By GustavoLeao / 22:02, 24 November 2007 / Trek Books

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Review by Patrick Hayes aka PatBorg  

Star Trek: Alien Spotlight: Andorians   

The cover(s): As with most IDW books there are several covers you can pick from, or buy them all if you're a "real fan."  I bought the "A" cover over the "B" cover because on the "A" you can actually see all of the Andorian's face, on "B" it's covered by a "ushaan-tor"--a weapon I've never heard or seen before.  There is also an outstanding photo cover featuring an Andorian from Enterprise, as well as a sketch version of cover "A".  I don't know why an Enterprise Andorian was featured on a story set in TNG universe, but, hey, I like aliens and photo covers, so I'm just nitpicking.  Overall grade: B-  

The story: Without giving anything away, it's a very interesting plot/idea put forth by Paul D. Storrie: the only Andorian aboard the Enterprise (taking place before First Contact, judging by the costumes on the Starfleet officers), Sharad, is going to be taking some leave on Andoria and meeting up his family.  Andorians were never featured as crew members on the television series, though based on the events of Enterprise, and brought up rightfully so in this story, it's obvious they should be.  Their lack of presence in the series, and Federation worlds, is nicely justified.  I have to give kudos to Storrie for explaining this well.  However, once Sharad gets home the true plot of the story is made evident, with a twist by story's end.  I just didn't buy it.  This story was made to go over two issues, not crammed into one--this seems to be a problem with most "one-shot" stories from IDW.  How can you tell there's too much story for one issue?  Look at the amount of dialogue shoved onto pages 3, 10, 17, 21, and, worst of all, 22.  I don't know if the story hurt the artist's choices, or the artist's layouts hurt the story, but dialogue should compliment a story, not drown the artwork.  The ending is left open, I assume (and you know what happens when you assume...) for further adventures of Sharad.  With the final twist revealed, I thought the lack of an ending was an obvious attempt for me to want to see what happened next.  I don't.  The Gorn and Vulcan Spotlights had endings, Andorians should have one.  Overall grade: C-  

The art: Let me start with stating I love cartoony comic book art.  I love Kyle Baker, Stephen DeSteffano, Sergio Aragones, Don Rosa, Don Martin, and Fred Hembeck.  Can "cartoony" comic art work in a "serious" comic book story?  Yes.  Groo, for all its comic content, has very serious and real morals, and the epic nature and look of Uncle Scrooge comics comes through in the works of Carl Barks and Don Rosa.  Can it work in a Star Trek comic book?  I don't know.  I've never seen a cartoony Trek comic, that wasn't Manga, until now.  I'll give IDW and editor Andrew Steven Harris credit, they are experimenting with the look of Trek comics.  This tale, drawn by Leonard O'Grady in unlike any Trek comic before--it's very cartoony looking.  It borders on looking like a fan comic.  Is that a bad thing?  No, there have been plenty of fanzine artists who've hit the big time--Rob Liefeld was an artist in The Legion of Super-Heroes `zine Interlac before he hit the big time.  Can it work?  Yes.  "Does it work for Trek?" is the big question.  In this case, I've got to say no.  If it were a funny Trek tale, sure.  Maybe if there's to be Spotlight: Tribbles, but this doesn't work.  Take page 15: it's a very serious moment, and the cartoony look of panels 3 and 4 ruin any drama the story is aiming for.  And the last panel on the same page: that's really bad anatomy!  O'Grady's layouts often play as talking heads for all the dialogue, and, as I stated earlier, is that Storrie's fault for writing it like that, or O'Grady's?  I can't tell, but page 22 is just awful because of this.  The last panel is too small to carry any emotion for the reader.  There's also a lack of backgrounds; granted it's mostly set on the ice world of Andoria, but couldn't we have something more that heads, busts, and torso on the last third of the story?  Nitpick: On an ice world shouldn't we be seeing cold breath in the air when people speak?  Wasn't it that way on Enterprise when they went to Andoria? Overall grade: C-  

The colors: O'Grady colored his own work in this issue, and I did like that.  He has got a good eye for coloring, especially when used to help the story's mood.  Like the dark tones with Troi in the first few pages, emphasized Sharad's emotional speech well.  On pages 8 and 9 purple is used for a bar's background--this harkened back to the coloring of TOS, which I do like (though the 5th panel's emotion/impact was muted by this).  Biggest problem with the coloring is that once the interior of Andoria is the setting, ice doesn't have too many colors, though if the layouts or the backgrounds had been by the artist, the blue and the white wouldn't have been so overpowering.  Overall grade: B-  

The lettering: Chris Mowry does a competent job here.  I went back to see if Mowry had to change the size of the lettering to have it all fit in a particular panel, and he (she?) did not.  Kudos to a letterer who can maintain the same size throughout a comic without having to change the size of some lengthy speeches to fit in a predetermined space!  I would like to know if Mowry or O'Grady did the sound effects, as the chanting on page 17 and the sound effects on page 19 didn't fit in with the art.  Overall grade: B  

The final line: So, if you're a Trek fan do you learn anything new about the Andorians?  That's a capable YES.  If you know nothing of the Andorians would you understand it?  Also, YES.  However, is this a comic worth owning?  I've got to say NO.  A political adventure without a resolution that has art that doesn't emotionally match the story?  Again, thanks for trying IDW, but better luck with the Orions next month.  Overall grade: C -- No need to buy this comic.