The third issue of Star Trek: Nero hits the streets this week and the visceral art featured in previous issues takes a back seat to storytelling with a blast from Trek past. If you’re bothered by spoilers, go directly to your local comic shop, do not pass go, do not collect 200 credits.
Star Trek: Nero #3
written by Mike Johnson and Tim Jones, art by David Messina
Taken to the edge of the Delta quadrant by Narada, a ship with a mind of its own, Nero feels Spock’s presence. Something massive, powerful and inquisitive has called to Narada. Nero realizes that Spock was here, but in the galaxy they both left behind. An energy spike is followed by a scan of the bridge, and Nero understands that this is how he’ll find Spock. Taken to the core of the massive entity he learns that it was born on Earth and found life traveling across the galaxy. Sensing a kindred spirit, it called out to Narada. Now its vast intelligence will calculate where and when Spock will appear again. Spock is coming and hate is a good thing for Nero. It prevents a joining.
Writers Mike Johnson and Tim Jones have surprised me. This is an uncommon experience in today’s comics, at least for me. They’ve reached back and pulled original series history through itself and into the new timeline, much like a Klein bottle (invented by a Russian or a Klingon, no matter what Wikipedia may say). This clever bit of storytelling fits very naturally into Nero’s tale of hate and revenge. His hate is also critical to his survival in this issue. I don’t know if we’ll get to see Spock’s reaction to Nero’s new buddy. Probably not, but in spite of the fact that we know how Nero’s story ultimately turns out, I’m looking forward to the fourth and final issue of this mini-series next month.
What is it?
David Messina turns down the volume for this issue, focusing on Nero, his expressions, the Narada, and a familiar entity. His restraint allows the story to take center stage. Colors are capably handled by Giovanna Niro. Another of Messina’s students? He has created an Italian comic art juggernaut, made up mostly of very talented women. They’re doing a great job on behalf of all Trekkies. Apologies to any men who are Messina’s students, but let’s face it, a bevy of Italian women drawing Star Trek comics? Heaven, or maybe Sto-vo-kor. Your mileage may vary.
And I want to help you.
Star Trek: Nero #3 has two covers. The regular cover by David Messina features Nero with the blues, aboard the Narada. The retailer incentive photo cover features John Cho as a very serious Hikaru Sulu in black & white. Only one more Star Trek (2009) original-series-character-on-a-retailer-incentive-comic-cover to go.
Cover: David Messina, Cover RI: Photo cover
Star Trek: Nero #3 will be in local comic shops this Wednesday. All carbon units must join with it immediately.
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A trade paperback collection of Star Trek: Nero will be published May 2010, and you can pre-order from Amazon.
Mark Martinez is an obsessive-compulsive Star Trek comics reader and collector. You can visit his website, the Star Trek Comics Checklist for more than you ever needed to know about Star Trek comics.
I am officially buying the full version when it comes out in May. Nero is such a fascinating character that I wish we knew more about. I wish they would make a tv miniseries about him.
I know it will most likely never happen, but I’d love to see this series as well as “Countdown” and “Spock: Reflections” turned into animated short films kind of like “The Animatrix” was a few years back.
As a matter of fact why stop there? There are tons of stories I would love to see turned into short films. Who wouldn’t want to see books like “Prime Directive” “Spock’s World” and “The Return” adapted and turned into short films?
The possibilities would be endless. It would be a great way to get people like Shatner, Nimoy and Takei involved in the series again not to mention the various other casts.
I think it would also be a great low risk/small budget way to keep the public interested in Star Trek in between the three years it takes to turn out a new film.
I second VOODOO’s comment, especially with regard to Countdown. That would’ve been an awesome addition to the upcoming Star Trek DVD, or even an awesome stand-alone disc.
William Shatner in the next Trek !!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/2986590/William-Shatner-set-to-be-beamed-up
:o)
This miniseries is very fascinating and well crafted. As an italian, I’m proud of the awesome artwork.
You’ve got to be frakking kidding me!!!
Nero speaks to V’GER???
stretching the tale a little bit aren’t we guys
#4) SirMartman, It’s going to be a interesting story to fit The Shat into it.
What about if Kirk can come out of his nexus hiding spot, this is implied as to where he went on his death in Generations. And in the process he stops Vulcan from imploding. This way the Universe does not lose a main icon type race, Amanda comes back as she said she’d like more spots in the Trek Universe. And the alternate Universe merges back into the real one (ours). As thing return the Enterprise changes back to it’s original design. The interior can change because it seems to every movie.
I have no idea how the Shat will save Vulcan, and instead of the Shat’s death he’ll just get sucked back into the Nexus.
And who knows he in the future may pop out again and this time get Picard to help him, or may be Sisko, Janeway, Archer, may be even 7of9. Who knows what he”ll solve as a hero, about all I can say is it will not be our current health care system. I feel even GOD would have to do much thinking to fix the mess were in today. All I can say is pray hard and fast or thr Devil will win out.
i think it’s an awesome twist…
Why in the hell do we have to wait till May????
nothing wrong with the shat being in the next movie- he just cant play Kirk- Harry Mudd perhaps? he’d be cheaper than Jack Black…
“…capably handled by Giovanna Niro. Another of Messina’s students?”
YEP!
…she was in the same class as Ilaria Traversi (Klingons,Spock: Reflections)!
7. Spockish…
I’ve got only one word to say – FANWANK!
#7. “We have no Devil, Kirk…but we understand the habits of yours.”
— Kang, 3rd Season of TOS
#4
that article is so much fluff and no substance. The headling is simply to grab attention across the nets. it draws you in with a lie. very little evidence to actually support the claim in the headline. Just crappy entertainment journalism…nothing to back it up
@1
“Nero is such a fascinating character that I wish we knew more about.”
Uhh, maybe if you repeat it enough times it will be true?
#4
Don’t believe it unless BobOrci says it’s true, bud.
=A=
It’s easy to guess what this entity is, and it’s really quite a surprize.
Whoa …
15 – Good one. My thoughts exactly. He ain’t no KHAAAAAAAAN!
@ 4 and 7-
The only way i can see Mr. Shatner in the next film is if they do some bookend-type scene where he’s in the beginning telling a story and then it resolves with him and Nimoy in the end. i REALLY don’t to see time travel AGAIN…at least not for a while. maybe they could bring back the Nexus idea, but it’s ‘different’ in that it’s a new universe, so his idea of ‘Making a difference’ could be facing the REAL Koboyashi Maru by going back in time to save his dad on the KElvin, thus allowing him to live, thus ‘righting’ Nero’s indiscretion in a way (young Kirk would still know about the ‘lighning storm’ and such, but this time he’d be meeting Pike as he’s being promoted to Fleet Captain).
or something like that…whatever…
and actually, with the Nexus potential, you could have Pine and Shatner on screen TOGETHER…maybe even get Quinto and Nimoy to join them…oh geez my head just about exploded from the shear awesomness…
What happens in the Nexus stays in the Nexus. Outside the Nexus, the universe may change, but the Nexus itself remains unchanged. The Nexus idea is a good one, except for the fact that both original actors have aged.
NOW i´m officially surprised too, and embracing the new timeline fully. :)
Wow, must of us hated Generations, now suddenly the nexus is “a good idea”
COMIC SPOILER!
Just finished up Volume 3 of Star Trek Nero. Not bad. I LOVE the V’Ger twist and how the Narada was connected to it.
However, I think we have scale issues once again with the Narada. It’s depicted as being able to go into the V’Ger inner maw just like the Enterprise from TMP. If the Narada is supposed to dwarf the Enterprise in scale, I highly doubt the Narada would be able to fit in the chamber leading up to the Maw, rather than through it.
Also I don’t think the artists understood the structure of the V’Ger craft. Heck, I almost got the impression they didn’t even watch the Director’s Edition of The Motion Picture where the craft is seen completely. In this comic, after the narada enter’s the maw that leads to V’Ger’s floating island, it shows the Narada flying over the V’Ger craft.
?????
It went from inside to outside and than back to inside again! GRRRR.
Still, I love the idea that Nero at one point was inside the V’Ger craft during the events of the new movie. Here’s hoping that V”Ger makes another appearance that doesn’t bore* everyone.
*I stand by TMP 100%. SFdebris may say that he will never watch TMP again, but I actually watch that film more than TWOK even though Khan is the superior movie.
@21, Gary-
That’s what i meant, that an older version of nu-Kirk gets to the Nexus, and meets his younger self…or something…
Sirmartman #4
Those quotes are a couple of weeks old and do not confirm that Shatner will be involved in the next film.
That said, Abrams has at least implied in recent weeks that both Shatner and Nimoy may be involved in the next film.
Here are Abrams comments about Leonard Nimoy in the sequel:
“I can say that I can’t imagine a Star Trek movie not needing him. I’m sure what he’s saying is a combination of modesty and honesty. He may actually feel that way. But, the truth is, we could never have made this movie without him, and working with him again would be a joy. It is clearly too early, given that we are just now talking story, to conclude whether or not Spock Prime is in the film or not, but do I want to work with him again? Of course, 100%. I’d love to.”
Abrams comments about Shatner in the sequel.
“I am open to anything. I would love to figure out something. Given the challenge of introducing these new characters, given the burden of cast these new people, I feel like the first did some of the heavy lifting that needed to be done in order to free us going forward, maybe there is less of a burden and more of an opportunity to work with him again. We speak, we actually have a lunch date planned. I am fan, I am a friend of his, or he is at least a friend of mine–he may say otherwise on his blog today, I have no idea. I really couldn’t like him more and would love to work with him.”
Shatner actually accepted an award for the new film a couple of nights ago at “Spike Scream Awards” a joke that Abrams and Co. were clearly in on.
“The biggest award of the night was the “Ultimate Scream” and Star Trek was up against some stiff competition. Actor Morgan Freemen presented the award and after he announced Star Trek had won, the crowd got a surprise when William Shatner stepped onto the stage to accept the award. After taking the award, Shatner stated (via AP):
“J.J., I’ll handle this,” Shatner said to J.J. Abrams, seated in the audience, who also won best director and best sci-fi movie for “Star Trek.”
“This movie was big,” Shatner said. “Imagine how big it could have been with me in it? … I’ll be waiting for your call.”
If all parties are to be believed they all want to see both Shatner and Nimoy somehow included in the sequel. I believe in the old saying “where there is smoke there is fire.”
My gut tells me there is at least a 50/50 shot we see both Nimoy and Shatner in the next film…
Nero’s character was flat as a pancake… He had too much destructive powers for such a small role / character.
Kirk died in the prime timeline. no reason future kirk from the new timeline couldnt show up, as events in the new timeline no doubt play out much differently than Generations. Not saying i’m on board with a shameless shatner insertion for no reason but if the story is good it could work. i was very against shat being in trek09 before i found out about the alternate timeline angle, but now the possibilities are endless.
@27: “Nero’s character was flat as a pancake”
With no blueberries, syrup or butter. Just something to take in, toss away and move on. Complete throw away.
Well, the thing that still bugs me is Spock not trying to fix a broken time line with Vulcan destroyed. Spock has the knowledge to time travel and fix it all. It would be out of character for him not to try.
28 – Problem: If he shows up, it takes the wind out of any “Kirk in Jeopardy” moments in future movies. It would establish that Kirk lives to an old age.
This would not make for good drama in the long run.
30 – That’s because is is an Alternate Reality (Created Stardate 2233.04 when the Narada emerged), and Spock Prime likely knows this.
He’s also seen evidence, implicitly, that suggests the Timeline is trying to keep things as close to the original in some way, trying to realign itself.
This was in a scene that was deleted.
Spock’s options:
– Go back in time to fix what went wrong (Ineffective, it would create a new Alternate Reality, this changing nothing in the movie’s reality).
– Try to get things back to how they were in TOS (Ineffective, since they are headed in that general direction anyway)
– Try to go to the Future to prevent Nero from coming back (Impossible, since he would only travel to the Future of the new reality, not the one he left).
In short, there is actually nothing Spock can do beyond help the Vulcans create the new Colony.
Whether you accept the Alternate Reality for what it is or not is immaterial to it’s repercussions. How you feel about something does not change it, no more than shouting at a rock would fracture it.
29 – You mean the movie, *gasp* focused on the characters as it should? :)
On Shatener returning: Unless it is done extremely well, and possibly not even then, Shatner appearing in the next movie would be hokey, fanwanky and cheesy to say the least.
I’d rather keep that kind of corny gimmick out of Star Trek.
Spock Prime served the purpose of passing the torch. Let the new cast carry it.
Well Onebuck… Spock could take some Red matter in the new timeline back to when the Narada first appeared before the Kelvin, and destroy the Narada. Simple, easy, and yes Spock would know how to make more Red Matter.
This move really should have been titled Star Trek Generations
35 – No, doing that would simply create another Alternate Reality. Also, Spock could not CREATE Red Matter, he simply procured the stuff from the Vulcan Council. Read Countdown.
35 – Also note that if this was done (against the established logic of Red Matter time travel), it would undo the dramatic potential the event has unleashed, and nullify everything in the movie.
It would also create a temporal paradox under previous time-travel rules used in Star Trek prior to the movie. A causality loop.
Cause and effect have repercussions.
I keep hearing a lot of “Spock should go back and save Vulcan” throughout the Interwebs.
I know, Vulcan has been a part of Star Trek almost since it’s inception, and a beloved part of the mythology, and that includes myself.
But Star Trek simply does NOT need a “Patrick Duffy Wakes Up In The Shower” moment.
Hmmm… OneBuck… You must be a TNG fan by all the technobabble causality loop talk. Spock the genius scientist that he is, would be able to reproduce the red matter. Much less far fetched then the new Spock ejecting Kirk off the new (and not improved E) for causing a stirr, or being able to transport many light years back to the big E in Warp…
@39: Agreed. No reset button, please (as much as it pains me to let Vulcan stay dead). That way lies Voyager…
SIMPLE WAY NIMOYSPOCK CAN HELP SAVE VULCAN WITHOUT CREATING ANOTHER NEW TIMELINE: Locate Carol Marcus in this timeline, and help her create The Genesis Device…except in this timeline, the Genesis Device is a temporal device that rewinds time in an isolated area within a given reality…once created, NimoySpock can simply test the new version of Genesis on the area where Vulcan used to be and bring Vulcan back by undoing the destructio of Vulcan by Nero…he could prevent the Narada coming back by carefully isolating the temporal field to make the area thats rewound be just outside Vulcan’s atmosphere but closer to Vulcan than the Narada’s orbit around it…
40 – I enjoy both TOS and TNG. Causality loop refers to the simple fact that if A happens, the B Happens, then someone goes back in time to prevent A because of B, meaning that B won’t happen, sone the time traveller is no longer aware of B, and thus will not go back.
Without the cause, there is no effect.
Assuming lenear Time Travel, if Spock prevents Vulcan from being destroyed, he would be preventing himself from going back in time in the first place. Ergo, PARADOX.
If we avoid this, with the Alternate Reality scenario, then Spock going back in time and preventing the destruction of the Kelvin, and destroying the Narada in the past, would simply s[pawn another reality, and would have no effect on the reality of the movie.
Stating that I am a TNG fan has absolutely nothing to do with logic.
Spock may be able to create Red Matter, but something that was experimental when he used it would not be created very quickly.
In any event, as explained, it would be futule in either Alternate Reality or Linear time travel scenarios.
Not improved E: Irrelevent to the argument, though I actually like it.
Spock sending Kirk into exile “off the ship”: Spock was emotionally compromized and not thinking straight. Not far fetched considering he’d just lost his Mother and his home planet. And again, logically irrelevent to your proposed solution.
Transport back to the E: That was using knowledge from over 100 years in the future, and was experimental in nature. Obviously, you conveniently forgot about Gary Seven. How did he end up on the Enterprise Transporter Pad in 20th Century Earth? Oh yeah, he BEAMED IN FROM LIGHTYEARS AWAY !!!!
42 – Hopefully without using Protomatter in the Genesis Matrix :P
OneBuck, I didn’t forget about Gary 7. What does an alien race that is far advanced of the federation have to do with it? Obviously, I must have also conveniently forgot the Gamesters of Triskelion. Scotty didn’t seem to be too convinced that someone could be transported over 12 lights ways in that situation either.
Live long and prosper…
45 – Regardless, my time travel logic is sound :)
What does Scotty’s theory from over 100 years of technological advancement have to do with it? Both Gary 7 and the movie establish that it is possible, once figured out.
I’d imagine the following:
– Scotty, younger, figures out that it must be possible (2258). Why not?
– By the time of TOS (2266), has been trying to work it out for a while, and figures it’s impossible with current technology.
– Gary Seven beams in, and Triskellion happens, making it obvious that it IS possible.
– Scotty starts working in the TNG timeline (after Relics), and figures it out not long before Spock goes to Romulus, though doesn’t get to try it out, but shares it with Spock in passing.
– Spock goes back in time, the movie happens etc., and we know the rest.
That is one very plausible explanation for all of Scotty’s reactions, including surprise.
Now, why is it so implausible again?
RE: Shatner
Some websites are running shatner headlines, but there is no new news, they are just taking quotes from the press conference held a couple of weeks ago, which we already reported on:
https://trekmovie.com/2009/10/08/jj-abrams-talks-star-trek-sequel-shatner-nimoy-nick-meyer-more/
…and in fact, I was the one who asked the Shatner question (just fo you’all, cause who doesn’t love another go around the ‘will shatner be in it’ merrygoround)
Ladies and gentlemen, the fabulous, new, fresh, exciting, alternate universe, with unlimited possibilities! To boldly go where everyone went before.
Go KHAN, go for the sequel!!!
55. Thulsa Doom, I don’t think you got it.