REVIEW: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy #5

Written by Mike Johnson & Ryan Parrot, art by Derek Charm, published by IDW

My relationship with Star Trek is patchy. Love classic, cold on Next Gen’ the rest is mainly meh and I like the first new movie but found the second one a bit stupid. But between slim pickings and sheer fed uppness, here I am reviewing a Star Trek comic.Â And really enjoying it.Â Nine times out of ten licensed comics are badly referenced pamphlets trying to advertise the source material. The creative team here though must have thought “fuck it!” and ran with their little corner of the Star Trek universe.

The plot revolves around a small group of cadets and time travel and feels like its own story but with a built-in foundation that gives it a strong setting.Â The story is basic but it’s not about “finding new life or civilizations” it’s about introducing us to these new characters and how they bond as a unit which it does really well if this last issue is to go by. The dialogue doesn’t fall into the next gen’ trap of techno-babble by having one of the characters use the well oiled but no less amusing running joke of needing a metaphor each time someone techno-babbles.

The art is a welcome change of pace to. It’s an animated style that works surprisingly well for a universe populated mainly by lens flares. It doesn’t needs actors likenesses very often and anything referenced from the Star Trek universe looks like it came from there. There’s a good sense of motion when the star-ships are moving, something Poe Dameron could learn from.

There’s some love for these characters and it’s nice to see the Trek’verse through fresh eyes, I hope there’s more from IDW with these characters.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]