Written by Mike Johnson and Ryan Parrott

Art by Angel Hernandez

Colours by Nick Filardi; Letters by Clayton Cowles

Design/Production by Neil Uyetake

Group editor Heather Antos; Editorial assistant Vanessa Real; Story consultant Kirsten Beyer

IDW, out now

 

The Enterprise is not having a fun time. Trapped in the Scorpius, an area of massive turbulence, the crew are tired and frustrated when they discover a damaged ship with a single pilot, Aisla. But Aisla owes money to Zephyx, a local gangster who runs a terrifyingly dangerous race through the Scorpius. A race the Enterprise has just been drafted into.

Mike Johnson and Ryan Parrott waste no time in setting up their breezy premise and the ‘camera’ zips around the ship setting up the cast and the tone with the same elegance and wit the show excels at. Angel Hernandez’s art is a perfect fit for this sort of story too and the cast are all easily recognizable but never stilted or trapped between accuracy and style.

That’s doubly true of the new cast, with the Power Rangers-esque Zephyx a neatly unpleasant and powerful villain who clearly has more going on than we see here. Aisla too is great; almost Farscape-like in their moral ambiguity. Best of all is the Scorpius Run rivals and audience, a cavalcade of alien races who feel vibrant and alive and entirely Star Trek. Infinite Diversity in infinite Combinations after all, even in the Scorpius Run. Clayon Cowles and Nick Filardi’s work is fantastically good here too. Cowles gives Zephyx in particular a very specific and threatening tone of voice while Filardi’s colour work cleverly shifts the tone between the serious colours of the Enterprise and the riotous colours of the Scorpius Run and Celius Prime, the partial planet that Zephyx operates from.

Verdict: IDW’s Star Trek line is incredibly strong and Heather Antos and Vanessa Real’s editorial choices have helped give each title to date its own style but a unifying feel, much like the shows themselves. This is a great start to what promises to be a great series. Start your warp engines. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart