Review: Star Trek: Klingons — Blood Will Tell #5

Klingons -- Blood Will Tell #5 Cover A original artIDW’s mini-series, Star Trek: Klingons — Blood Will Tell, concludes with issue #5.

Having made his decision to support Chancellor Gorkon’s proposal to seek Federation help, Kahnrah finds himself hunted in the mean streets of the First City. Armed with his mek’leth, he eludes four assassins and encounters his granddaughter. For a moment he believes K’ahlynn will help, but discovers that she is opposed to begging for help from humans. In the end, blood does tell, and Kahnrah must kill K’ahlynn. In the council chamber, Kahnrah casts his vote for change and for survival.

The Brothers Tipton finish off their mini-series in grand style worthy of Klingon opera. After setting up the relationship between Kahnrah and his granddaughter in the first four issues, it was inevitable that there would be a bloody conflict, and I wasn’t disappointed. Assassins, edged weapons, commuter train crashes, and a fight to the death. The Tiptons created a summer blockbuster, not just a comic.

won't go quietly

The events of this issue immediately precede Chancellor Gorkon’s negotiations with the Federation in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. General Chang also makes a very brief appearance in the final chapter. Kahnrah is a thoughtful sort of Star Trek character that we seldom see in comics and I found his framing story and the retelling of well-known original series events, from the Klingon point of view, enormously entertaining.

change

Artist David Messina maintained a consistent look throughout the mini-series, mixing dynamic action panels with fierce portraits of the principal characters. Elena Casagrande is credited with art assists in this and other issues of the mini-series. If I could read Italian, I’d learn more about these artists, who regularly blog about their work in their native language. Ms. Casagrande’s blog seems to belong to an artist named Lara West. Does she use a pseudonym? I seem to have misplaced my universal translator. I guess I’ll have to find an Italian/English dictionary.

Joe Corroney complemented David Messina’s covers with sensational photorealistic likenesses of original series Klingons. Unfortunately, some of these covers are only available as retailer incentives. If you get the opportunity to buy one, don’t hesitate. Blood Will Tell #5 has three covers. If you don’t like to buy comics, a trade paperback collection of Blood Will Tell is scheduled for November publication. I’m sure it will include all of the variant covers.

Star Trek: Klingons — Blood Will Tell #5
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 September 5

Klingons -- Blood Will Tell #5 Cover A Klingons -- Blood Will Tell #5 Cover B Klingons -- Blood Will Tell #5 Cover RI

preview available at IDW CLICK HERE 

 

Coming from IDW

Star Trek: The Next Generation — The Space Between (Trade Paperback), September 12
Star Trek: Alien Spotlight #1 Gorn, September
Star Trek: Year Four #3, 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 (Trade Paperback), 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

IDW Trade Paperbacks available at Amazon

 

Coming from Tokyopop

Star Trek: The Manga Volume 2 — Kakan ni Shinkon, September

Tokyopop Manga available at Amazon

 

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.

13 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

First bitchess

Comics on the down low yo!

Read er’m

These reviews make me really want to shck out these comics. i’ve read some of the Star Trek comics int he past and usually am not that impressed by them, but this series looks worth looking up. Thanks for the review!

I’ve read issues 1-4 and enjoyed them, so I’m looking forward to picking up the final issue!

I’ve also read (I think it was here?) that this team is going to be tackling TNG soon, so I’m very much looking forward to see what they do with the TNG universe!

#1
What? Didn’t understand any of that. Something about a yo-yo?

Looks like fun. I’ve just added the collected TPB to my Amazon wish list.

I wonder if the TPB will also include the Klingon language version? Probably not, but it would be nice.

The Star Trek: Klingons mini-series has been stellar. Anyone here who loves the Klingons but hasn’t checked out this comic really should.

Sounds as fantastic as I thought it would be, Blood Will Tell has been a really great miniseries.

Just to note, the coming from IDW needs updating, the Alien Spotlight issues will now be coming out in this order:
-Gorn
-Vulcan
-Andorian
-Orion
-Borg
-Romulan

8of5: thanks for the schedule update. Be sure and check out Elena Casagrande’s blog where she has posted her cover for the Orion spotlight.

Does the IDW publishing site offer a subscription for the Alien Spotlight series as they have for past releases?

about italian, try google translate (beta), you can enter the url there and surf the site, tried this with french-german and chinese-english, its usually possible to understand the content. doesn’t work on recipes, so it’s certainly no universal translater… oh, i’d love to have one of those.

That first cover, with the Klingon woman with pink blood on her hands, is HOT!!! (not so much the blood, but the woman… WOWZA!!)

Got it, read it, loved it. A fine end to a wonderful series. The latest issue of Year Four was out this week too and was also rather good (if in typicaly Tischman style abit like “Star Trek: Lite”).

I’m really looking forward to the Alien Spotlight series, the Orion cover doesn’t excite me much, but the fact the Tiptons are now writing that issue as well does. And I do LOVE the Zach Howard covers for that series. THe Gorn and Vulcan ones that have so far been released are the best covers ever,

I just read the last issue and it was the best of the bunch! Definitely worth checking out, in my opinion.