Kisses, bugs in the ears, giant drills, fights in the snow, Scotty, and Captain Data. Wait…Captain Data? It must be the reviews of the fifth and sixth issues of IDW’s adaptation of Star Trek. IDW wraps up their version of the 2009 Star Trek movie today, find out how it all works out, plus a five-page preview of issue 6.
NOTE: TrekMovie skipped our review of Movie Adaptation #5, so we combine that with the #6 which comes out today
REVIEW: STAR TREK: THE MOVIE ADAPTATION #5 and #6
Picking up after the finish of the fourth issue, the fifth issue of IDW’s Star Trek adaptation starts much more slowly than the last few issues. A tender moment between Uhura and Spock sets the scene before the more sinister visit to the Narada and the interrogation of Captain Pike by Nero’s crew. That leads into the fracas between Spock and Kirk that resulted in Kirk meeting the Prime Spock and Scotty.
The sixth issue begins as the Narada enters the orbit of Earth and the Enterprise follows them, hiding near Saturn, while Spock and Kirk transport over to try to save Pike and stop the drill, discovering the Jellyfish in the process. Just following orders.
Uhura’s first name revealed…Spock isn’t talking about it
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It seems that Mike Johnson and Tim Jones had decided to only use deleted scenes in the first couple of issues of the series, as neither of these two issues contain any segments. Especially disappointing is the lost chance to present the scripted scene with the Prime Kirk in the movie’s epilogue, but it is understandable why they chose to omit it.
These are reportedly David Messina’s final two issues for Trek comics, and once again he works with Claudia Balboni on them, with Gaetano Carlucci inking their pencils. Between the two issues, three panels stand out with distinction: the mind meld between Prime Spock and Kirk that features a panel from the "Countdown" series showing Captain Data, the deployment over the Narada’s drill from Earth orbit, and the scene where the Enterprise comes to the rescue. Like the fourth issue, the fifth issue is fairly dialogue heavy, but Messina’s art is allowed to stand on its own in the sixth issue, sprawling over wide panels and standing taller than normal.
Like the Xindi Superweapon, the drill looks the size of North America… (click to enlarge)
Ilaria Traversi continues her color work on both issues, and continues to recreate the color palette from the films. The scenes aboard the Enterprise continue to have blueish tones and the Narada darker tones, identifying the two scenes easily. The work in space continues to be strong, and the use of color really strengthens some scenes.
The colors and layout of some panels evokes memories of scenes from "Return of the Jedi"… (click to enlarge)
The final two issues bring the movie’s adaption to a decent close, and capture the canonization of Uhura’s first name, with Neil Uyetake showing Spock’s displeasure quite aptly. The sixth issue flows much better than the fifth, which is a result of the flow in the movie itself, but the sixth issue also seems to be over in a flash due to the pace of the storyline. Overall, it was a good adaption of the movie, and allowing Jones and Johnson six issues let the story breathe and flow much better than the three issue adaption of "Wrath of Khan" did last year. After the previous three movie-related series done by Messina, this was a fitting closure to his work on the line, and he does as admirable job finishing off the saga.
Covers for "Star Trek: The Movie Adaptation" issue 5
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Covers for "Star Trek: The Movie Adaptation" issue 6
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PREVIEW: ST09 Adaptation #6
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Movie Adaptation #6 available today – Paperback Collection in October
Originally slated to be released on August 25th, the Star Trek movie adaptation #6 was delayed in shipping and will now be available in comic shops on Sept 1st. You can pre-order it and purchase the other issues at TFAW.
And if you want to get the full series together, you can pre-order the trade paperback which comes out in October.
Interesting! I like this!
Nice interior artwork. Looks like there was an actual story behind all those lens-flares in the movie! ;)
Interesante
Wow!….. It’s really GOOD!!!
Warning, extremely long and somewhat off-topic musings ahead:
Before the full release of the last part of ST09 ´s comic book adaptation materializes, I would like to seize the opportunity and express my honest appreciation for another piece of writing that has come out of the Abrams-Verse´s narrative space:
For me, the comic book vignette WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (WWC) represents the most intriguing narrational extention of the nascent New Verse yet, because, in my opinion, it works exceptionally well on many different levels of examination (i. ex. format-wise, with regard to its internal, narrative construction, texually, inter-texually and even para/extra-textually)
In order to really get to the bottom of my fascination with this special little piece of comic book literature, I actually explored each of the above mentioned areas in some detail. However, to post all of my considerations here would certainly exceed any and all boundaries of this talk back message board, therefore I will limit myself to just one example:
A) Format / Structural Aspects:
On a structural level, I would call WWC a prime example for an excellent fit between narrative content and format of delivery. The choice to render a story motive revolving solely around Spock Prime´s inner emotional and mental state at a crucial juncture in the character´s New Verse story arc through a six-page mini-comic, tackles several narrative challenges quite effectivly.
For instance, taking into account ST09´s very rapid audio-visual mode of story-telling and its highly compressed narrative style, the insertion of a fully fleshed out live-action movie scene covering the exact same content as the comic book vignette could have considerably changed or even disrupted the intended effects of these carefully calculated filmic choices.
Furthermore, the decision to rely on the very short delivery format of a mini-comic allows for the specific story motive to be presented solely through the narrative mode of the inner monologue. This method of storytelling eliminates any need to burden the narrative with the often just clumsiliy disguised introduction of otherwise unnecessary sounding board characters, such as the unnamed Saurian trader and travel companion in the SPOCK: REFLECTIONS comic book series. In the particular case, the exclusive reliance on inner monologue rather than on external verbalization also perfectly captures and reflects Spock Prime´s previously established character traits and behavioral patterns.
How do you draw lens flares?
The drawings are awesome, but the scene where Spock & Uhura kiss is missing Kirks mixed expression of , WTF!, her name!, OMG …get a room! brilliantly acted by Chris Pine :)
#6
Photoshop, my good man.
wow, #5. usually spambots qive more inane comments with links to ‘by this/search that…’ most people either say they liked the comic or disliked it… not the 12 book disitation you wrote.
I liked it. Now whether i liked it enough to BUY it? thats the question…
As usual the idw art and covers are atrociously bad.
Can’t they afford good artists?
Of course this is my own opinion.
Looks like a digital comic too one a website would put up for free.
I thought the art got porgressively better with each issue. However, in all the Spock books from Countdown to Reflections to Star Trek, Elder Spock-Prime’s eyes were drawn too small in comparison to the rest of his face….
I don’t want to say it buuuuuuuuut…Somebody has to.
The cover with Spock choking Jim looks very slashy. But that is overcome by the bad art because it looks like Jim’s head is too far back in an angle that is pretty impossible for humans unless they have hyper-mobility in their spinal and neck bones.
And half of Spocks face is empty. And Jim’s hand doesn’t look like it is really touching Spock’s arm.
Then the other art where they are standing in front of the view screen looks um…weird.
And Jim just looks extra buff in the art.
Yeah. I’m gonna stop now.
no holoShat scene…bah…that wouldve been pretty cool. Also wouldve been cool if theyd drawn the characters with the original actors likeness but there we are…
wasnt Nero waiting for Kirk on the narada abit more Vader waiting for Luke in Empire Strikes Back? it seemed so in the movie anyway