Star Trek 17 (February 2013)

The Bones McCoy origin issue. Not sure if Johnson doing origin issues is such a good idea after this one.

Definitely not if the art team of Claudia Balboni and Erica Durante continues. It’s sometimes a little amazing the artists IDW gets for Star Trek. It’s one of the oldest licensed properties out there and they get these not ready for prime time players on it.

In other words, the art is bad. So bad one occasionally pauses to bewilder at the terrible faces, especially on poor Bones McCoy.

Johnson–he brought an M.D. relation along as cowriter, though there’s almost no medicine discussed, only shown in montage–doesn’t have a story for Bones. I thought it was going to be about his father dying. Nope, it’s about what made him join Starfleet. It’s not convincing.

The writing’s not bad, just misguided and pointless. The art is bad though.

CREDITS

Writers, Mike Johnson and F. Leonard Johnson; penciller, Claudia Balboni; inker, Erica Durante; colorist, Claudia SGC; letterer, Chris Mowry; editor, Scott Dunbier; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Star Trek 16 (December 2012)

Eh. You know, Johnson tries really hard sometimes and he ends up forgetting things. For example, doing the mirror universe version of the new Star Trek movie, he manages to lose sight of his best possible story threads.

Old Spock arrives–only he’s regular old Spock not old mirror Spock. Johnson refuses to play too much and sticks to having a good guy somewhere in this issue. Only the comic doesn’t need a good guy, it needs good twists.

Additionally, seeing as how it’s an imaginary tale, there’s no reason the twists couldn’t be outrageous. Johnson’s just too focused on doing a tight issue–there are no creative clips. It’s unfortunate.

The evil Kirk is a lot of fun, even if he’s too dumb to have ever made first officer. Johnson does a lot better with the comic when he’s in the spotlight.

Johnson’s Spock mishandling pretty much kills it.

CREDITS

Mirrored, Part Two; writer, Mike Johnson; artists, Erfan Fajar, Hendri Prasetyo and Miralti Firmansyah; colorists, Ifansyah Noor and Sakti Tuwono; letterer, Neil Uyetake; editor, Scott Dunbier; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Star Trek 15 (November 2012)

Very interesting approach to doing the Mirror, Mirror adaptation. Instead of adapting the original episode–so far, Johnson just does a story set in a similarly dark alternate reality but one in the new movie continuity.

Spock’s the captain of the Enterprise, Kirk is his first officer. They’re warring against the Klingons, but there’s still the matter of Nero (from the first new Star Trek) to deal with. It’s a little late in the series, actually; it probably should have come earlier on… unless Johnson does tie it into the regular reality.

There’s some weird, kind of painted art from Erfan Fajar. He gets the likenesses in broad strokes, which is neat. He doesn’t try too hard. The visual flow is good, even though there aren’t a lot of action scenes. Actually, his action scenes are probably his best work.

Johnson, free of adaptation constraints, has some real fun here.

CREDITS

Mirrored, Part One; writer, Mike Johnson; artist, Erfan Fajar; colorists, Ifansyah Noor and Sakti Tuwono; letterer, Neil Uyetake; editor, Scott Dunbier; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Star Trek 14 (October 2012)

These little original issues don’t work out bad at all. Johnson uses this one to flesh out the Keesner character–Scotty’s little alien sidekick–and it’s pretty good.

Turns out the character is from some planet of little aliens where he’s ostracized for being too tall. He ends up in Starfleet–following an odd cameo from Kirk’s father–and Johnson tracks his career until he meets up with Scotty.

The stuff without Scotty is the best, because with Scotty around, Johnson has to focus too much attention on him. He can’t make Scotty too big a jerk. When it’s just Keesner, it’s an interesting enough look at life in Starfleet from an unusual perspective.

And the issue needs another page or so. The ending is truncated.

Molnar’s art is okay. He doesn’t do too well in the close-ups of Keesner, but does all right everywhere else.

It’s harmless stuff.

CREDITS

Writer, Mike Johnson; artist, Stephen Molnar; colorist, John Rauch; letterer, Neil Uyetake; editor, Scott Dunbier; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Star Trek 13 (September 2012)

I think this issue has to be the best in the series so far. Johnson structures it around a redshirt who is writing home to his parents from the Enterprise. The character does have a name–and some ties back to the movie–but he’s sort of interchangeable.

There’s a brief recap of the movie and the series so far, which is kind of cool. Johnson never takes a break to actually write in the other issues, just adapts the old original series episodes. He’s actually doing something new here and it works.

Then there’s an adventure, along with this neat–if obvious–quiet moment where Uhura and Spock flirt in front of the issue’s protagonist. Johnson finishes off with some very self-aware stuff about the redshirt knowing what it means to be a redshirt… a little too meta, but it works.

Maybe Molnar’s best art so far too.

CREDITS

Writer, Mike Johnson; artist, Stephen Molnar; colorist, John Rauch; letterer, Neil Uyetake; editor, Scott Dunbier; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Star Trek 12 (August 2012)

The Tribbles storyline doesn’t have a particularly good conclusion. Not because of Johnson’s script. He does all right actually. The action moves from the Tribble planet–gives Uhura some Klingon to translate–back to the ship for the Tribbles on the Enterprise (but not like the original episode at all).

Scotty gets a big sequence where he has to sort of save the day. There’s some decent relationship building with Kirk and Spock. Even McCoy gets a little moment. So what’s the problem?

Balboni can’t do talking heads. It looks like she’s tracing publicity photos of the movie actors for her talking heads scenes. It’s just terrible, terrible stuff. But the photo-referencing isn’t the only problem–the action on the ship is lame. She doesn’t draw the Enterprise interiors well.

This series sometimes skirts by on gimmick. This issue it doesn’t. It comes close, but Balboni’s art sinks it.

CREDITS

The Truth About Tribbles, Part Two; writer, Mike Johnson; artist, Claudia Balboni; colorist, Arianna Florean; letterer, Neil Uyetake; editor, Scott Dunbier; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Star Trek 11 (July 2012)

For the Tribbles issue, Mike Johnson goes for humor, which is appropriate.

It’s definitely not a direct adaptation of the original episode, as it features the Enterprise finding the home world of the Tribbles and the beasts who keep the ecosystem in check.

There’s a flashback–I think–at the beginning to the Star Trek movie, then it cuts to Chekhov and Scotty messing around with a tribble on the Enterprise. The ship immediately coming across the tribble planet is a tad contrived. I guess Johnson doesn’t worry about those things.

Claudia Balboni does fine on the art. The planet is interesting looking and the beasts who eat the Tribbles are cool. Almost nothing happens on the ship itself except talking heads, which Balboni does all right.

Johnson’s clearly trying to tell this one with some humor but it seems like he doesn’t have good pacing breakdowns for his cast.

CREDITS

The Truth About Tribbles, Part One; writer, Mike Johnson; artist, Claudia Balboni; colorist, Ilaria Traversi; letterer, Neil Uyetake; editor, Scott Dunbier; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Star Trek 10 (July 2012)

Johnson closes this issue on San Francisco Starfleet Command. He opened the last issue with it, but these scenes have no connection. It’s a terrible bookend device, since it tears the reader away from the regular cast.

The plot revelations throughout the issue, though predictable, aren’t bad. Johnson has problems transitioning between locations, which is annoying–Molner is no help.

For most of the issue, Johnson’s updates to the original episode appear to be Scotty’s Star Trek movie memories. The references to the movie’s events feel rather forced. Johnson doesn’t trust the reader to remember the movie, even though Molnar’s good for nothing but (badly drawn) photo-referenced illustrations of the movie cast’s faces.

The big finish dumbly gives up pages for the epilogue. Instead of (numerically, not talented) substantial sci-fi visuals, the resolution gets a few rectangular panels in the middle of a page.

The end sinks it.

CREDITS

The Return of the Archons, Part 2; writer, Mike Johnson; artist, Stephen Molnar; colorist, John Rauch; letterer, Neil Uyetake; editor, Scott Dunbier; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Star Trek 9 (May 2012)

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.

Star Trek 8 (May 2012)

I’m trying to imagine what Phillips’s pencils must look like. He does so little work on faces–relying almost entirely on the colorist to fill in depth–I wish I could see the pencils. People probably look like blobs with eyes.

If you haven’t guessed, the art is terrible. Johnson still comes up with a fairly decent story. It gets talky at times; he’s better writing dialogue for the guest stars than the supporting Enterprise crew. Sulu in particular has no personality in Johnson’s Trek.

Johnson doesn’t so much rely on surprises as reasoned behavior, which is a fairly neat route to take… given some of the guest stars are Vulcan.

There’s a strange smallness to the issue too. It almost seems intentional; to mimic the confined sets of the old TV show. If so, it’s the coolest thing IDW’s done with Trek.

Besides the art, it’s pretty okay stuff.

CREDITS

Vulcan’s Vengeance, Part 2; writer, Mike Johnson; artist, Joe Phillips; colorist, John Rauch; letterer, Neil Uyetake; editor, Scott Dunbier; publisher, IDW Publishing.