserve a change of font.
Having scene settings done the same as narration and dialogue was also sad to see. When is this ever done in a comic? It’s usually differentiated to show that it’s not dialogue. These choices make this look like a rush job.
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When it was time to go to set, the production coordinator for Star Trek Beyond, Jason, met us at the hotel and we hopped into a van. The drive was beautiful (I’m in love with Vancouver) and when we got there, jaws literally dropped.
AL SHARIF: Star Trek is very well-known across the Arab world and a big part of pop culture here in the Middle East.
