Star Trek #2 (2022) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone! Yeah, it's been another busy week. I had planned on getting a post up yesterday, but I got derailed by a surprise outing with two of my closest friends right after breakfast. But we went to the comic book store and, along with a few other comics, I was able to pick up Star Trek #2, the latest issue of the latest ongoing monthly Star Trek comic book series that I reviewed the first issue of last week. There will be some spoilers for this review just because a character showed up in this issue and joins Sisko's new crew, and it's hard for me to talk about the issue without talking about the familiar character. So, if you're buying this series but haven't read this issue yet, then please do so before reading this review. Let's get into it.

This is such a good series. As I mentioned in my review of the first issue, this series has gotten me excited about Star Trek comics in a way that I haven't been for the longest time. It's well written and the artwork has been fantastic so far. It also feels like the kind of serialized episodic storytelling that was prevalent in the first season of Discovery as well as in a majority of Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise in the late '90s and early 2000s. It's also how the Star Trek comics published by DC handled things too. And it's what I like, because I don't feel like I need to read every issue or watch every episode, but that if I am able to, I get to see the story and characters progress over the course of the season of Television, or the issues of the comic book series. 

If you saw the covers for this issue online, you already know that Worf shows up. Which is cool, because he's both a TNG character AND a DS9 character so he fits pretty well with this mixed crew that Sisko has. And because at this point, Worf is still the Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire, it's almost inevitable that the Theseus would need his help if they were going to the Klingon Empire. And they had to go to the Klingon homeworld, Qo'noS (pronounced Kronos to all of you non-Trekkies reading this review). And because we can't seem to have a Star Trek series, be it television show or comic, that Sisko is in and the Klingons aren't antagonistic in some way, shape or form, Worf is once again having to choose between his duty to the Federation and his people. And I don't know if this was a choice by Kelly and Lanzing or by Editorial at IDW, but it doesn't work quite as well here as it did on DS9 or the few times on TNG where the crew dealt with renegade Klingons, namely the House of Duras. I think it's because the reason in this issue isn't great, and doesn't fit with the more humble version of Kahless that we met in the TNG season 6 episode, "Rightful Heir". He's acting more like Gowron did in the last few seasons of DS9 than he is the Kahless we saw on TNG.

It always feels like every writer who has to deal with Worf in a story, be it an episode, novel, or comic, has to undo everything Worf did on TNG. In the season 4 finale/season 5 premiere, "Redemption", Worf helped to install Gowron as the Chancellor of the Klingon High Council in order to prevent Toral and the Duras Sisters from taking the position, which would lead to renewed hostilities between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. But then in DS9, Gowron ended up dissolving the treaty between the Federation and the Empire anyway, simply because Sisko refused to condone the Klingon attack on the Cardassians, and then later, Worf was forced to kill Gowron in combat because he became a detriment to the war effort against the Dominion. Then, in "Rightful Heir" Worf helps to convince Gowron to allow Kahless to be installed as emperor, as a figurehead position, allowing Gowron to remain in power. But now, in this issue, Kahless has become a hinderance to Worf assisting Sisko on his mission.

Again, it's a good idea, but I don't think that Kelly and Lanzing are capable enough to deal with something like that. Especially because they ended up taking the more ensemble approach to this issue than they did in issue one, and so we really don't get much time with Tom Paris, Scotty, Crusher, or the new characters, T'Lir and Sato. I do like the interaction between Paris and Worf, simply because Tom is married to B'Elanna Torres, who is half-Human, half-Klingon, and he knows how a Klingon will react to certain situations better than basically anyone else on the crew, outside of those who served with Worf on the Enterprise-D. 

My favourite scene is a really simple one where Sisko is once again trying to convince a higher lifeform to help the crew complete their mission at their planet in Klingon space, but they don't trust him because he came from the Prophets, and is a Human. So Data steps up and ends up convincing the higher lifeforms to give their assistance. On it's own, it doesn't offer anything we haven't already seen with Data in the past, but it also ends up easing Sisko's wariness of having an Android, even one as decorated as Data is, for a first officer and starts a friendship between the two officers. Which is one of the many reasons that I love Star Trek. Even in the ensemble cast format that the franchise has usually excelled at, the shows have always been good at more intimate, emotional moments between two characters. And that's what we got here with Sisko and Data. It's awesome.

We have a new artist with this issue, Oleg Chudakov. Again, not familiar with their work, but it's interesting. The scenery isn't as detailed here as it was last issue. It's also very tight shots, with very few wide shots with a few exceptions. And actually the tighter shots remind me of the old Marvel and DC Star Trek comics, particularly the original 1980 Marvel series and the 1984 DC series, where there were alot of tighter shots, especially for Bridge scenes. So that was really cool to see in newer Star Trek comics, which usually prefer to use as wide of shots as possible. 

Overall, this was a great issue. As I said at the beginning of the review, it's well written, well plotted, and the artwork is cool. I definitely recommend checking this issue out. Especially if you enjoyed the first issue. This looks like it's gonna be a solid storyline, and I'm here for it for as long as I'm able to keep up with it.

That's it for me for today. I'll be back on Friday with my review of Jingle All the Way, which is the Christmas movie I've chosen to review this year, and then I'll be back on Saturday with a review of the latest Walt Disney Animation Studios film, Strange World, which is dropping on Disney+ on Friday now that its theatrical run is over. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.