By GustavoLeao / 17:02, 20 November 2008 / Trek Books

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Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Last Generation #1  

Review by Patrick Hayes aka PatBorg  

The covers: Cover "A" is by Pablo Raimondi and Brian Reber.  It's a good representational cover for what lies within.  Data is sporting his wounded face from Star Trek: First Contact, and since he doesn't appear that way in this issue I'm guessing he'll turn up in that look eventually.  Picard looks really cheesed off -- I like that!  I had to think about who was on his opposite side before I figured out it was Sulu.  Nice shot of the Excelsior fleeing three Klingon cruisers.  Worf emoting at the bottom with two Klingons is also nicely done.  Cover "B" is the photocover: thank you IDW for not making this the "chase" cover!  It's much appreciated.  The shot is of Data in a first season zip-up-the-front uniform.  It's a good photo but I can't understand why this character was chosen--he's only in two panels of the book.  Sure, Data photos sell Trek merchandise, but I'd have gone with a photo of "Ambassador Worf" from "All Good Things..."  Just a fanboy complaining...Cover "RI" is the X-Men 141/Byrne cover that's been used in all the print ads for this series.  It's nicely done, and a good way to get new fans looking at Trek comics.  Smartly done.  Overall grade: Cover "A" A-, Cover "B" A, and Cover "RI" A.  

The story: Welcome back to Trek writing Andrew Steven Harris!  The Next Generation always missed the boat IMHO for not doing a Mirror Universe story.  Though this isn't the Mirror Universe it's part of the Myriad Universe stories that have been done by Pocket Books.  I'm always going to think of this line as the Trek equivalent of Marvel's What If? comics from the 1980s.  The premise is very simple: Kirk was not in time to save the Federation president at the end of Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, and from that the Klingons have conquered Earth, with the Federation now The Resistance.  That's all you need to know.  "Seven decades later" Wesley (not even the Wesley that many came to loathe) and Tasha Yar are fleeing Klingon pursuers in the sewers.  That's all I'm going to give for specifics, the rest you can read.  And let me tell you, there's lots to enjoy and mull over.  Among them: all Klingon dialogue is on the ball, especially page 7!; page 9's throw away dialogue about another resistance cell will have certain fans groaning at the lost opportunity--sigh, one day...; the shuttle escape was great--loved how it was to "outrun" its enemies; pages 12 and 13 were a great surprise, as they should have been, and took the comic in a direction I hadn't anticipated; nice reveal on 14; page 15 was the highlight of the issue.  I've seen/read the same type of scene in tons of different ways but it worked 100% on me, and the last panel was a good shot to my gut on all the "hope."  Flawlessly done, Mr. Harris.  The next two pages only hammered the point home.  And then the romance!  Did not see that coming--a great moment!  Something that was always simmering between these two on the show, but finally at fruition.  I'm guessing that on page 20 that the item in the case was used on the character that was looking at it.  If so, I can't wait to see (bad pun) that flashback.  Page 21 had two of my favorite supporting characters from Trek on the bridge--Hoo-Ray!  And the final panel on the final page, I wonder how many Trekkies (sorry, I'm old school Trek, and I want that moniker) went scurrying to their Trekpedias to match the face to the name, as well as the history?  This was a great story with endless possibilities.  Well done!  Overall grade: A  

The art: Gordon Purcell is also a welcomed returning name to Trek comics!  Gordon does great takes of the Trek actors so any reader, or fan of Trek, will know who is who just from the image.  Though I do wish Tasha had been a little better, only in the close-up on page 5 does it look like Denise Crosby.  Outside of this one hardcore Tasha's fan complaint, all the characters are great.  I was most impressed with the ass kicking Wesley (all that was missing was Kung-Fu grip!).  I loved the Klingon's reaction in the fourth panel on page 7--priceless!  The heroes' entrance on 8 was perfectly dramatic.  I loved the full page bleeds in space.  I was absolutely horrified by the youngest person's wounds on page 17: it's not in the foreground, but it's brutal.  Did it have to be there?  Yes, so as to explain page 15.  I was so drawn to that image, I didn't notice what had happened to the person in the foreground until I was writing this review!  When I did notice it my kudos went out to Harris for including it and Purcell for executing it.  A lot is given in that one panel.  And, is it me, or is that Klingon French on page 20?  Anyhoo, my favorite page is 21: two of my favorite supporting characters in Trekdom, and a great parallel bust-shot of Sulu, as seen on page 2.  I loved the symbolic blood returning behind him.  It only made his words that much more solemn.  The parallelism returns on page 22 with the first panel (as seen on page 1) and the fourth panel (from page 2) but the ending is quite different.  And there's that blood background again.  If Gordon hadn't been at the top of his game as an illustrator that picture would have had no meaning for any Trek fan.  Nicely done!  Overall grade: A  

The inks: Bob Almond who worked with Purcell on Enterprise Experiment is also back in Trek comics.  Bob's using a fine line on everything unless a character in the foreground needs to stick out, such as Kirk and the president on page 2.  The best compliment I can give an inker is that he doesn't redraw the book, and Bob does that here.  Overall grade: A+  

The colors: Mario Boon uses a great variety of colors in this issue.  I've seen him do the retro background colors of TOS, so I was wondering how TNG would fare.  The answer is very well, thank you.  The way Purcell is laying out his panels there's a lot of empty space in between, and Mario uses colors well to highlight the panels.  Page 2 is a good example of this with yellow highlighting the somber (appropriately colored) dark scenes.  The sewers are bordered in black.  I don't know if that was Purcell's choice, but I'm giving it to Mario since he "colored" in the last page's fillers.  In Enterprise Experiment the Klingons were too darkly colored; that's not a problem in this comic, though now a supporting character is really tan when she makes her appearances on pages 8 and 9.  The space shots are absolutely gorgeously colored.  I liked that a lot of the backgrounds were purple or blue, rather than black, which has become really overused in backgrounds since Sin City.  I also enjoyed how the backgrounds got brighter on the romance page: that just made the relationship between the two characters warmer.  This book could have been darkly colored to increase its seriousness, but I felt that the brighter colors made things seem hopeful.  For if there's no hope for any of the heroes, why should (why would) I want to read this?  Overall grade: A  

The letters: Robbie Robbins on the job, yet again, for a Trek comic and he does a great job.  Lots of explosions and phaser sounds, though some are missing.  We see a phaser rifle and phasers shooting on page 3, but they have no sound effect.  On page 6 one of those "silent" phasers now makes a noise when it goes off.  This is the only slip up I saw.  Loved the sound effect of the "hit" on page 6, the explosion on 13, and, my favorite both in onomatopoeia and design, the hit on 11.  Sound effects in Trek comics--Hoo-Ray!  Overall grade: A  

The final line: This was a fun comic.  This comic could go in any direction and I'm more than willing to go along for the ride.  True, it's not "canon" but big whoop-de-doo!  This adventure is fun!  Overall grade: A