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‘Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness #1’ – Advance Comic Book Review

 

Star Trek Countdown to Darkness 1Based on the title, I assume that sometime soon, the crew of the Enterprise will find themselves trekking into darkness. Cumberbatch speculation aside, this comic takes place in the months after Star Trek, when the crew find themselves in danger from an unexpected source.

The story does a nice job of balancing character, Star Trekkie action, and humor, much like the film did. The character exploration was particularly well done. Kirk, Spock, and Uhura each get a decent amount of time to explore their relationships, frustrations, and desires. In a brilliant move, Kirk’s character study is complicated, incredibly simple, and funny. That last bit is important, because this comic book is frequently humorous without taking a thing away from the drama.

I love Star Trek action scenes. Sure, your Star Wars space battles are flashy and exciting, but Star Trek’s action scenes are tense and complicated. The comparison has been made that Trek is to a submarine battle as Wars is to a dogfight. I, for one, prefer the submarine combat. There is more tension and drama when there is less information and the engines are failing than any scene in Top Gun (except the volleyball scene). This comic does the ship combat right. Things stop working and nobody knows exactly what’s going on. In short, it is entertaining.

I don’t want to get spoilery, so I can’t talk much about the rest of the issue, but I can say that it works well and has some surprises. Not the least of these surprises is that the lone redshirt in the inevitable landing party survived the comic. This issue does a good job of building on the alternate timeline lore. There are a few things that sent me to the Star Trek Wiki, and it is clear that the level of attention and love for the original material is still there.

I think that this is exactly what a movie tie-in should be. It can easily stand on its own, even though it is building up to the movie. It is funny. It is exciting. It explores the characters in an interesting way. It is fun.

And, you should read it.

Four and a Half Living Redshirts out of Five.

Seriously, he wasn’t even injured.

 

 

Ben Rhodes, Fanbase Press Senior Contributor

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Favorite Book:  Cryptonomicon Favorite Movie:  Young Frankenstein Favorite Absolutely Everything:  Monty Python

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