Review: IDW’s First ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ Mini-Series Concludes With ‘Seven’s Reckoning’ #4

Star Trek: Voyager – Seven’s Reckoning Part 4 of 4
IDW Publishing
Written by Dave Baker
Art by Angel Hernandez
Colors by Ronda Pattison
Letters by Neil Uyetake

IDW’s first-ever Star Trek: Voyager mini-series came to a conclusion this week with the fourth issue. 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 4 of the mini-series, plus a preview of the first five pages.

Cover A by Angel Hernandez

Review

In “even’s Reckoning, #4, Dave Baker and Angel Hernandez’ intriguing story about the early days of Seven of Nine’s journey from Borg Drone to human individual comes to an abrupt and somewhat facile conclusion.

Throughout the previous three issues, Seven of Nine has been helping repair the generational ship of an alien race, the Ohrdi’nadar. Seven befriended Greeb, a member of the lowest caste, the Vesh, whose place in the grand narrative of life was toil for the benefit of the upper cast Kz’ar, and especially their leader, the Grand Protagonist Septa. Seeing Seven journeying from one classification to another and believes that he and the Vesh can make the same leap, Greeb and the Vesh attempt rebellion, which is quickly put down by the Kz’ar.

Issue 4 brings us some of the consequences of Seven’s participation in these events and attempts to tie together some of the scattered threads from previous issues. Each issue has begun with a fragment of Seven’s recurring nightmare of assimilating the Voyager crew. In issue four the nightmare has Voyager transform into a giant raven – a reference to the USS Raven on which Seven and her human family, the Hansens, had been captured by the Borg and assimilated. While these dreams tell their own interesting story and make for stunning opening visuals, their tie to the story at large is tenuous at best.

After the Voyager crew had been entirely absent in issue #3, here Captain Janeway sees Seven’s involvement as running afoul of the Prime Directive, a dictum that Seven sees as unjust when applied to the oppression of the Vesh. This conversation is put on hold while Seven returns to the Ohrdi’nadar ship to complete the repairs, under strict orders now not to interfere. She finds that the Vesh insurgency has failed, Greeb is in chains, and the remaining Vesh are now convinced that it was a foolish cause. Greeb must stand trial for leading the insurrection, and in the process, the main themes of the story come out – whose narrative do you believe? When and how ought one to challenge tyranny? How do you distinguish between truth and lies? And in the story of life, what is the most important value?

Angel Hernandez’ artwork continues to be striking, finding a balance between artistic expression and clear representation that has been the hallmark of this entire series. Hernandez keeps the visual interest high, even in two-page spreads that are just a bunch of people talking, by varying the camera angles, switching from closeups to long-shots, and choosing dynamic angles. Ronda Pattison’s colors remain vivid and clear, never allowing the wealth of detail in Hernandez’ work to become confusing for the reader.

The main problem with this issue is Dave Baker’s script, which fails to stick the landing after three solid issues of fascinating storytelling, with some key points failing to be addressed. The conclusion of the Vesh story falls onto cliché and Seven’s story ends with a trite Trek trope. The series is also murky when it comes to picking a side between’s Seven and Janeway when it comes to if Seven’s involvement with the Ohrdi’nadar struggle was worth it and if it served as a step in Seven’s journey to embrace her humanity.

Bottom line? I liked this story for 3-and-a-half issues, and even if it stumbled at the end, it was a ride worth taking. Glorious visuals and 84 or so pages of great storytelling are not outweighed by the last half of the last issue falling into cliché and platitudes. Star Trek: Voyager – Seven’s Reckoning was a fun and solid ride, and if the ending didn’t quite measure up to the build-up, well, that’s a bit of a Star Trek tradition, too.

5-page preview

Issue 4 available now, collection coming in July

The 32-page comic Star Trek: Voyager – Seven’s Reckoning #3 was released on Wednesday, February 10. You can order it at TFAW for $3.19. You can also order the digital version at Amazon ComiXology for $3.44.

The trade paperback collection of all four issues will be released on July 20th. You can pre-order the trade paperback at Amazon for $15.99.

 


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I found this entire miniseries disappointing. I had been greatly looking forward to it, but it has shown what has often been true: Voyager comics often fail to hit the mark. Those based on TOS, TNG, DS9, the TOS film era, and the Kelvin timeline tend to be so much better than those based on the all the other iterations of Star Trek.

Did you like the artwork?

That I quite like. I just wish the story lived up to it.