The secret to reading Star Trek is to concentrate on the words. Not on what people are saying, but the actual visual text. Focusing on the balloons and boxes, one can ignore the art. For a panel or two, I thought Molnar had improved since his last issue.
He has not. He oscillates between bad and worse. His photo-referenced faces lack any personality, but it’s nowhere near as technically lacking as when people need to make expressions. Then Molnar makes the faces even more static.
Johnson’s script isn’t bad. He paces things well.
There’s something particularly compelling about this issue, which doesn’t just update an old episode’s story, it updates technology. For “Trek” fans, it’s a familiar technological visual. Even though Molnar’s creating the new design, it excites the imagination a little… an internal review over a classic item revised.
That process is the neatest thing about this Trek.
CREDITS
The Return of the Archons, Part 1; writer, Mike Johnson; artist, Stephen Molnar; colorist, John Rauch; letterer, Neil Uyetake; editor, Scott Dunbier; publisher, IDW Publishing.
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