By GustavoLeao / 18:54, 11 October 2008 / Trek Books

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Star Trek: Mirror Images #4  

Review by Patrick Hayes aka PatBorg  

The cover: Joe Corroney has a nice meshing from three photos that you've seen before if you're a Trek fan.  Mirror Universe Sulu with phaser drawn, "Our" Universe Uhura with her knife out, and a glorious screaming M.U. Chekov in the background.  Oh, I can hear that trademark Russian scream!  Over Uhura's shoulder is a M.U. icon aflame, and if you look closely at her navel you can make out "Iss" which I'm guessing was Joe's shorthand for "Issue" which was never erased.  Either that, or in the Mirror Universe Uhura's navel can make noise.  Overall grade: A  

The story: Just when I think the Tiptons have written themselves into a corner, because, let's be honest, we know how this story is going to end, they make a nice little detour into an area I'd not expected.  The story opens with Kirk grilling Scotty about getting the Tantalus Device installed in a timely manner.  I like that Scotty is not happy about doing this for Kirk, and he stands up to him.  Kirk's reaction is great, and the final panel on 3 emphasizes both characters' feelings about the resolution of this dilemma.  My surprise, and joy, came with the call from Imperial Command to Pike.  The previous two issues in this story have been set only on the Enterprise, which has been perfectly fine to me.  In fact, I've expected the entire series to be set there: a "budget saving" episode from season three, let's say.  However, what follows is a very enjoyable away mission that fits into the story well.  I really like Pike's justification for sending Kirk down to the planet, and his reaction to the end of the mission.  It was really, really cool.  There' a lot to like: I loved the last dialogue passage on page 7; I like that McCoy seems to be Kirk's sage on the Enterprise, giving him advice to be successful, as shown on page 8; a tremendous "THANK YOU!" for the atmosphere of the planet--it's been too long since I've seen a planet shown in this manner, even in a Trek comic; I liked (the idea of) the beings on the planet; loved the tension created on the team's mission to be successful and escape from the planet; another "THANK YOU" for Henshaw; and the last page was a great cliffhanger and introduction to the final issue.  I cannot wait to see how this is all going to end.  Overall grade: A+  

The art: David Messina continues to turn out winners.  Emotions are evident in all of your favorite OS characters' faces.  Look at Scotty and Kirk's showdown on pages 2 and 3.  I felt so sorry for Scotty!  Pike continues to look maniacal--look at page 5.  I loved the posture of Pike, McCoy, and Kirk on page 6 as they are lead to the conference room.  After that, Kirk looks like a trapped rat.  It's fantastic!  I LOVED the away mission's uniforms.  They don't look familiar to me from any episode (I'm sure I'll be corrected) but they were great!  The exterior of the planet and the downed ship were also great.  Big thumbs up for also including the breath of the people on the planet.  I'm going to assume that David put that in, since he's the artist, but it's a fantastic detail that I think others would have overlooked.  And the interiors, especially at the top of page 14, made me know that something really bad was coming.  The design of the natives was a bit simple.  True, they don't talk, but they were so in the shadows that we never get to see any of their faces.  Does not seeing their faces hurt the story?  No, but I wanted to see them.  Kind of like wanting to see the natives that were attacking the Galileo 7, in the episode of the same name...then again, when I saw a picture of what those natives looked like, I can understand why they were never shown on television.  I think the addition of a transporter effect was needed at the top of page 10 and the bottom of page 19, because there's a sound effect but there's no visual to "confirm" the sound of the effect.  I was confused momentarily until I continued to read.  The last three pages were, again, nice shows of emotion on all the characters.  One thing stuck out this issue that I hadn't really noticed in earlier issues: there's a lot of cross hatching in the background.  It stuck out a lot beginning on page 1 and my eye just seemed to float to it all the time.  While I should have been paying attention to the story I found myself thinking, 'Oh, more cross hatching.'  I don't know why it stuck out so much, it just did.  Even with my eyes focusing on an artistic choice, I find myself continually in awe of Messina's work.  Overall grade: A  

The colors:  Once again, I am puzzled with the credits in an IDW Trek comic.  Giovanna Niro is credited as the colorist, but Ilaria Traversi is credited with "Colors Supervised by".  That's a new credit to me.  So, either Ilaria was supposed to color the book, couldn't, so Giovanna took over, or Niro is training to be a colorist and Ilaria told her what to do.  Regardless, a good job is done on this book.  The sinister/scheming nature of the story compliments the art perfectly.  I especially liked Pike in panel three on page 4, he starts in the light and then seems to be going off into the dark, into insanity.  Nicely done!  Really liked the bright color of the away mission uniforms, stood out well from the planet's atmosphere.  The interior of the ship was perfectly gloomy, and the transporter room on the Enterprise was gorgeously backlit in aqua.  A good job by Niro.  Overall grade: A+  

The letters: Neil Uyetake makes his debut on this series and does a great job.  In addition to plenty of dialogue there are--wait for it--sound effects!  Transporter effects, walking in "atmosphere", phaser rifles, falling natives, and not the usual door sounds found in a Trek comic.  Which begs the question, I know there's no sound in space, is that why there are no sounds on the Enterprise, but when the crew goes down to a planet there's noise?  Just being a jerk and asking!  Neil had a varied amount of stuff to do and I was very happy to see it done.  Overall grade: A+  

The final line: I was saddened when I came to the end of this issue because there's only one more to go!  This series has been continually above average, both as a comic and a Trek adventure, and I'm really hating that this is going to end.  You could start with this issue, having not read the others, and enjoy it thoroughly.  If you've been reading the series from the first issue, this comic will only solidify for you the talents of all involved.  It's worth going to a comic book store to seek out.  Overall grade: A+