REVIEW: Star Trek: Boldly Go #8

When Romulan Ambassador Joltair is murdered at a peace summit on Babel, all signs point to Starfleet Cadet Shev Akria. Shev was apprehended by the Romulans and then freed by fellow cadet Jaylah. Star Trek: Boldly Go Issue 8 takes place immediately after issue 7 with the attention placed on the search for Jaylah and Shev and the search for the real murderer.

Johnson and Parrott continue to impress with the writing in this series. They have nailed the main elements of the Kelvin crew while also providing nods to the original series. I found myself immediately sucked in. While this pays homage to the original series, it adds just enough twists on its own to not be just a fan tribute.Â One of the final pages has a familiar scene of Kirk, Bones, and Spock on the bridge bantering and wrapping up the adventure. I was half expecting the issue to wrap up this way, but it doesn’t. It ends in a fitting way with the cadets having a meal together. Fitting because this arc was primarily about the cadets and the main takeaway was how close the cadets are and how they were willing to risk their careers for one another. I would be remiss not to mention we are also shown an awesome scene with Vulcan cadet T’Laan answering the question about what would happen if a Vulcan mind-melded with a recently deceased being. Fascinating.

This issue wraps up this storyline nicely while setting up threads for former Commander Valas and continuing to build up how serious of a threat the Borg are. We end with the crew traveling to New Vulcan and are shown the wonderfully retro Vulcan-themed cover for the next issue. The regular cover to upcoming issue 9 is absolutely beautiful (Caltsoudas has a preview on his tumblr page, click HEREÂ ). I’m looking forward to the next issue to see what will happen to this crew on New Vulcan.

George Caltsoudas provides another fabulous cover (and the book contains an interview with him). It’s not the best one he’s done for this series, but it’s great, nonetheless. As in previous issues, many alternate covers are also provided. I had the same issues with Megan Levens’ art in this issue as I did in the previous one. The art is clean and minimal, but lacking in emotion. I’m not opposed to a more animated style, but I just wish the characters didn’t have such blank stares and conveyed more with their facial expressions. The panel framing was more dynamic and the storytelling is handled well, but not enough to greatly impress me. I like elements of this art and some may love it, but I found it average overall. I did appreciate nice character touches, such as Bones talking with his hands while trying to reason with Spock.

I enjoyed this issue and continue to enjoy this series. While this particular arc doesn’t contain a world-altering event, it has provided nice character moments and is very well written. This is a great title for fans of the Kelvin timeline films and fans of Trek in general. I give this issue 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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Written by Mike Johnson & Ryan Parrott
Art by Megan Levens
Regular Cover by George Caltsoudas
Published by IDW