Star Trek: Voyager – Seven’s Reckoning Part 2 of 4
IDW Publishing
Written by Dave Baker
Art by Angel Hernandez
Colors by Ronda Pattison
Letters by Neil Uyetake
IDW continues their first-ever Star Trek: Voyager mini-series, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the series. Seven’s Reckoning is set during the fourth season of Voyager, right between “Scientific Method” and “Year of Hell pt. 1.” We have a review of part 2 of the mini-series, plus a preview of the first five pages.
Review
“There’s only one passion inside me…a singular rage. Can you read it? Can you see the story that must live? It has a name…a simple name…REBELLION.” – Greeb the Vesh
The USS Voyager and her crew, on their journey back to the Alpha Quadrant, have recently taken aboard a new crew member – a former Borg drone known as Seven of Nine. She has been removed from the Collective and is just starting her journey toward exploring her humanity and individuality. It is at this point that writer Dave Baker and artist Angel Hernandez’s limited-series story begins, as the Voyager encounters an alien vessel in distress. The vessel is a generational ship that has run into trouble, and the crew of the USS Voyager offers their help in making repairs to their warp drive.
Issue #1 of this 4-issue series from IDW set up the scenario, drawing parallels between Seven of Nine’s first steps toward individuality and the first stirrings of discontent on the part of the Vesh, one segment of the Ohrdi’nadar, the tripartite race of alien beings seeking a new home. Ohrdi’nadar culture sees all of life as a story, in which some – like the aristocratic Kz’ar and the religious caste W’nashi – are protagonists, shaping their own parts in the story, while the lower-caste Vesh are seen as supporting characters or background players, with no real role of their own as persons. Issue #1 found one particular Vesh, Greeb, yearning to play a starring role in his story, and he recognized in Seven a kindred spirit.
Issue #2 picks up where the first installment left off – Seven is working overtime hours to help Greeb and the Vesh restore their ship’s systems, and drawing her into a deeper connection with the struggles faced by the Vesh. Their lives seem to be thought of as disposable by the Kz’ar, and their majestic ruler, Septa. When a Vesh dies, the W’nashi dismember their bodies and bury each segment in a different place, symbolizing that they are no longer a part of the overall narrative. And the Vesh are dying, as Septa has linked their cryo-sleep chambers to power hers, draining their lives to prolong her own. Greeb recognizes the injustice of this system and begins to agitate for revolution among the Vesh, drawing on the stories of the Dawn Bringers, a line of messianic figures from the Ohrdi’nadar’s past, who stepped into the narrative to bring justice to it from time to time for the good of all. But the Dawn Bringer has always been a Kz’ar.
Aboard Voyager, Tuvok and Captain Janeway are growing concerned about Seven. Her extended repair shifts with the Greeb are causing her to skip regeneration cycles, and her performance is suffering, along with her attitude. Seven resists their attempts to care for her, insisting that she can continue to perform her duties. And when Septa reveals that she is aware of the growing unrest among the Vesh, Seven is caught in the middle, hemmed in by her own feelings, Starfleet regulations, her growing connection to the Vesh, and the might of Septa.
Dave Baker’s story does a good job of tightening the vise on Seven and making clear why this situation is challenging for her. The Ohrdi’nadar culture continues to be fascinatingly unspooled, and character motivations are clear and logical. Still, this issue feels very much like a “middle” – all the story’s plot-points are advanced, characters make decisions, and interesting things happen, but with two issues remaining, nothing can be resolved. I love Angel Hernandez’s artwork, which depicts the characters with recognizable but stylized likenesses, and does an amazing job of setting the scenes. The engineering sections of the Ohrdi’nadar vessel look very different from Septa’s throne room, which looks very different from the interiors of the Voyager. Ronda Pattison’s colors accentuate the distinctive and help the characters stand out from the backgrounds.
The two-page splash of the Voyager in flight is gorgeous, using both Hernandez’s and Pattison’s talents to their full. The only thing that I missed here was an exterior establishing shot of the Ohrdi’nadar vessel, last seen in the previous issue. The splash pages continue to feature an annoyingly on-the-nose narration, but otherwise, the writing is crisp and efficient, while still illuminating both character and situation.
Star Trek: Voyager – Seven’s Reckoning continues to be an interesting exploration of the relationship between individuality and the collective. I am eager to read Issue #3 to see where it goes.
5-page preview
Available Now
The 32-page comic Star Trek: Voyager – Seven’s Reckoning #2 was released on Wednesday, December 16. You can order it at TFAW for $3.19. You can also order the digital version at Amazon ComiXology for $3.41.
Keep up with all the Star Trek comics news, previews and reviews in TrekMovie’s comics category.