Comics Review : Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan Issue 3

The covers: Three close out this third, and final, issue. Cover "A" by interior artist Chee Yang Ong, with colors by Moose Baumann (assisted by Jennifer Baumann). It's a POV of what Kirk saw while looking at Spock during their final scene together. It's a really great idea and a good layout for the cover for this issue, yet it doesn't match the likeness of the character within the issue drawn by the exact same artist! It's also darkly colored. In the movie the background was stark white, which only highlighted the horror of what was occurring. Cover "B" is a photo cover of the cast. Horizontal lines were placed over the image to give it a computer screen effect. Why couldn't the image just have been printed sideways on the comic? It worked when Byrne had the FF go into the Negative Zone in the 1980's. Plus, that would have really made this issue stand apart from all other comics that came out this w eek, but I'm really nitpicking: I bought this version. The "Retailer Incentive Cover" finishes out as it began, with art by David Deitrick. Spock is giving the Vulcan salute in front of a hot pink computer background, while the Reliant flies above him. Deitrick's work is okay, and I'd like to see him on some interior work, maybe in a future Alien Spotlight? When all three issues of the RIC are placed side by side they form one picture. Big thumbs up from me for this: marketing like this drove me, in the past, to buy all three covers of a comic. But since all the RICs are being sold for almost $15 each by my local comic book store, I'll pass. Overall grades: Cover "A" B-, Cover "B" A, and "RIC" B.

The story: Adaptation written by Andy Schmidt; Screenplay by Jack B. Sowards; Story by Harve Bennett and Jack B. Sowards; Based on "Star Trek" created by Gene Roddenberry. There's a quick summary in the second panel on Page 1 as to the situation: Khan has the Genesis Device and is coming to kill Kirk. The Mutara Nebula is suggested as a setting leveler, since the Enterprise is not up to speed in battling the Reliant. A reason is given why Khan shouldn't follow the Enterprise, but Kirk gives him sufficient motivation to proceed. What follows sticks closely to the movie with a few exceptions: Kirk comes to a conclusion at the bottom of Page 5 without Spock's input (the only reason to include is to show the necessity of Spock's influence in assisting Kirk)--it could be argued that it's not needed, and it didn't bother me; the breaking of an object at the top of Page 23 is awkward and ser ves no purpose in the story/scene/page because the audience doesn't see what this object is going to be used for--in this adaptation it was a useless panel; Kirk's final line seems odd, though this could be due to the layout by the artist and not Schmidt. Page 25 is an absolute waste of space. The final page could have been expanded, so that Kirk's line didn't stick out so, and/or the top of Page 23 could have been expanded as well. Page 25 should have been a tiny box at the bottom of a drawn page. This issue, as is the previous issues, is an acceptable retelling of the movie, though I have some comments about the story under "The art" review. Overall grade: B-.

The art: As with the last issue, there are some improvements from the first issue. Chee Yang Ong does decent jobs on close ups of Kirk (Pages 5, 14, 16, and 24) and Khan (Pages 2, 3, and 10). However, Ong's continuous problems are his inability to have any detail for panels with more than two characters (eyes and mouths become mannequin slits), ships don't fire torpedoes or phasers, but cannonballs, and his women are grotesque. I didn't care for the rendering of the Mutara Nebula, though I don't know if it was Ong's doing or colorist Baumann: no clouds, but tons of manga-esque action lines. Pages 14 and 15's bottom double page spread came off as lazy drawing, rather than dramatic intensity. Again, I will praise Ong for not copying actual scenes from the movie but setting things to his own eye: no one could disapprove of that. Though I wonder if he was given enough information about the scenes fr om the film (did Schmidt provide enough information in his script?) or did Ong ignore these suggestions? Case in point: Page 24, panel two. That's the bridge? For a Trekkie like me, that panel sticks out like a sore thumb. There's also two other scenes: Page 10, panel 2 has got quite a graphic trail, and Pages 18 through 21 are more realistic than what was seen in the movie, to be sure, but that's a zombified character now. Marvel has done Zombie comics like crazy lately,and I can only wonder if this is this to test the waters for an IDW venture with Trek? The layout for this scene is great, but the gore factor had me looking more at the art than the dialogue. And no kilt on Page 22? The horror! And is the reader given enough visual clues on this same page to know what that object is in the final panel of the last page? With the way it's drawn, I doubt it.&n bsp; I think that Ong has improved as the story progressed , but so much is still so wrong I can't like this. Overall grade: D+

The colors: The highlight of this issue, as with the previous, is Moose Baumann's work. Look at Page 1's final panel. The artwork is good here, for a change, but the coloring makes this image truly three dimensional. Space shots are vibrant, in purples and pinks, which are close to those of the movie's. I also liked the use of orange on Pages 14 and 15; made the emotion of the moment strong, considering all else before it were very dark. Considering what he had to work with, Baumann did a fantastic job. Overall grade: A.

The letters: Robbie Robbins picks up this issue (what happened to Neil Uyetake?), and does his typical outstanding job with dialogue and narration. I liked seeing different fonts for characters' emphasis and was thrilled to "hear" the space battle. Though what the heck happened on Page 4? The individual sound effect was unnecessary, and the font in the final panel made me think of cats on Velcro. As always, a good job, just one page of weirdness. Overall grade: A

The final line: This series did not come close to my expectations. From a business point of view, you cannot put a product on the market that looks like this, when previous product has been so superior. To put out this product based on the "Holiest of Holy" Star Trek movies is insane. I can only believe that this product was pushed out to be back up if the newest Star Trek film was a flop. IDW's track record for Star Trek comics has been better than average, IMHO, but this was an embarrassment. With the conclusion of this adaptation, I have three comic books with pretty covers that I'll never crack again. Do yourself a favor: don't buy this comic, or the collected version of this series. Show IDW with your money that you'd rather wait for something done right, rather than something that looks like this. Overall grade: D ;


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