A Darkened Universe As It Could Have Been, The Best Of The Borg Rocks!

The Good: Good artwork, Decent story, Good ideas
The Bad: Does not truly make a larger statement on anything
The Basics: The Best Of The Borg fills in a gap in the Star Trek universe as well as illustrating a "what if" for one of the most popular episodes!


As I cull through my Star Trek comic collection, I have been replacing the original books with the new trade paperback anthologies of the volumes I actually want to keep. I'm not much of a comic book collector, but in junior high and high school, I was so into Star Trek that I bought everything I could and read (and loved) it. Now, as I age and I have become more discriminating and more space conscious, I am unloading those things I do not see myself returning to over the years. So, with the Star Trek comics that I remove from my collection and actually replace with the new trade paperback anthologies, it truly says something. Given that I did not replace my early Peter David comics with the anthology (reviewed here!), despite David's work thrilling me as a kid and young adult, it ought to say something when I did pick up Michael Jan Friedman's work The Best Of The Borg.

The Best Of The Borg is the second in the Star Trek Archives series of trade paperback anthologies of previously released comics (what most people call "graphic novels," but I don't because they aren't). And despite the Manga-style cover to The Best Of The Borg, the book is drawn to look good and include essentially two stories that feature the Borg from the DC and Marvel comic lines. The stories rely heavily on fans having seen and loved four episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Indeed, in order to truly understand the events of the first story, a four-issue arc called "The Worst Of Both Worlds," one needs to have seen the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes from "The Best Of Both Worlds," (reviewed here!), “The Best Of Both Worlds, Part II” (reviewed here!) and "Sarek" (reviewed here!). The one-shot "Operation: Assimilation" story is based entirely upon "The Neutral Zone" (reviewed here!). Without seeing those few hours of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the reader will likely be entirely lost. The Michael Jan Friedman written "The Worst Of Both Worlds" storyline dominates the Best Of The Borg anthology as it was four comic books originally, with a double-long concluding issue. "Operation: Assimilation" is almost an afterthought and has absolutely no bearing on the other story. It was written by Paul Jenkins.

In "The Worst Of Both Worlds," the U.S.S. Enterprise-D encounters a spatial phenomenon which casts the ship into an alternate universe. In that universe, the attempt to rescue Captain Jean-Luc Picard from the Borg failed and Locutus led his Borg cube to victory over the Federation by assimilating Earth. Embittered and desperate, Captain Riker sees the appearance of the intact Enterprise-D as a chance to turn around the fate of his entire galaxy. Unable to return home immediately, the crew of the Enterprise-D teams up with their counterparts to make a daring raid upon the assimilated Earth.

However, infiltrating Borg territory is appropriately dangerous and it turns lethal for members of Captain Riker's crew. Realizing that if it hadn't been for luck and cunning their universe would have fallen in a similar fashion, Captain Picard and Data head into the depths of assimilated Earth to encounter Locutus and try to save another galaxy from the Borg.

In "Operation: Assimilation," a Romulan ship led by Commander Moliok, investigates the destruction of Romulan bases and her Centurion is assimilated by the Borg. Not recognizing the dire nature of the threat, the Romulan ship is assimilated by the Borg and heads deeper into Romulan territory to assimilate more of Borg space.

"Operation: Assimilation" is essentially one woman's mental battle with the Borg after being assimilated. As she tries to resist giving the Borg all the information she possesses, she tries to find a way to destroy the Borg ship and herself to protect the Empire. It is a bleak vignette that makes explicit an internal battle implied by Picard in the resolution to "The Best Of Both Worlds." It also makes explicit the events alluded to in "The Neutral Zone." Without knowing what drove the Romulans out of their isolation, "Operation: Assimilation" seems more a flight of fancy than anything else. As it is, it stands as a sad character study that illustrates quietly the implied horror of the Borg. And it works, in part, because Moliok is trying to resist, but her circumstances make that impossible.

The bulk of the book is made up of the story arc "The Worst Of Both Worlds" and those issues are dark, but they lack a sense of consequence. The characters are interesting twists on the standard characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the novelty of seeing things like Riker with a bionic eye and the beaten down drive section of the Enterprise-D quickly wears off. As a result, the sense of peril is actually lessened as the book goes on; readers know the standard universe characters will not be killed off in the comic books and when there are casualties, it does not have the same impact as when out heroes are actually imperiled.

Even so, Michael Jan Friedman does an excellent job of keeping the tension high and the book interesting. The character twists, the way each of the surviving characters aboard the beleaguered Enterprise-D has changed as a result of failing in "The Best Of Both Worlds" are well-considered and the vividness of the contrast to the standard universe crew is impressive. The alternate-universe Riker is well-considered and Friedman makes a wonderful statement on human ingenuity in that Data has been lost in the alternate universe. Ironically, after this comic was released, an alternate universe episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation aired and they captured a similar desperation as Friedman embodied with his Riker.

But ultimately, the final pages of the story hinge on a twist that is a clever gimmick which may be hard to swallow for some fans. It illustrates a level of cleverness that makes Michael Jan Friedman a great writer with an exceptional eye for details, but is based on an implication that some might find a bit of a stretch. Personally, I liked it and the resolution is entertaining at the very least.

The artwork throughout The Best Of The Borg is consistent and the characters look recognizable and good. While some issues of Star Trek comics have characters who look like animated versions of themselves (i.e. light on details and coloring aspects) the characters in "The Worst Of Both Worlds" all look like the actors who portray them and there is a decent sense of movement in the panels. In fact, it is very easy to tell what is going on throughout as the drawings are very well penciled and colored. The cover gallery that is included in the trade paperback anthology is a nice touch as well.

All in all, fans of stories involving the Borg will love this anthology, but those looking for something of literature in the Star Trek universe will find this to be less impressive. But this is entertaining, clever and well-considered, even if it is ultimately of no real consequence.

For other Star Trek: The Next Generation trade paperback anthologies, please check out my reviews of:
The Hero Factor
The Battle Within
Maelstrom
The Star Lost
The Last Generation

6.5/10

For other book reviews, please check out my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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The Star Lost: Michael Jan Friedman's Well-written Return To Star Trek: The Next Generation Comics!

The Good: Interesting story, Moments of character, Moments of artwork
The Bad: Sloppy artwork, Light on character development, Predictable
The Basics: When three vital crew members are lost on a mission, Picard struggles to replace them in a comic book adventure that readers will find predictable but enjoyable.


For almost the entire run of DC's Star Trek: The Next Generation monthly comic book run, novelist Michael Jan Friedman was tapped as the writer of the series. He did some remarkably clever works that fleshed out the Star Trek universe fairly well. He also did some issues that did not work nearly as well as one would hope. But in the early years of the comics, Friedman had it going on and so it is understandable that some of his best arcs would be republished as trade paperback collections. One of the better ones of those was his collection which was anthologized as The Star Lost.

Set during the fourth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation (reviewed here!), The Star Lost tells essentially one story over the course of five issues (substantially six issues, as #24 was a double-sized issue). This anthology, originally published as monthly comic books numbered 20 - 24 involves the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-D on its trips around the galaxy. This is a simple anthology of previously released comics, but because most of the comic books are harder to find and a bit expensive now, this offers a compact, affordable way to get the stories from the comic books without hunting down the back issues. As well, they are printed in a way that there's no ink that gets left on one's fingers! That is actually a very cool idea and to sweeten the deal, DC included an introduction with Ronald D. Moore. This are only mildly informative now, but it is a nice touch and it shows an attempt to put some added value into the trade paperback.

The stories are basically a long arc of the adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-D which involved a single traumatic incident and the repercussions of that. This mission is anthologized - quite well - to provide an adventure in between the televised fourth season episodes. The Star Lost arc was originally published as the comic books: "The Flight Of The Albert Einstein," "Mourning Star," "Trapped," "The Barrier" and "Homecoming" are anthologized here for ease of presentation and story continuity.

In "The Flight Of The Albert Einstein," a shuttlecraft carrying Riker, Worf, Ensign Crusher, Dr. Selar and Ensign Faraday is en route to aid with a medical emergency when it encounters an energy distortion and vanishes. Picard and the crew of the Enterprise are surprised when they learn that the Albert Einstein (their shuttlecraft) never arrived at the dying world of Beta Hydros IV. Abandoning its mission, the Enterprise reroutes to save the planet while the crew of the shuttlecraft, wounded and alone, tries to determine just where in the galaxy they are!

In "Mourning Star," the Enterprise completes its mission at Beta Hydros IV, only to investigate the disappearance of the Albert Einstein. Finding no trace of the shuttle, Picard is forced to declare his officers dead. This is especially devastating to Deanna Troi and Dr. Crusher and Picard works to find replacements for his crew members. Meanwhile, the Albert Einstein journeys to a strange space station nearby, only to discover ships from every imaginable race present!

In "Trapped," the crew of the Albert Einstein, far from dead, discovers that the amalgamated space station at the edge of the galaxy is populated by all sorts of beings, from missing Federation ships, Romulan, Ferengi and other races. The station has essentially broken down into two camps, one that wants to work together and one who wants to control all new arrivals. Riker and his crew end up with the more Federation-like group and soon their camp falls under siege from the other side as they hope to get parts from the Albert Einstein that will enable them to leave. On the Enterprise, Picard chooses his new command crew and prepares to progress with the mission of exploration of the ship.

In "The Barrier," the U.S.S. Enterprise continues its exploratory mission by visiting a water world where Troi begins to suspect not everything is kosher. Her instincts are proven right when she discovers a highly telepathic race and hears their plight. On the other side of the galaxy, the crew of the Albert Einstein explores the energy field that keeps the station trapped in the rift space it is in and they also discover that the station is hardly stable and they must all get out of the area or else all will die!

In "Homecoming," the stories resolve themselves with the shuttlecraft crew working desperately to save the lives of the beings on both sides of the station and the Enterprise crew doing its part to save the endangered creatures on the watery planet!

Michael Jan Friedman is an adept Star Trek: The Next Generation writer, and in The Star Lost, Friedman has the voices and emotions of the characters detailed well. By this point, he knows perfectly well how each of the characters sounds and he writes their voices with an accuracy that makes the stories flow well, at least in the dialogue.

Unfortunately for Friedman, he is charged with a story that essentially has two real problems. The first is that because it is a comic book, the reader knows everyone (with the possible exception of Faraday) will survive because they are in the television series. Friedman isn't going to be given license to kill off a main character - much less three - in the comic books. As a result, there is no real doubt that by the end the characters will all be reunited and the net effect of this little adventure will be . . . nothing. Friedman is not at liberty to make the characters come together any better as a result of this and as a result, the overall concept falls slightly down.

As well, Friedman works very well and very safely within the confines of the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe. He safely explores the predicaments of the crew of the Albert Einstein with little sense of consequence or reality. Riker and his team quickly join the right side and begin to work together in a very StarFleet way. In other words, no one gives up and, of course, good teamwork saves the day.

Further strikes against the stories in The Star Lost are related to the artwork. Pablo Marcos, who provided the artwork for the comic books as penciler, was once good, though many of the panels are bland and look far more like caricatures of the crew of the Enterprise-D than actual drawings of them. In this collection, he is the inker and penciler Peter Krause takes the blame for the artwork. Many of the panels have serious problems with how people are posed and expressions that make the characters look nothing like they are portrayed on television. As well, the aliens on the station look terrible and some of the background aliens are little more than stick figures (I wish I were joking). Krause sticks with it, but the artwork only improves slightly for the final portion, probably to sell the 24th issue at the time. People who are buying double-sized tend to want to get their money's worth!

Michael Jan Friedman has a fine sense of the voice of the characters of Star Trek: The Next Generation, though there appear phrases like "eh?" that do not quite read right. Sadly, this trade paperback limits Friedman's ability to truly explore the characters of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Having to work around the crew with new characters just to make the stories work feels surprisingly stale. However, his take on Troi, especially, works and it is hard to criticize him for giving Troi a decent part, as he does.

The result is a book that fans are more likely to enjoy, but does not hold up over multiple reads, at least by general science fiction fans. This has a very "comic book" feel to it because, well, it was a comic book. But unlike works unique to comic books, there are too many constraints Friedman has to work with and as a result, this is likely only to please those already biased toward such a work.

As far as the Star Trek: The Next Generation comics go, though, this is one of the better ones and fans will appreciate that.

For other Star Trek: The Next Generation graphic novels, please check out:
The Hero Factor
The Battle Within
Maelstrom

5.5/10

For other book reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Lazy Star Trek: The Next Generation Comic Theater: Maelstrom Sinks

The Good: Moments of story concept, "Forbidden Fruit" isn't bad
The Bad: Sloppy artwork, Light on character development, Some of the stories are shoddy.
The Basics: A disappointing outing for all but the youngest Star Trek: The Next Generation readers, Maelstrom is an erratic collection of four stories.


The Star Trek: The Next Generation comic books worked for a little while, generally while DC comics managed to attract the best and brightest talent to write for them. They began their run with Michael Jan Friedman as the head writer and his Star Trek: The Next Generation comics were made into the trade paperback anthologies The Hero Factor (reviewed here!) and The Battle Within (reviewed here!). Unlike the earlier omnibus editions, this trade paperback begins to show some serious flaws in the comic books.

Set during the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation (reviewed here!), Maelstrom tells four stories involving the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-D on its trips around the galaxy. This is a simple anthology of previously released comics, but because most of the comic books are harder to find and a bit expensive now, this offers a compact, affordable way to get the stories from the comic books without hunting down the back issues. As well, they are printed in a way that there's no ink that gets left on one's fingers! That is actually a very cool idea and to sweeten the deal, Titan Books included an interview with LeVar Burton and one with Michael Dorn. These are only mildly informative now, but they are a nice touch and it shows an attempt to put some added value into the trade paperback.

The stories are basically two two-part adventures bookended by a standalone adventure on each end with the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-D and they are anthologized to provide adventures in between the televised third season episodes. The adventures, originally published as the comic books: "The Hand Of The Assassin," "Holiday On Ice," "Prisoners Of The Ferengi," "I Have Heard The Mermaids Singing," "The Weapon," and "Forbidden Fruit" are anthologized here for ease of presentation and story continuity.

In "The Hand Of The Assassin," the telepathic Domak come aboard the Enterprise to negotiate a line of planetary succession following the death of the planet's queen and a civil war between the two heirs. While security forced monitor the negotiations and Troi monitors everyone to insure no one is being telepathically influenced by the Domak - who have been known to do that - one of the aids to one of the heirs takes control of O'Brien's body. Intent on using the transporter chief to use the transporter to kill the queen, O'Brien struggles to keep the enemy from taking him over entirely and using him as an instrument of murder.

In "Holiday On Ice" and "Prisoners Of The Ferengi," Geordi and Riker go for shore leave on a frozen world. While out snow sailing, they uncover a significant Ferengi strip mining facility and end up captured by the Ferengi in charge. While the Enterprise crew searches for Riker and Geordi, they are tormented by the Ferengi and try to escape.

In "I Have Heard The Mermaids Singing" and "The Weapon," the U.S.S. Enterprise-D finds itself investigating a white hole when it it thrown into Romulan space. The crew displays irrational behavior - like Riker yelling at Picard about keeping the ship clean - and the damage from passing through the spatial anomaly leaves the ship crippled. The situation goes from bad to worse when the Romulans, led by Tomalak, appear and demand the Enterprise surrender for its incursion into their space.

In "Forbidden Fruit," Wesley Crusher pokes along working on a new version of the transporter as part of his studies. He develops the hyperport, a powerful device that appears to work, so well that it transports a man from a very different time and space to the Enterprise D. Once there, he urges Wesley to destroy the hyperport, illustrating that the technology leads Wesley to a fast captaincy that results in the hyperport technology decimating a planet's population. Wesley, then, must choose whether or not scientific endeavor and the benefits of the hyperport are worth the lives of the people of Rovan IV.

First off, Michael Jan Friedman is an adept Star Trek: The Next Generation writer, but in these stories he seems to be falling down some on his dialogue. The two most original stories - "The Hand Of The Assassin" and "Forbidden Fruit" - work well enough because the stories are intriguing. The introduction of O'Brien into the comic books is a decent one and Michael Jan Friedman gets his voice down pretty well. "Forbidden Fruit," though, is written by Dave Stern and Mike O'Brien and it has a decent plot and character conflict, but it is also pretty loaded with exposition to make the whole thing make sense.

The Ferengi storyline, though, is absolutely terrible. Unlike other comics, books and the series, the Ferengi portrayed in this story seem to have evolved not at all from their original characterization from "The Last Outpost" (reviewed here!). Unlike that episode, the Ferengi were soon developed into an absolute capitalist society that had a code. In other words, they were not simple barbarians as they appeared in their first appearance. Similarly, the problems in the two-part Maelstrom story (where the anthology gets its name from) are simple and a poor exit for Michael Jan Friedman from the medium.

Further strikes against the stories in Maelstrom are related to the artwork. Pablo Marcos, who provided the artwork for the comic books as penciller, was once good, though many of the panels are bland and look far more like caricatures of the crew of the Enterprise-D than actual drawings of them. Many of the panels have serious problems with how people are posed and expressions that make the characters look nothing like they are portrayed on television. The artwork degenerates over the course of the first few stories until Marcos is eventually replaced by an entirely new art team.

On the story front, Michael Jan Friedman runs into difficulties that include having to make up characters to have the stories make sense. For example, in "The Hand Of The Assassin," Friedman relies on the new Lieutenant, Forthol, to provide O'Brien a way to resist his telepathic influence. Ignorant of how to play poker, Forthol needs instruction - convenient this happens on the very night O'Brien needs to send a message about the danger a queen is in! That type of plot conceit makes the book hold up poorly, just as the resolution to "The Weapon" seems particularly lame.

Fans of the series will enjoy seeing characters like Tomalak from "The Enemy" (reviewed here!) incorporated into the comics. This manages to provide a larger sense of the Star Trek universe and that does seem to be the point of creating comic books for this series.

Michael Jan Friedman has a fine sense of the voice of the characters of Star Trek: The Next Generation, though there appear phrases like "eh?" that do not quite read right. Sadly, this trade paperback limits Friedman's ability to truly explore the characters of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Having to work around the crew with new characters just to make the stories work feels surprisingly stale.

The result is a book that fans are more likely to be disappointed by than enjoy. This is one that even the die-hard fans will have no real problem with passing on. It might, however, be good for younger readers who are just getting into science fiction.

For other Star Trek graphic novels reviewed by me, please check out:
The Trial Of James T. Kirk - Peter David
Star Trek: Nero - Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
Star Trek Archives 3: The Best Of Gary Seven

4.5/10

For other book reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.




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The Battle Within: Star Trek: The Next Generation Comic Books That Seem. . . Like Comic Books!

The Good: Moments of writing, Moments of artwork, Bonus interviews are interesting
The Bad: A lot of the artwork is very simplified, New alien races make little sense
The Basics: With one of my weakest "recommends" to date, I accept that there's just enough to The Battle Within to make this trade paperback worth buying for fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation.


I've been having quite a bit of nostalgia over my middle school and high school days lately. This seems to be in large part because I've been picking up more and more trade paperbacks; comic books reprinted in an omnibus format. People want to try to convince me they are graphic novels, but things like the Star Trek: The Next Generation collection The Hero Factor (reviewed here!) are not graphic novels; they do not tell a unified story in comic form. Books like that are simply collections of previously released comic books: omnibus trade paperbacks.

The producers of DC's Star Trek: The Next Generation comics have begun putting out trade paperback anthologies of the various comics. Following on the success of The Hero Factor, Titan Books continued with The Battle Within.

Set during the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation (reviewed here!), The Battle Within tells - essentially - two and a half stories involving the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-D on its trips around the galaxy. This is a simple anthology of previously released comics, but because most of the comic books are harder to find and a bit expensive now, this offers a compact, affordable way to get the stories from the comic books without hunting down the back issues. As well, they are printed in a way that there's no ink that gets left on one's fingers! That is actually a very cool idea and to sweeten the deal, Titan Books included an interview with Jonathan Frakes and one with Marina Sirtis. These are only mildly informative now, but they are a nice touch and it shows an attempt to put some added value into the trade paperback.

The stories are basically a two-part adventure and a four part arc with the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-D and they are anthologized to provide adventures in between the televised third season episodes. The adventures, originally published as the comic books: "The Pilot," "The Battle Within," "The Pay Off," "The Noise of Justice," "The Impostor," and "Whoever Fights Monsters" are anthologized here for ease of presentation and story continuity.

In "The Pilot" and "The Battle Within," Lieutenant Commander Data is kidnaped by an alien race. Deified and believed to be far more powerful than the aliens, they capture data and plug him into their ship with the intent of augmenting their vessel. Apparently reprogrammed, Data leads the Enterprise on a high speed chase while Troi tries to figure out what is wrong with him and Riker attempts to rescue the android second officer.

"The Pay Off" begins a four part arc with something of a bottle story. Dr. Crusher falls ill and the only people who have a cure for what ails her are the Ferengi. The Ferengi insist that Picard is guilty of destroying some of their ships, a claim which is almost immediately supported by StarFleet which arrives to arrest Picard, accusing him of destroying several vessels, including a Federation starship.

In "The Noise Of Justice," Picard finds himself again at the tender mercies of Captain Phillipa Louvois, of the Judge Advocate General's office. He recalls a prior mission involving the Stargazer as he prepares to stand trial for the murders he apparently ordered while in command of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

In "The Impostor" and "Whoever Fights The Monsters," Picard is provisionally exonerated when the Enterprise is spotted while docked at the Starbase. Eager to stop the death and destruction, the Enterprise is sent to stop the killer Enterprise. In the process, they discover that the path the adversarial ship is following is essentially the course of the Enterprise-D's first year of missions. And when they manage to track down the impostor, they find something they did not anticipate!

First off, Michael Jan Friedman is an adept Star Trek: The Next Generation writer. Friedman wrote such Star Trek: The Next Generation novels as Reunion the stories in The Battle Within generally illustrate his creativity. Unfortunately, that creativity seems to come with some serious artistic liberties. At the climax of the story, Deanna Troi essentially performs a mind-meld, something she is not at all powerful enough to do.

Further strikes against the stories in The Battle Within are related to the medium. Pablo Marcos, who provided the artwork for the comic books as penciller, is good, though many of the panels are bland and look far more like caricatures of the crew of the Enterprise-D than actual drawings of them. There are serious shading issues and the artwork often has characters - like Deanna Troi - posed at ridiculous angles.

On the story front, Michael Jan Friedman runs into difficulties mostly based on the medium. There is a much greater sense of movement in these stories and the dialogue is not as sharp as in some of Friedman's other (novel) works. "The Noise Of Justice" foreshadows Friedman's works like Reunion, but here the story seems more like filler. Indeed, one has the sense when reading "The Pay Off" and "The Noise Of Justice" that the writer is being ordered to hold the good story for the one year anniversary issue. So, the story picks up, but it is pretty blase until the last act.

Fans of the series will enjoy seeing characters like Phillipa Louvois from "The Measure Of A Man" (reviewed here!) incorporated into the comics. This manages to provide a larger sense of the Star Trek universe and that does seem to be the point of creating comic books in this universe. It does, however, take a real clever reader to reach the conclusions before Data on the impostor's course.

Michael Jan Friedman has a fine sense of the voice of the characters of Star Trek: The Next Generation, though there appear phrases like "eh?" that do not quite read right. Sadly, this trade paperback limits Friedman's ability to truly explore the characters of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Instead, he imbues them with superhuman qualities that they do not normally possess. Similarly, Data is treated as remarkably weak in the first two stories. How the aliens incapacitate him is not satisfactorily explained.

Fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation will likely still enjoy this anthology and ultimately, I gave it a very weak "recommend" because the stories are just good enough. The Battle Within lacks the finesse and depth of the average novel.

For other Star Trek franchise graphic novels, please check out my reviews of:
The Trial Of James T. Kirk
Star Trek: Nero
Star Trek Archives Volume 3: The Best Of Gary Seven

5/10

For other book reviews, please visit my index page!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Early Star Trek: The Next Generation Comics Collected Are Enjoyable, But Not Great Literature: The Hero Factor!

The Good: Interesting stories, Written with character's voices well
The Bad: Some shaky artwork, Some elements of simplicity
The Basics: If you can find it at a discount, this trade paperback anthology of the first six Star Trek: The Next Generation comic books is bound to delight fans.


When the Star Trek: The Next Generation comics began in the early 90s, I was in middle school and a big fan of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation. With my many moves through the years and a need in college for money, I sold most of my Star Trek: The Next Generation comics off to make room for textbooks and have money for pizza. Fortunately, now that I am an adult, the producers of DC's Star Trek: The Next Generation comics have begun putting out trade paperback anthologies of the various comics. The first of these is The Hero Factor, a collection put out by Titan Books.

Set during the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation (reviewed here!), The Hero Factor tells three stories involving the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-D on its trips around the galaxy. This is a simple anthology of previously released comics, but because most of the comic books are harder to find and a bit expensive now, this offers a compact, affordable way to get the stories from the comic books without hunting down the back issues. That is actually a very cool idea and to sweeten the deal, Titan Books included an interview with Patrick Stewart and one with Brent Spiner, as well as biographies of the writer and artist for the Star Trek: The Next Generation comics.

The stories are basically three two-part adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-D and they are anthologized to provide adventures in between the televised second season adventures. The adventures, originally published as the comic books: "Return To Raimon," "Murder Most Foul," "The Derelict," "The Hero Factor," "Serafin's Survivors," and "Shadows In The Garden," a anthologized her for ease of presentation and story continuity.

In "Return To Raimon" and "Murder Most Foul," Captain Picard is enthusiastically looking forward to a trip to the planet Raimon, a planet he visited while he was the captain of the U.S.S. Stargazer. He had befriended the planetary ruler there and his daughter, who was just a child when he last saw her. He arrives to discover the girl is very much a woman and when his friend is murdered, Picard becomes the prime suspect. Under Raimon law, Picard chooses Riker to stand in for a fight to the death and while Riker is holding his own, Picard hunts down the real murderer.

In "The Derelict" and "The Hero Factor," an Away Team beams over to a derelict ship from a distant empire to discover that it is anything but inactive. Systems come alive and the ship takes off at insane speeds for the home planet where those captured are told they will be dissected for study. While they are in stasis and the Enterprise pursues the little ship, Worf and Engineer McRobb - who were not in the stasis chamber with Pulaski, Riker and Troi - work to deactivate the ship, allowing the timid engineer a chance to rise up to being a hero.

And in "Serafin's Survivors" and "Shadows In The Garden," an old lover of Geordi's arrives on the Enterprise as part of a group of colonists who have survived an environmental disaster on a distant world. As she and Geordi flirt around one another, it becomes clear that the group of survivors did not leave the planet unaltered and the secret they hide will likely tear Geordi apart!

First off, Michael Jan Friedman is an adept Star Trek: The Next Generation writer. Friedman wrote such "Star Trek: The Next Generation" novels as Reunion and was given the responsibility of filling in portions of Captain Picard's twenty year mission as captain of the Stargazer. He was, also, the author of the unfortunate Star Trek: Voyager episode "Resistance." None of the stories in this are nearly that bad.

Actually, the only real strikes against the stories in The Hero Factor are related to the medium. Pablo Marcos, who provided the artwork for the comic books as penciller, is good, though the Raimons look like the lead Thundercat. But Marcos runs into the problem many artists seem to have: he is unable to draw Doctor Pulaski well (though coloring is an issue in this case, too). Given her role in the second story, this becomes a bit of a drawback.

On the story front, Michael Jan Friedman runs into difficulties solely based on the medium. Engineer McRobb is interesting enough, but it seems odd that when beginning the comic books with such a rich cast of characters to explore, a new nervous engineer would be created to be added to the mix. At least it wasn't the Bickersons (a terrible pair from the first DC comic mini-series for Star Trek: The Next Generation). Friedman's real limitation comes in the third story. Because the comics are set in the second season (the show was already in the third season when the books originally were published), there are certain limitations. We know none of the main characters are going to be killed off, even in a non-canon work.

But more pronounced is the difficulty with establishing the relationship between Geordi and Dahlia as a vital and possible thing. Whatever history Geordi and Dahlia had, no matter how close they come to falling in love again, the reader knows that it cannot last because Geordi is a loser who can't keep a woman in the series and it would be hard to keep a story going in the comics where he was married and in love. Fans simply wouldn't buy it.

So, we're left with a tragedy and Michael Jan Friedman has a penchant for Shakespearean tragedies in the Star Trek universe. The Raimon storyline has a similarly simple murder investigation, the Serafin storyline has a very Shakespearean love story/tragedy, and the story in the middle is pretty much a hero in the process of becoming with McRobb getting a spine. Despite being a character that most fans will not immediately connect with or care about, the middle story has a creepy factor to it that works well.

Michael Jan Friedman has a fine sense of the voice of the characters of Star Trek: The Next Generation, though there appear phrases like "eh?" that do not quite read right (it's as if the Enterprise crew suddenly became Canadian!). Fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation will likely still enjoy this anthology and ultimately, I gave it a "recommend" because the writing is good enough. The Hero Factor does, however, lack the finesse and depth of the average novel.

For other Star Trek franchise graphic novels, please check out my reviews of:
The Trial Of James T. Kirk
Star Trek: Nero
Star Trek Archives Volume 3: The Best Of Gary Seven

5.5/10

For other book reviews, please visit my index page!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.




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