Comics Review : Star Trek Spock Reflections Issue 1

The cover(s): The "regular" cover is by David Messina with colors by Ilaria Traversi. The top half of the book has a giant IDIC symbol on a cave wall, while a young Spock faces the reader at the bottom. Is it Nimoy as Spock or Quinto? Who cares? It's Spock. It's a simple layout and it works. I hope that this cover is the start of a thematic trend and that future Messina covers are split like this, and judging from the teaser at the end of the story it will be. The "Retailer Incentive" cover is by David A. Williams with colors by Moose Baumman. It's a shot of a young Spock awaiting his turn at a Starfleet Enrollment Center. It's a very human posture of insecurity for Spock when contrasted to the very rigid Vulcan next to him. This scene doesn't appear in the book and I wish it had, since I'd like to know why Spock feels that way. I do like the contrast between the stark while and blue on this cover.&nbs p;Overall grades: Regular Cover "A" and "RI" Cover "A-".

The story: Welcome back to Star Trek, Scott & David Tipton. The story goes as the title of the series states: Spock is reflecting. Stardate 49632.7, Spock is on a shuttle outside the Romulan Neutral Zone. His only companion in the passenger section is an annoying alien that I recall seeing on the trading cards from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I wish Spock would have used a neck pinch on this guy to shut him up. I know he's there to get Spock to reflect, to incite the story for the readers, but wouldn't a Vulcan, alone, reflect without the comic relief? He was like Jar Jar withoutsa de annoyin' ackecent. During the nonstop questioning by the alien, Spock flashes back to two events in his past. The first has Spock 78 years earlier visit the Enterpirse-B under Captain Harriman. Spock is there to see something, and in the process, perhaps, give a clue as to where he's going in his present. ; The second flashback/reflection was much more interesting to me. I'm not going to get specific and spoil it, but it does share a pre-Vulcan destruction moment which I found to be quite moving. Any time Trek, in any form, had Spock one-on-on with (this character) I found Spock to be much more engaging and grow as a character, and this little reflection of nine pages does just that. The last word of dialogue was a surprise for me: Why would that be Spock's destination? What's there for him? Always leave the fans wanting more, and I do. Overall grade: A

The art: Okay, here's a new one: "Layouts by David Messina; Finishes by Federica Manfredi". Why couldn't David do it all himself? Duh! IDW has got him working in the Whedon-verse for now, so we Trek fans should cut him some slack. So does the book look like Messina's? Layouts, yes. Especially the transition between panels two and three on Page 9. However this book is obviously not Messina. Messina is very good at capturing actors' likenesses with very little line work, relying on shading and/or coloring to only strengthen the look. In this book Captain Harriman doesn't really resemble Alan Ruck too well. That said, the likenesses of the two supporting characters in the second reflection do look like their cinema counterparts, and this is the first time these versions of the characters have been in a comic. I was happy to see their arrive in the "four color" pages. I'm an old original seri es Trekkie, but these "new" versions didn't bother me at all. See, Paramount. The old fans can adjust! Manfredi does an acceptable job, though I do feel tainted in reviewing her work with Messina's name linked to it. Her work is good, but I'm curious to see her on her own. Overall grade: B+

The colors: Ilaria Traversi is a frequent colorist to Messina's work and she's back again, but with a "Color Assist by 2B Studio". The colors are dark, but not bleak as was in Mirror Images, since that was a very dark tale. Spock's reflections are melancholy, so his mood is influencing the colors. Even Starfleet uniforms are fairly washed out in the corridors of theEnterprise-B. I wish that the object of attention on Page 6 would have been brighter to accentuate it's importance. I was also somewhat surprised to see how brown Pages 12 through 17 were. Yes, it is night, but couldn't it have been brightened up a bit? It is an okay job done on this planet, but brown is not a color I have, or ever will, really associate with this setting. The only color that breaks out is the hot pink alien annoying Spock. Overall grade: B

The letters: Chris Mowry back on the job. Outside of four sound effects (one of which was a Federation transporter--hooray!), Mowry just does dialogue. And it's tiny dialogue. I hadn't noticed before in any other IDW Trek comic, but this is a really small font! Compared to Mission's End this is almost microscopic. Any chance of uping the size to allow us geezers to read it a little more easily? Overall grade: A-

http://trekweb.com/articles/2009/08/02/Comics-Review-Star-Trek-Spocks-Reflections-Issue-1.shtml