Star Trek: Boldly Go, Volume 1

Story by Mike Johnson and Ryan Parrott. Art by Tony Shasteen and Chris Mooneyham. Published by IDW.

Go Your Own Way

Star Trek: Boldly Go immediately follows the explosive events of Star Trek Beyond. This miniseries continues the story of the Kelvin Universe after the destruction of the Enterprise. A new Enterprise is being constructed. But until then, the ship’s crew have undertaken temporary assignments.
Kirk has accepted the position of the interim captain of the Endeavor. Spock and Uhura have taken sabbatical to establish an academy on New Vulcan. The family Sulu undertake a 6-month long scouting mission. Meanwhile Scotty teaches safety protocols at Starfleet.
Once the reader has become familiar with the roles of the crew, the action takes a giant leap into… I’m sorry folks, but there is no way in the universe that I am going to spoil things. What I will say is that the cliffhanger at the end of chapter 1 left me stunned.

Potential For So Much More

I’ve been reading for some time now that there doesn’t seem to be a script ready for a fourth Star Trek film. The producers can’t seem to nail one down. Actor Chris Pine hasn’t seen a script. Actress Zoe Saldana is clueless as to if another film set in the Kelvin Universe will be made at all. Hello? Guys- your script is right here! Just have someone adapt this series into a script and get going on filming Star Trek 4!
Maybe series writers Mike Johnson and Ryan Parrott should do it. Star Trek: Boldy Go, Volume One only captures the opening rounds of miniseries.Yet, I am thrilled with the direction it’s heading. Johnson is putting ‘Holy Crap!’ moments into a franchise that hasn’t really surprised anyone for years! Meanwhile, Parrott is shaking the Kelvin Universe up in mind blowing ways. You might not like every change either are making in the alternative universe Trek. But at least they're reinvigorating it at warp nine speeds!

Spock Looks Like Spock

Equally as good is the artwork. There’s been quite a bit of debate on the internet about photo-realism in comics lately. For books based on TV/ Movies, should the drawings looks just like the actors or not? I am strongly in the camp of making James T. Kirk look like Jim Kirk. Witchblade illustrator Tony Shasteen and Chris Mooneyham do an amazing job in capturing the likenesses of the actors. But I think I like Shasteen's work a little better as it looks a bit less like it's Manga.
Plus, I like the extras he’s adding to the series as well. For instance, following a Trek tradition of having respected British actresses play high ranking Vulcan’s, Tony Shasteen cast Dame Judi Dench as the head of the Vulcan High Council.
Drawing Judi Dench as a Vulcan! This is an example of the nostalgic feel of the original series that the creative staff have put in the series. You can tell that they all equally love Star Trek. But the team also don’t want this book to be a repeat of already established story lines either. If the next volume is just a fraction as good as this one, I will boldy go wherever they take the Enterprise crew!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Review originally published July 27, 2017 on outrightgeekery.com.