Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Friday. I'm back for a comic book review and this time I'll be talking about the first issue of DC Comics's monthly series for Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1989. I'm also going to be doing a segment where, I'll be looking at the major issues and graphic novels/collected editions coming out around the time the issue I'm reviewing came out. So let's dive into the first issue of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
I think I've made my love for Star Trek very well known on my various blogs over the last seven years. And I think I've also made my nostalgia for both of the Star Trek comics published by DC Comics from 1989 until 1996 known as well. But, here's the thing, this is my first time owning the first issue of the Star Trek: The Next Generation ongoing monthly series, having started reading the book at issue #31 when I was a kid, and never finding this issue for an affordable price until a few weeks ago, when I finally found it at the Geeked Out Toy Sale that Brad and I went to. So I thought that was pretty cool.
Story and character wise, not a whole lot happens in this issue. On Stardate 42305.7 the Enterprise has been summoned to the planet, Raimon where Picard has been asked to attend the Primarch's death celebration. The Primarch is what the Raimonians call their leader. According to Picard's opening Captain's Log, Raimonians celebrate death by having a party for a person before they die, so they may attend the celebration. Which is...interesting to say the least. Anyway both Picard and Riker beam down to the planet, which is a GREAT idea when you're in Starfleet. Especially when you only have two security officers with you and neither of them are Worf. The reason Picard was asked to attend the Primarch's death celebration is because back when Picard was on the USS Stargazer, though before he was that ship's captain, he and the crew attended the previous Primarch's death celebration. So, now, some twenty years later though no timeline is established as to how long it had been since Picard was last on Raimon, Picard meets the Primarch's daughter, Lutina, who was only five years old when Picard had been on the planet previously, and Lord Tardol, a member of the Primarch's council who doesn't like offworlders such as Picard.
I won't spoil the ending but the issue ends on a cliffhanger as this story continues into the second issue, which I don't have. However, I will say that nothing interesting happens on the ship. There's a scene where Geordi and Worf are on the Holodeck with Worf fighting one of his calisthenics monsters, though one that was never on the show, and then there's a scene with Wesley, Doctor Pulaski, Geordi, and Chief O'Brien in Ten Forward talking about hearing Picard praising a five year old girl (the Primarch's daughter) despite his known discomfort around children. The only scene that we get on the Bridge is with Worf, Data, and Troi where Troi muses that she can normally sense the emotions of the person sitting in the captain's chair, i.e. Picard or Riker, but can't with Data due to him not having emotions since he's an Android. But that's pretty much it. The majority of the story takes place on Raimon with Picard and Riker.
The artwork is amazing as always. Unlike the six issue TNG mini-series that DC published in 1988, this series and it's artist, Pablo Marcos, had the benefit of having had the TV show be on for two seasons up to this point so set designs, and character models are more on point than in the mini-series. Though it still has that '80s Star Trek comic book thing where there's at least one character wearing a costume that was never seen on the show. In this instance it's Worf wearing some sort of exercise outfit that looks more like something William Ware Theiss would've designed for the Original Star Trek series in the '60s. Also Pulaski's hair is a bit more blond than it is on the TV show, or in later issues of the DC TNG series that she makes guest appearances in. It also has that thing where the locations on the ship are a bit off. In this issue, the entrance to Picard's ready room is beside the fish tank, where the replicator would normally be. They've never actually resolved that particular issue though as in issue #71 the entrance to the observation lounge (briefing room) that would lead out into the rampway up to the Bridge, leads directly onto the Bridge, and is located in the bulkhead where the models of the various starships named Enterprise hung should be.
Also, in this issue, in the wide shot of the Bridge at the beginning of the scene I mentioned earlier, Worf, Data, and Troi are the only ones on the Bridge, with nobody manning the forward Conn and Ops stations. This was actually a thing that the first few episodes of the TV show had, where the senior officers would be the only ones on the Bridge with tactical being unmanned or Ops being unmanned, for whatever reason. The show started hiring more extras after about the fourth or fifth episode though. So it's weird to see a lack of personnel on the Bridge of the Enterprise in a comic book.
Even though the story continues in the next issue and not a whole lot actually happens, this is still a pretty decent issue. The first issue of the second ongoing monthly Star Trek came out at around the exact same time as this issue did but the writers of the series had more leeway with the TOS series because they were coming off of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and at this point Star Trek VI was going to be a prequel so the comics could tell stories without running into the next movie. Which meant they could leap off story elements leftover from both The Voyage Home and The Final Frontier without running into problems. And they ended up crafting a storyline that continued for the first 24 issues of the series.
With the TNG series though, they only had two seasons to go on, and as the third season hadn't started yet, I don't think the people at DC knew whether Pulaski would be back for season 3 or if Doctor Crusher was returning or what. Neither did the audience when this issue came out in August as the season wouldn't start until September. Which is why the first four issues take place during season 2 rather than during season 3 as the issues were written and the artwork was done months before the issues were to be published. Which is why you had those weird inconsistencies in the six issue mini-series that preceded the ongoing series as all the writer and artist had to go on were still shots, promotional material and episode scripts as the show wouldn't air before production on the comics were finished. So, overall a very good first issue. Now, I'm going to be talking about the five major issues, graphic novels, and collected editions that came out around this time.
The first issue I'm going to be mentioning is Batman #440, which was part one of "A Lonely Place of Dying", the storyline that introduced Tim Drake. This landmark issue came out the same week as Star Trek: The Next Generation #1 hence why I'm talking about it here. Until I saw it on the DC Checklist of the Week in the inside front cover of the issue, I didn't realize that the two books came out the same week. So that's pretty cool. I have "A Lonely Place of Dying" in trade paperback form, so I'll be reviewing that at some point.
The first major single issue to be advertised in the book was The New Legion of Super-Heroes #1. I'm not all that familiar with the Legion of Super-Heroes as I've only read a few random issues that had been collected in the Best of DC digests that I had when I was a teenager, I missed them on both Smallville and Supergirl, and I tried watching the first few episodes of the animated series that ran from 2006 until 2008 on the Kids WB block on The CW when a buddy of mine lent it to me on DVD, but I couldn't get into it so I never finished the series. Anyway 1989 saw the relaunch of the comic book series and the issue was coming out the following month, so around the same time as Star Trek: The Next Generation #2.
The next major single issue to be advertised in the issue was Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #1, which was the first part of the five issue "Shaman" storyline that kicked the book off, which was the first new Batman title to be published since Batman and the Outsiders debuted in 1983, and is actually the first new Batman solo title to be published since Batman debuted in 1940 as the ones published prior to this one were either team-up books such as World's Finest, The Brave and the Bold, and Batman and the Outsiders, or were books that were focused on other characters such as Star-Spangled Comics which debuted Robin as a solo character, and Joker, which is self-explanatory, or the book was focused on the Bat Family such as Batman Family. Even on the collector's covers it says that it's the first new solo Batman book since 1940.
The final major single issue to be advertised in this issue of TNG was Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn #1 which was the revamp of Hal Jordan's origin as Green Lantern in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Comics Universe. Which would eventually lead to him becoming Parallax in 1994. That's a story for another time though.
The only graphic novel to be advertised in this issue is a pretty notorious one. That one is Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth by Grant Morrison. I've never read it as I'm not a big fan of Grant Morrison's work, though I do like his run on Batman from the mid to late 2000s. But this was still a popular book that was going to come out at the time, particularly for the Batman character. Which is why I'm including it here.
The last book I want to talk about is the only hardcover collected edition that DC was advertising in this issue. And that was The Superman Archives Volume 1, which I actually own a copy of in my collection. The DC Archive Editions line of hardcovers were a big deal in the late '80s and early '90s, because aside from the Greatest Stories Ever Told collected edition volumes for Superman, Batman, and the Joker, these books were the first time the older comics from the late '30s and the '40s had been republished since they'd originally been published. Collected editions were just starting to become a thing in 1989 when this issue was published. The major storylines from the era like Batman: Year One, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Superman: The Man of Steel, New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, Batman: Year Two, and Watchmen had come out in both hardcover and trade paperback editions, but the regular ongoing titles weren't being collected in trade paperbacks or hardcover editions aside from a few storylines here and there, like the ones I mentioned.
I think that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with either a movie review or a TV show pilot episode review. So until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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