I’ll start this out by noting, I’m a big Star Trek fan. I entered this series expecting to learn something about the forthcoming film. To my surprise, I’m getting a story that both ties into the film, but seems to be able to stand on its own. These characters, who I grew up with and have high expectations of their depiction, are written so close to the the show it hurts. And in tie-in media, I count this very high.

The story places us smack in the middle of quite a big crisis for the Romulans and it’s interesting to see how quickly Nero has turned from sympathetic to sociopathic, but it is a (heh, heh) logical turn. The story moves at a good pace, by the end of the issue I was quite happy with my $3.99 investment. Along the way we get some interesting developments for the film, quite a number of surprise cameos and a cliffhanger that rivals the decimation of Romulus from last issue. While Orci and Kurtzman are credited with the Plot, the finer moments, it should be noted, belong to Johnson and Jones who do a wonderful job of making this story work.

I will say, the only thing I did not like about this issue was the metamorphosis of the Narada from cargo ship to full blown Warbird. It seemed a bit trite. I would rather have seen Nero abscond with a “super” ship being built by the Romulans rather than this very odd “upgrade.”

I think Messina has done a great job with the art on this book. The characters look like aged versions of their TV show counter parts. There are also some brilliant spreads of ships, planets and asteroid fields that seem to jump off the page. I wouldn’t call myself a fan of his work, but I think the art suits this story. It also reflects the visual feel of the film.

Dear, IDW, put Mike Johnson & Tim Jones on a Next Generation Ongoing series set in this “future.” Their writing, and this comic as a whole, did exactly what it was supposed to do – get me excited for the film. I immediately went to watch the trailer after putting this down. My Pick of the Week.