Comics Review : Star Trek Nero Issue 4

The covers: David Messina does his always excellent job, this time with Nero standing in front of Romulus while it goes BOOM! in yellow. Moody and appropriate. The Retailer Incentive Photo Cover is the last of the Star Trek '09 feature film teaser posters, this one with Chekov (though there's no Chekov anywhere in this book!). Overall grade for both: A+
The story: Story by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Writers Mike Johnson & Tim Jones. Seen the movie? Duh! You know how this book'll end, and it does just that. Does it tell you anything you didn't already know from the film? Not really. The first seven pages give some dialogue to the flashback in the movie when Nero captured Spock. Page 8 gives it's entirety to some Spock guilt. Page 9 reaffirms the Borg technology of the Naruda, but this shouldn't surprise anyone that's read this series or Star Trek: Countdown. Pages 10 through 17 give every Trek fan the one fight scene they wished was in the movie. The final five pages finish up the series, leading into the movie. Nothing spectacular, since the series has to end by going into the film, it does so neatly, but it was anticlimactic. Overall grade: B

The art: David Messina continues to wow with his artistic skills. The comic looks like found movie footage, especially on Nero and Spock. The highlight of the book are Pages 10 -17. They are what I wanted/wished them to be. The final page, though you know what's coming, is an emotional slam dunk. Every page is a winner. Overall grade: A+

The colors: Giovanna Niro complements Messina well (as always), in that the book looks like the film. Yes, "it" should have been green instead of red on Page 4, but it'll be corrected in the trade paperback. Niro really goes to town on the fight scene: Page 13 is my favorite by her. I look forward to more from Giovanna in future projects. Overall grade: A

The letters: Neil Uyetake provides the books two sound effects in addition to all of the dialogue and internal ruminations. The blow to Spock is well done, but Nero's staff is awkward since the hyphen is somewhat lost in the vertical layout. A minor quibble. Overall grade: A

The final line: Like Star Trek: Countdown, this final issue is not as fun as the previous three. But, when considered as a whole, Star Trek: Nero is fun. You bought Countdown? You'll want to own this series to bookend it. Overall grade: A-

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