Star Trek #1431: Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes Part 6

1431. Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes Part 6

PUBLICATION: Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #6, IDW Comics/DC Comics, March 2012

CREATORS: Chris Roberson (writer), Jeffrey and Philip Moy (artists)

STARDATE: Unknown (follows previous issue).

PLOT: While Kirk tells Vandar where he can stick his empire, the combined Enterprise-Legion crew in prehistory gets Q out of his genie's bottle which restores the timeline.

CONTINUITY: See previous issues (Flint, Fatal Five, Q). The restored timeline features the planet Holberg 917G (Requiem for Methuselah) and Q dressed as Trelaine (The Squire of Gothos). Agony booths were used in Mirror, Mirror.

DIVERGENCES: The inference that Q and Trelaine are the same entity contradicts the novel Q-Squared.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Kirk loves those agony booth treatments.
REVIEW: The trip is over, but what fun we had. Structurally, one might complain that the crew that stayed in the "present" didn't have anything to do except get tortured and expositioned to, so they might as well have gone back in time with the rest where all the action was. One might, but then we'd miss out on Kirk being a cocky son of a bitch to Vandar and that's where 90% of the comic's entertainment value lies. Roberson's Kirk is just awesome and I hope he gets to write him again some day. It takes real balls to taunt a villain from inside a still-warm agony booth, and Kirk keeps putting on the pressure just to see if the caveman is still in there somewhere. Best of all, he gets one of those Kirk-trademarked speeches where he talks about the great thing about both franchises - the hope their respective utopias give us, the readers/viewers, for a better tomorrow. That's the power of Star Trek and Legion, showing that there'll come a day when we all work together regardless of gender, race or creed, that we'll be able to beat back poverty, famine and oppression. Back in time, while it's fun to see Spock and Brainy spark off each other, the story is more plot-driven. Q is treated like a genie who'll do your bidding if you only know how to ask. It's literally a deus ex machina type of thing, but then, the story sorta needed to push the reset button. Since no one but Q remembers it happening, we can go on believing it did despite it never being mentioned in the original episodes/comics. If there ever was a coda that deserved its "Never the end", this was it...

Comments

Martin Gray said…
Darn, I'm three issues behind ... methinks I should stop typing and take them to bed - I want to read your thoughts!