John Byrne has developed an unique and fun way to keep the original Enterprise crew alive in his New Visions series.
Kirk’s Time Runs Out
In the latest issue, The Enterprise is tasked to investigate the sudden appearance of a rogue planetoid. During the ship’s approach, the Enterprise is hit by a massive energy wave. As a result of the wave, Captain Kirk is dislodged from the time stream.
The Captain’s first jump is into the near future. The Enterprise is severely crippled and most of the bridge crew is dead. When Kirk escapes the bridge, he finds himself in the sickbay weeks before Starfleet’s orders to investigate the mysterious planet.
As Kirk jumps from the past, present and future, the captain uncovers the mystery leading up to the destruction of the Enterprise. Eventually, Kirk believes that he’s got the entire mission figured out in order to save his crew. Yet everything comes to a screeching halt when Kirk exits the engineering room and finds himself back at Starfleet Academy. Now no longer able to jump through time, has Kirk done enough to prevent his beloved Enterprise’s fate?
A Mix of Medias
This type of book is called a picto-comic. A picto-comic combines stock photos, original episode footage, and photoshop. In New Visions,along with an all-new story, John Byrne is able to bring fans a new batch of adventures with the real Kirk, Spock, and the rest.
I’ve seen this process a couple of times before. With a picto-comic of old, often the photos are too blurry. Also, the photoshopped work has a sheen that doesn’t match with the rest of the artwork. However, with advances in computer technology, this IDW work looks nearly seamless. The vision of New Visions isn’t flawless. Some of the poses and airbrushing is still a little disconnected. Yet, this is one of the best picto-comics I’ve ever encountered.
New Visions retails for $7.99. My previous experience with picto-comics had left me hesitant to spend that much on a comic- even if it is 48-pages long. One thing that really helps this book is the masterful storytelling by John Byrne. This entire issue was a great trip through the final frontier. Sometimes I feel like the man can write the phone book and make it interesting. John Byrne might not have perfected the art method behind New Visions yet. But one thing is for sure, Byrne has the ability to make the 60s era Star Trek seem timeless.
Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.
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