Star Trek #52 (1993) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm reviewing a comic book that returned to my collection after almost seven years. I found it at the Carleton Place Comic Con when Brad and I were there on Monday. I got it for $1 thanks to the owner of the booth I found it at. So let's get into it and take a look at Star Trek #52 from 1993, written by Diane Duane and art by Rod Whigham (Penciller) and Arne Starr (Inker).

I didn't mention this issue when I did the segment on the 1989-1996 TOS comic book series during my DC Comics's Star Trek retrospective, simply because I didn't remember anything about the story as it had been six years since I'd read it last. But reading it for this review, I remembered just how much I used to enjoy reading this issue when I was a kid.

Unlike the original TOS movies that came out between 1979 and 1991, the comics, particularly these later issues published by DC in the late '80s to mid-'90s, tended to do a better job at utilizing the TOS formula because each issue felt like an episode of the TV show. In this issue, the Enterprise-A has been ordered to the planet, Theata Leonis, to make first contact with a pre-warp civilization known as the Atyansa, who communicated with a survey team and informed them they wished to meet Kirk, Spock, and McCoy specifically, by name. Being that this civilization is technologically equal to Humans from 16th Century Earth, Kirk and the crew find it peculiar that they'd be asked for by name given that the Atyansa have no presence in the wider galaxy and neither the Enterprise nor the Enterprise-A have ever visited the planet before. So they beam down to find out what this is all about, but shortly after, a Klingon Battle Cruiser decloaks and begins laying claim to the planet, despite the fact that it's nowhere near Klingon territory, because that's what the Klingons did back in TOS. So Scotty, who Kirk left in command, has to figure out how to keep the Klingons from beaming down to the planet surface as Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are unarmed as per the Prime Directive. Which doesn't make sense, since I'm pretty sure that the landing party was armed anytime Kirk and the crew beamed down to a primitive planet.

As I mentioned in my DC Star Trek retrospective, I'm not as big of a fan of TOS as I am the later Star Trek shows. The only two episodes I have more than vague recollections of watching when I was a kid are the season 3 episodes, "The Enterprise Incident" and "The Empath" and that's because I had those episodes on VHS. Most of what I know about TOS I got through the movies, particularly Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) as those are the TOS movies that I watched the most when I was a kid, and of course, these comics. It wasn't until the Remastered versions began airing in 2006 that I really began watching TOS.

While this issue was never one of my favourites growing up, preferring the multi-issue story arcs like "The Tabukan Syndrome" from issues #36-40 and "Time Crime" from issues #53-57 (I only had 53-56 for that storyline), it was still an issue I read quite often. And I think that's because the artwork is so good and I think Whigham and Starr do a good job at not only accurately portraying Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura as if they were being played by Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, Doohan, and Nichols, but got the Bridge and the Transporter Room, the only two sections of the Enterprise that we see in this issue. Many of my complaints about the first DC Comics TOS comic book series come from the fact that they don't often accurately depict the locations on the ship, usually exaggerating them to the point where they look so generic that it's no longer the ship we know and love, though it did get better closer to the end of the series. Even today the artwork on this, and all of the issues from this second DC TOS series, holds up extremely well.

Even though the story is your typical paint by numbers TOS TV show episode from the '60s, but made in the '90s and set in the period of time between Star Trek V and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) instead of during the Five Year Mission as shown in the TV series, the best part of this issue is the artwork. Plus the ads that are in the comic. Particularly the inside of the front and back covers. On the inside front cover it's an ad for The Adventures of Superman #504, which is an issue that came out near the end of the "Reign of the Supermen" story arc that followed The Death of Superman and "Funeral for a Friend" which was collected in the World Without a Superman trade paperback. The inside of the back cover is an ad for Detective Comics #666, which was part 18 of Knightfall. These ads are a really good tell that this book came out during the two biggest storylines that DC was doing at the time with Superman and Batman. Though the Knightfall Saga was just beginning, The Death and Return of Superman was coming to a close. So it was a very interesting time for comic book fans in 1993. 

Besides the artwork though, Spock and McCoy and their banter are still my favourite part of this issue, and of TOS and the TOS movies in general. It was so cleverly written, and written in a way that Spock always outwitted McCoy, no matter what "argument" they were having. It's great. And I loved it at the beginning where the Atyansa gave Spock more fuel against McCoy by calling the good doctor, "McCoy of the Complaints". Since I hadn't read this issue in seven years, I completely forgot about that part, but it brought a smile to my face, especially because Spock does use it at the end of the issue.

Overall this is a good issue to pick up if you just want a typical TOS story to read without delving into the big storylines or reading things that get a bit crazy. It's a fun standalone issue. Though it being almost 30 years old and not collected in a trade paperback, unless Eaglemoss got to it before they went out of business, the best place to find it is at a flea market, geek sale, or convention. Maybe the back issue bins at your local comic book store, if you're lucky. I recommend reading it though.

Alright my friends that's gonna be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more reviews and blog posts in the near future. So until then have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.