Blood Will Tell #4 is the latest in IDW’s series of famous Trek stories told from the Klingon point of view. In this case: "Day of the Dove."
K’ahlynn accompanies her grandfather, Kahnrah, to the Museum of Military Triumph and Conquest. They meet Morglar, an old comrade of Kahnrah’s, and former security officer aboard the Voh’Tahk, commanded by Kang. Morglar recollects the events of Day of the Dove.
Trapped on the Enterprise, Kang and his surviving crew engage in a bloody standoff with the crew of the Enterprise, feeding a malevolent entity. Morglar and his security team kill humans, over and over again, but in the end, he loses his blind hatred. He also believes that asking the humans for help might not be such a bad idea. Kahnrah makes his decision and prepares to go before the High Council.
Story, art, and Star Trek come together in Blood Will Tell #4, for IDW’s finest comic outing so far. Day of the Dove, an episode which showcases the worst of human behavior along with with some brutal swordplay, didn’t tell us much about Klingons, but that’s ok. Scott and David Tipton are taking care of the other side of the story. As is usually the case, Kirk is the troublemaker, but we all know this. He’s pretty dependable in this regard. To balance the equation, the Tiptons give us Klingons in combat, women in particular, and when the fighting is over, honor with a bit of humor.
David Messina was apparently born to draw Klingons and humans carving up each other with broadswords. The digital colorist for this issue, Ilaria Traversi, does a fine job with red shirts and blood. Kang’s wife, Mara, is featured on all of the covers for this issue. I guess that’s her reward for all the crap she put up with from Earthers. Joe Corroney contributes a nice cover of Kang in command of the Enterprise. All of the elements that one can expect to find in a terrific comic are in this issue. My congratulations to the IDW crew. Now, don’t let it go to your head. There’s still one more issue to go.
Star Trek: Klingons — Blood Will Tell #4
Written by: Scott Tipton and David Tipton
Art by: David Messina with an assist by Elena Casagrande
Cover art by: David Messina and Joe Corroney
In shops: the week of August 1
Coming from IDW
Star Trek: Year Four #2, August
Star Trek: Klingons — Blood Will Tell #5, August
Star Trek: Alien Spotlight #1 Gorn, September
Star Trek: Year Four #3, September
Star Trek: The Next Generation — The Space Between TPB, ISBN 160010116X, September
Star Trek: Year Four #4, October
Star Trek: Alien Spotlight #2 Vulcans, October
Star Trek: Year Four #5, November
Star Trek: Alien Spotlight #3 Borg, November
Star Trek: Klingons — Blood Will Tell TPB, ISBN 1600101089, November
Star Trek: Year Four #6, December
Star Trek: Alien Spotlight #4 Andorians, December
Star Trek: Alien Spotlight #5 Orions, January 2008
Star Trek: The Next Generation — Intelligence Gathering #1, January 2008
Star Trek: Alien Spotlight #6 Romulans, February 2008
Coming from Tokyopop
Star Trek: The Manga Volume 2 — Kakan ni Shinkon, ISBN 1427806208, September
Mark Martinez is an obsessive-compulsive Star Trek comics reader and collector. He also reads the occasional Star Trek novel and wonders why they don’t have any pictures. You can visit his website, the Star Trek Comics Checklist for more than you ever needed to know about Star Trek comics.
said itb4 i’ll say it again – the only comics I’d bother getting wud be ‘what if’s
what if’ kirk and co had encoutered the borg not picard?….
what if kirk & the ent 1701 had never come across the botony bay and it had been picard & the ent D (or E) who had revived khan ?
“Museum of Military Triumph and Conquest”
Klingons are more interesting when they’re less Nazi-esque and more about a true, sustanable military-government (not that I’m for that.) “Dove,” “Mercy,” and even “Tribbles” offer mostly 2-D Klingons,* as opposed to “Search for Spock,” in which we get Christopher Lloyd’s 1-D acting. “Undiscovered” again gives us variation in the Klingon empire. THAT’s interesting. IF we’re gonna get hit with Klingons in XI, PLEASE let them be more than walking cliches of warmed-over Nazi-types.
*Colicos is an exception if only for his bravado
Museum of Military Triumph and Conquest.
Kirk is a troublemaker, as usual.
Morglar.
No thanks. I’ll stick to Gold Key.
Kruge one dimensional? Hardly. The Klingon crew, maybe, but not Kruge. Favorite bits; the confrontations between Kruge and Kirk are tense, dark, and exciting. ” It is not I who will surrender it is YOU!” Dramatic pause, “On the planets’ surface….” I love that.
#4 Agreed. In the end, it comes down to a grudge match between Kirk and Kruge. Kruge killed Kirk’s son, and Kirk killed Kruge’s entire crew. (Except Maltz.)
I thought I’d chime in with some more evidence of Christopher Lloyd’s acting abilities:
Early in the story, Kruge’s lover reveals to him that she has seen the records of the Genesis device. Kruge realizes that he has to kill her to suppress this knowledge, but we see a twinge of hesitation and regret, maybe even horror, before his carries out the task.
Much later, the Enterprise was destroyed with most of Kruge’s crew aboard. Soon afterward, Kirk makes contact with Kruge and we him on the bridge of his Bird of Prey, with his face in his hands, mourning the loss of his crew.
Is this truly a one-dimensional man? Jumpin’ gigawatts!
Kruge shows up, kills his lover.
Kruge gets mad, kills his tactical officer.
Kruge strangles a slug bare-handed.
Kruge orders Kirk’s son killed.
Kruge tries to kill Kirk, falls into lava.
Um, let me know when we get to the second dimension here. Lloyd never modulates. He’s a baddie. The part is written as a baddie. He plays it that way. A better actor (or better written part) might have had something to break it up. I don’t buy into the ‘twinge and hesitation’ suggested by previous entries. Face it, this was not the Klingons’ finest hour.
OH how wrong you are CmdrR. Lloyd gave us one of the best Klingon characterizations in ST history. You are perhaps too young to appreciate a fine performance in an actor.
Now, take Michael Ansara, that’s about as wooden as you can get.
The description of the story illustrates exactly why I don’t plan on reading this series:
“K’ahlynn accompanies her grandfather, Kahnrah, and they meet Morglar, an old comrade of Kahnrah’s, and former security officer aboard the Voh’Tahk.”
These names and characters mean nothing to me. Its so much gibberish. Give me characters I know and care about and not something that reads like a D&D module.
Young? Me? Bless you, sir. You are a saint.
I am pleased that there’s such debate to be had on this point.
OK, you like Lloyd.
Of the TOS TV Klingons, I certainly pick Colicos’ Kor. Ansara’s Kang is a little thin, but at least he has a wife so you can imagine the fights on his ship and the frozen Klingon corpses tied to his ship’s bumper.
Of the film Klingons, I’d pick any of the major roles in VI. To me, that’s what we want in a villain(s), unpredictability. Chancellor Gorkon and his daughters are bearers of peace. She’s even more p.c. than the Enterprise crew at one point. It’s Gen. Chang, whilst spouting bad Shakespeare, who tries to deliver the death blow.
Even Mark Lenard in TMP shows more range in a very limited role than IMHO Lloyd shows with Kruge.
All I’m saying is that villains that are all farty-bad all the time are boring. I like to see range in my baddies. I hope that JJ gives us a truly interesting villain, Klingon or whatever.
I won’t deny that Kruge has a violent streak. He absolutely does. But I think it’s clear that there’s more to him than that violent streak. That’s what I’m trying to say.
You’re quite correct when you say that Kruge was written as a baddie. I think that the only aspects to the character that make him come off as something more than just a baddie are due to Christopher Lloyd’s portrayal and the subtext he worked into the scenes, as I cited above.
I could also point out that although Kruge is written as a baddie, there’s purpose to his badness. You give several examples of his violent streak, but you don’t acknowledge that he had reasons for his actions. You almost make it sound like he merely felt like doing it at the time, when the fact is that all of his actions were geared toward advancing the power of the Klingon empire.
OK, onto a different subject. When you click on the third cover above, Mara’s headlights are on.
Oh, and I can agree with almost everything you say in post #10, CmdR. I also look at Kor (in TOS, not necessarily in DS9) as one of the finest examples of well-written and well-played Klingons. I just think that you’ve given Kruge/Lloyd too little credit.
I agree with #9, but billy, what is a hiro?
#9-
Gibberish is far too diplomatic for people who don’t have the slightest idea about what they’re doing. Cookie-cutter is more justified. They need to get some decent writers with some serious chops, and who have a great feel for not only these characters, but the timeframe involved.
Until then, I’m sticking with Gold Key.
Wow! I really can’t get over how much this all looks like my artwork, from my days at Trekbbs.
Amazing!
LOVE the artwork. The style artist David Messina has brought here is a terrifically retro style, without being a rehash or swipe… it’s his own style and it fits so well with the look of these comix. The colour is fantastic too, I assume it’s his assistant doing that wonderful embellishment.
17. Plum,
I’ve been doing the same thing for years. The cover art is very much like what Iwas doing at TrekBBS 6 yrs ago, sorry.