Star Trek Discovery Succession #2
IDW Publishing 2018
Written by Kristen Beyer & Mike Johnson
Illustrated by Angel Hernandez
Coloured by Mark Roberts
Lettered by AndWorld Design
After the Emperor was killed when the rebels destroyed the Imperial Flagship Charon, Lord Alexander has claimed the throne. The rebels believe the time is right for an even bolder strike on this untested emperor — an attack on Earth itself! But what they don’t know is that Alexander has been secretly developing a toxin that will kill all non-human life in the galaxy — and it’s finally ready to be released. Meanwhile, Burnham, long thought dead by the empire, has just resurfaced in a refugee camp on planet Risa…
I like that the Discovery crew found a universe that is much like the Mirrorverse but varies from it in subtle ways. If you consider today’s world and what we are experiencing humans have an extreme form of xenophobia isn’t an unlikely scenario. Right now we’re at each other’s throats over gender, sexual orientation and the colour of our skin, not to mention religions, so why wouldn’t it be conceivable or even more likely that we would try to dominate other species that we meet. Keeping that line of thinking if we couldn’t dominate them or subjugate them then yes destroying them would be logical. Humans aren’t altruistic, we aren’t nice or caring and as we’ve shown among ourselves are more warlike than even the Klingons.
Kristen and Mike do such a nice job with this story and how the book is structured. The flow and how we see events unfold and the transitions from scene to scene have a fluidity to them that is very nice to see. To start the issue the it does with Michael and her “mother” then with Alexander well it only established much of what would have occurred anyway had Michael not been thought dead. After all even though the Emperor made Michael the rightful heir to the throne Alexander would never had let that come to pass.
I almost pissed myself when Michael was talking to a certain someone looking for information. So it’s interesting to see that our writing duo has a strong affection for the franchise because this was beyond anything I was hoping to see. There is also another aspect of this story that I really like and that’s all the cloak and dagger stuff, yes this is Starfleet now matter how warped it may appear but usually we see the ships and space and don’t spend this much time on the ground showing off skills that are on the more mysterious side. It is this shall we say deviation from the normal avenue of storytelling that helps to make this what it is.
I love Angel’s work on the interiors here. He is definitely not afraid of making the scene as full and vibrant as possible and that utilisation of backgrounds is what really brings the story to life. Seeing a futuristic shanty town full of metals and such used in ways that are familiar is spectacular. The attention to detail here is sublime and the way the varying weight of the linework is manipulated is stunning. The way that page layouts are utilised and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a tremendous eye for storytelling.
The Star Trek Universe is a vast and interesting place. With more and more territory having been covered and corners of the universe exposed it’s stories like this one that keep it fresh. The writing is strong and plot/story development is fantastic and the characterisation is so incredibly strong so that the entire reading experience while warping Roddenberry’s initial vision is as realistic as it can possibly be. This is an extension of now and not stemming from an age of enlightenment so it’s up to us to decide which version we want.
IDW Publishing 2018
Written by Kristen Beyer & Mike Johnson
Illustrated by Angel Hernandez
Coloured by Mark Roberts
Lettered by AndWorld Design
After the Emperor was killed when the rebels destroyed the Imperial Flagship Charon, Lord Alexander has claimed the throne. The rebels believe the time is right for an even bolder strike on this untested emperor — an attack on Earth itself! But what they don’t know is that Alexander has been secretly developing a toxin that will kill all non-human life in the galaxy — and it’s finally ready to be released. Meanwhile, Burnham, long thought dead by the empire, has just resurfaced in a refugee camp on planet Risa…
I like that the Discovery crew found a universe that is much like the Mirrorverse but varies from it in subtle ways. If you consider today’s world and what we are experiencing humans have an extreme form of xenophobia isn’t an unlikely scenario. Right now we’re at each other’s throats over gender, sexual orientation and the colour of our skin, not to mention religions, so why wouldn’t it be conceivable or even more likely that we would try to dominate other species that we meet. Keeping that line of thinking if we couldn’t dominate them or subjugate them then yes destroying them would be logical. Humans aren’t altruistic, we aren’t nice or caring and as we’ve shown among ourselves are more warlike than even the Klingons.
Kristen and Mike do such a nice job with this story and how the book is structured. The flow and how we see events unfold and the transitions from scene to scene have a fluidity to them that is very nice to see. To start the issue the it does with Michael and her “mother” then with Alexander well it only established much of what would have occurred anyway had Michael not been thought dead. After all even though the Emperor made Michael the rightful heir to the throne Alexander would never had let that come to pass.
I almost pissed myself when Michael was talking to a certain someone looking for information. So it’s interesting to see that our writing duo has a strong affection for the franchise because this was beyond anything I was hoping to see. There is also another aspect of this story that I really like and that’s all the cloak and dagger stuff, yes this is Starfleet now matter how warped it may appear but usually we see the ships and space and don’t spend this much time on the ground showing off skills that are on the more mysterious side. It is this shall we say deviation from the normal avenue of storytelling that helps to make this what it is.
I love Angel’s work on the interiors here. He is definitely not afraid of making the scene as full and vibrant as possible and that utilisation of backgrounds is what really brings the story to life. Seeing a futuristic shanty town full of metals and such used in ways that are familiar is spectacular. The attention to detail here is sublime and the way the varying weight of the linework is manipulated is stunning. The way that page layouts are utilised and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a tremendous eye for storytelling.
The Star Trek Universe is a vast and interesting place. With more and more territory having been covered and corners of the universe exposed it’s stories like this one that keep it fresh. The writing is strong and plot/story development is fantastic and the characterisation is so incredibly strong so that the entire reading experience while warping Roddenberry’s initial vision is as realistic as it can possibly be. This is an extension of now and not stemming from an age of enlightenment so it’s up to us to decide which version we want.
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