Review: Star Trek / Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds #5
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Written by: Mike Johnson
Art by Angel Hernandez and colors by Mark Roberts
This month’s penultimate issue has all of the excitement of episode 9 of Game of Thrones with slightly less tragedy. Khan (still crushing heads and bat’leths with his bare hands) forms an alliance with the Klingons to conquer Earth after he’s taken Sinestro’s power. Speaking of Sinestro, he’s managed to unleash the entity known as Parallax, slaughtering almost a dozen defenseless Guardians on the planet Oa. The Green Lanterns’ rings are still powerless, but a new worthy ring bearer arises to give you goosebumps. Here we go…
Cover for Star Trek Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds #5 – art by Angel Hernandez colors by Esther Sanz
Aside from a slow start with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy debating whether their obligation as Starfleet officers is to protect Federation space (Earth) or to “explore strange new worlds” (Oa), issue 5 is relentlessly violent. Since this series falls outside the realm of canon, Mike Johnson has carte blanche to tell a high stakes, self-contained story with no consequences. The violence here isn’t gratuitous and reinforces the narrative that the universe is in serious trouble. Having said that, I do wish that the violence didn’t come at the expense of the Green Lanterns, who are virtually non-existent in this issue. Much like he did last month, I could’ve used another inside-baseball quip from Guy Gardner, this time about how Kirk’s abs are more impressive than his (movie) father’s.
Who needs a conference room when you have a perfectly good corridor?
Artist Angel Hernandez’s solid work captures the frightening essence of Parallax (who is strangely not mentioned by name) and the horrific way he vaporizes the Guardians and manhunters. Also, anyone that can manage to make this move terrifying is ok in my book.
Whatever you do, don’t get him angry. Oh wait, that’s the other guy
This issue does a fine job raising the stakes once again to impossible heights, which should make the resolution that much more satisfying. Now that the balance has turned back in favor of our heroes, I can’t wait for the epic finale next month.
On the USS Enterprise if it’s not one thing, it’s another
5-Page Preview: Star Trek / Green Lantern Vol. 2 #4
Click thumbnails to enlarge
Star Trek / Green Lantern #5 and New Visions #15 available Wednesday
Star Trek / Green Lantern Vol. 2 #5 arrives in comic book stores on Wednesday, April 19th and retails for $3.99. You can pre-order with discount at TFAW. The subscription variant cover version is also available at TFAW.
Also available tomorrow is the 15th issue from John Bryne’s Star Trek New Visions series. You can also pre-order at TFAW. Look for our review of “The Traveler” tomorrow.
And if you want to catch up on the first volume of Star Trek / Green Lantern (Volume 1: “The Spectrum War”) that was just released last week and can be purchased via Amazon for $10.89.
Keep up with all the latest inked Star Trek in TrekMovie’s Comics Category.
