TrekInk: Review – Last Generation #1 & #2

Fresh off his role as an editor of the IDW Trek comics, Andrew Steven Harris returns to writing. This time he brings us the first “What if?” Star Trek comic, set at the end of the sixth feature film, “Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country”. Does it stand up to scrutiny? And who exactly is the captain of the Silver Ghost?

 

Review: The Last Generation #1 & #2 — Peace is dead… the Silver Ghost lives

Having previously written one of the two best received issues in IDW’s Alien Spotlight series about the Borg, Harris was flattered by its reception, noting that some of the reviews suggesting that the issue should have been a miniseries made him feel like they’d missed an opportunity. In the preview interview he did with Trekmovie.com, he stated, “As a creator, I am perhaps strangely more interested in what people who don’t like my work have to say, because that’s really the only way to get a sense of what you need to fix the next time around.” With that attitude in mind, he has approached “The Last Generation” with the view that he now has “the time and space to do that type of character introspection with an entire cast of individuals, rather of just one. They’re all in an incredibly dangerous, desperate situation, and that allows their character traits to come into much sharper focus.”

"The Last Generation" is set in a universe where James T. Kirk was unable to prevent the assassination of the Federation President at the end of "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country." As a result, the Klingons conquered Earth. After a quick introduction of these events, the story jumps forward seventy years (to the time of the TNG era). In this new alternative universe, Picard is leading a resistance on Earth, Worf is the Terran Warlord, and a supposed long-lost starship with the name "Silver Ghost" (and a long-thought dead captain) is helping the Humans. In the middle of all of this, a strange android has been discovered and Geordi La Forge and William Riker have been tasked with transporting it to Picard’s resistance.

Harris’ work on the Borg issue showed that he grasped the Next Generation characters and understood Picard’s psyche, especially when it came to his alternate persona of Locutus. The question is, set in an alternate universe in the ‘Myriad Universes’ line, would that translate? Through the first two issues of ‘Star Trek: The Last Generation,’ things are a bit hit and miss on that front. Now, I’ve never been big on the “alternate universe” and “what if?” stories, and came into this one with a bit of trepidation but after talking to Harris about the genesis of the series, I also had a fair bit of optimism. Unfortunately, the first issue of the series disappointed me.


Tasha Yar lives… and is just as mouthy as ever… (click to enlarge)

As the image shows, he gets the characters. The minor problem is that due to the conceit of the alternate history, some of the characters have traits that do not feel true to form. If this were a mirror universe story, that’s one thing, but the suggestion over the course of the first two issues is that TLG is an alternative timeline (based on an incident in the future altering the timeline in the past). With that in mind, one would expect certain character traits to hold true (as they do in the ultimate alternative timeline episode "Yesterday’s Enterprise"). Harris’ presentation of the small resistance cell run by Picard seems to follow through to what the various characters might be like, but to me, Picard does not seem as strong and forceful as the one that we’ve come to know over the course of seven seasons, four movies, and a veritable cornucopia of novels and comics.

Gordon Purcell steps into the breach to present the artwork for the series, inked by Bob Almond in these two issues. Purcell was considered one of the top artists on the Star Trek series from the DC days, but in the first issue, there are a number of panels that I find it hard to recognize who the characters are supposed to be. Combining this with the characterizations, I found the first book especially difficult to read.


Remember to turn on your transmitter when you’re trying to reminisce in the vacuum of space… (click to enlarge)

The second book opens with La Forge, Riker, and Data on the moon outside of a bunker filled with holographic equipment, looking down at the majestic beauty of Earth. What they don’t know is that there is a Klingon ship tracking them under the command of Worf’s son, and the Silver Ghost is trying to protect them. This second issue was a step up from the first, but I found some other issues with the story elements. As noted above, the basic macguffin of the story is that the timeline was changed. Now, in the first issue, Guinan recognizes the change has occurred and mentions it to Picard, just as she did in the “Yesterday’s Enterprise”. In the second issue, Data recognizes, and can name, a character from the future, identifying how the character relates to the incident at hand. The problem I have with that is that Data is presented as the android just discovered by the Humans, and not as mature as he was, even at the start of the Next Generation series.

In fact, despite other possible failings, Harris’ portrayal of Data is one of the best that I’ve seen of that era of Data. He gets the nuances just right, and Data still has the naivety and innocence that he lost quickly over the course of the first television season. Some other bits stand out nicely, such as the Silver Ghost, her captain, and a couple of the other crew members aboard.


Even in an alternate timeline, there is no cure… (click to enlarge)

In addition to being able to revisit some characters essentially lost to Trek otherwise, this series is worth picking up for just the covers. J.K. Woodward has done a cover for each issue of the series, and the alternate cover is done by a different artist for each issue. The best of the bunch is the one for the upcoming fifth issue, which looks like the original poster art for the Undiscovered Country, but with some differences.

Now, from all of the comments above, it may seem that I’m discouraging the reading of these books. That’s not necessarily the case. I cannot deny that I had trouble with the first issue, as it really did not grab me all that much. With the second issue, the story bits start falling into place a bit more tightly, and it’s a much better read overall. As a whole, the story is beginning to looking it is going somewhere interesting, and possibly even moving away from the whole Myriad Universe concept. I’m curious to see where it ends up, even if I didn’t like where it started.

TLG #1 and #2 are available now

ST: The Last Generation #1

ST: The Last Generation #2

$5.75
(out of stock at tfaw.com –
available at Amazon)

$3.59
(available at tfaw.com)

Upcoming TLG comics available for preorder at Thing From Another World -(tfaw.com)

ST: TLG #3

ST: TLG #4

ST: TLG #5

$3.19
(Pre-order – Jan. 28)

$3.19
(Pre-order – Feb. 25

$3.19
(Pre-order – Mar. 25)

Lots more comics in 2009
This review finishes all the comics released in 2008. The third issue of TLG is slated to come out in the last week of January, with the first issue of Countdown, the movie lead-in comic book. Following those, we get John Byrne’s Crew and Ty Templeton’s Mission’s End coming in March, Alien Spotlight II, and the Wrath of Khan adaptation starting in April. There’s also a new Manga book coming focusing on the Next Generation. I’m not sure about you… but I’m excited about the future of Star Trek comics!

Upcoming Trek comics available for preorder at tfaw.com

Crew #1

Mission’s End #1

$3.19
(Pre-order – Mar. 25)

$3.19
(Pre-order – Mar. 25)

Countdown #3 preorder now available
And don’t forget to pre-order your Star Trek movie prequel comic tie-in comics

Countdown #1

Countdown #2

Countdown #3

$3.19
(Pre-order – Jan. 28)

$3.19
(Pre-order – Feb. 25)

$3.19
(Pre-order – Mar. 25)

 

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I never could get into the Star Trek comics, but i might give the prequel books a shot.

Happy new year!!!

Love the comics, bought the DVD so I could re-read them without moving the large heavy boxes my xcollection is stored in. My gosh, I had forgotten about the comic stories written to fill in the time span between TWOK and TSFS, and TVH! It sort of got awkward to have Spock in tales between Search and Voyage Home and it took a lot of plot manipulation to get Spock back to his status for the beginning of IV.

And the sequel to Voyage Home was nothing short of fantastic. I encourage everyone who is thinking about the comics DVD to take the plunge. It’s well worth it, even with the distracting logo on each page. [C’mon Paramount, who is going to print off that massive amount of pages?]

Sometimes the comics got everything right, sometimes they were way off the mark- but back then [early-mid 1980s], any new Trek was a welcome addition.

I love IDW’s Star Trek comics! Countdown. Crew. Mission’s End. 2009 is gonna be a great year!

I’m confused…I just made a post complimenting IDW’s Star Trek comics and now it’s gone. What gives?

Never mind…My Firefox web browser is acting wacky. I’m so embarrassed.

Pet peeve: It’s MYRIAD UNIVERSES, not “Universe.” “Myriad” means “uncountably many,” or sometimes “ten thousand.” Either way, it can’t possibly take a singular noun.

Having read that review, I’ve no idea what these comics are about.

re 8: Thus the link to the preview interview thing that we did a month or so ago. At least, that was my intent there, so that I wouldn’t repeat too much information on that front. Apparently I erred on the wrong side of caution. :)

Worry not, Mr. Fletcher – Dennis dislikes everything he isn’t involved in.

HANG ON – Theres to be a WRATH OF KHAN adaptaion??!! when did this happen? this is HUGE NEWS!!

also will the TLG be available in Trade paberback?

and anyone got a link to the Borg issue to buy??

TLG is expected to be out in TPB in late July if I’m not mistaken.

The Borg issue can be found as a single here:

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Alien-Spotlight-Publishing/dp/B00130SU5S/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230823438&sr=1-3

or in the Alien Spotlight TPB (well worth it) here:

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Alien-Spotlight-Idw/dp/1600101798/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230823438&sr=1-1

And yes… WoK is coming, apparently followed by an omnibus edition collecting a) all of the original Marvel comics (#4-18) from their first run, and b) all of the TOS movie adaptations (including Marvels’ #1-3 :) )

12 – Thanks for the info – I cant believe there is finally gonna be a WoK adaptation…this is the first Ive heard of it anywhere….for years i waited in the hope that DC might get around to completing the (original) movie adaptation set…Maybe WoKs enduring popularity plus the success of the action figures etc has something to do with it?

maybe they could even go one step further and adapt certain scenes not seen in the actual film – e.g. a brief prologue about Khans life on Ceti Alpha before the Star Trek II events (a condensed version of Greg Coxs To Reign in Hell novel)…the killings of the Regular staff …and maybe other stuff told in the novel tie in…

With TLG, Countdown and WoK – This new year is gonna be the first year in over a decade that I have bought a ST comic…think the last one I bought was the Ashes of Eden adaptation..or maybe the Marvel First Contact (I used to be a regular Trek comic collector but tuned out shortly after Trek VI)

oh and im diggin the Trek VI inspired artwork of TLG #5….this TLG sounds like a great (unoffical) tie in with the new film

OT but everyone remember this that someone posted a while back?
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryRoom.asp?GSub=37499

Nice art work here – they should do a graphic novel – I mean they’ve done Alien vs…just about everything in comics (Predator, Terminator, Superman, Batman etc etc etc)

btw talking ‘what if’ comics – i seem to recall the DC TNG series did something similar to this new TLG series for a few issues…something along the lines of if the Ent D had failed to stop the Borg attack in BOBW and were living as a rag tag fleet on the run…i may have to look that up actually…dont suppose they are avaiable as a TB anywhere?

Picard looks like a clown in that artwork above…the eyebrows are WAY too dark…

I love the clip with Tasha Yar!

#13: I’ve only heard that the WoK adaptation is coming. I’ve heard no more information about it to date. Hopefully the IDW preview and interview in a week or two will expand our knowledge on that front. :)

#15: “Our” Enterprise was taken into an alternate universe. At the end of the storyline, it jumped back to the “real” universe. It’s collected in the new “Best of the Borg” collection from IDW’s “Star Trek Archives” line.

I think the biggest problem with this timeline is that it seems improbable the Klingons could have conquered Earth and the Federation given the condition they were in following the explosion on Praxis. More likely, it would have turned out hte other way, with a short war between the Federation and the Klingons, the Klingons losing horribly, and their empire crumbling into fighting sub-states, some of which may have joined the Federation.

The Klingons were, in spite of Chang’s delusions otherwise, in no position to fight a war.

19 – true but I like these ‘What ifs’…their exicting! – this one is abit like Yesterdays Enterprise…i think they should do even more : e.g. What if Picard had encountered Khan and the botany bay drifting in space in the 24th century instead of Kirk….(im picturing something similar to Space Seed and WoK but played out with the TNG crew….not exactly the same..but along the same lines)

Or what if Kirk and Co had gone up against the Borg in the 23rd century…

all that stuff sounds good to me

The biggest danger with ‘What if . . .’ scenarios is that they’re often more interesting than the regular universe!

I Have ready the 1st and 2nd issuse of this , and i have been loving it , but i knew i would i loved the mirror univerese and mryiad universe books, and in way these what if stuff its almost more interesting then the regular universe , well as short stories anyway, as they can show the characters in different light , kinda reminds me of what picard was saying in nemisis about if he had grown in reman he would have been as bad as his clone.

i mean there not all great , some of these what if , try to include every character too hard , or are almost hard to belive lol , like alot of people i dont think the klingons would have won a war against the federation , but then you never know , maybe they wanted it more . anyway looking forward to more last generation comics ( i loved the ending in the first one )