Star Trek Magazine – July 2019

TRICORDER: REVIEWS

Star Trek: Year Five

Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly, Stephen Th ompson

IDW, 2019

A

comicbookcanstandorfallonitsfirst

page.The ensuingstorymaybethe

greatestevertold,withwordsthatleap

fromthepageandartworkthatsearsitself

intoyoursoul;butif thatfirstpagedoesn’t

grabyou,chancesareyou’llneverfindout.

I’mnotsureifStarTrek:YearFiveis the

greateststoryevertold,butit certainlyhas

a killerfirstpage:a paneloftheEnterprise

ablaze,followedbyinteriorshotsofa

bloodiedCaptainKirkdictatinghisfinal

logfromhiscaptain’schair...witha gun

pointedat hishead.Whointheirright

mindwouldn’twanttofindoutwhat

happensafterthat?Although,giventhatthat

firstpageappearstobea flashforwardtothe

veryendoftheU.S.S.Enterprise’s fi ve-year

mission,wemayhavetowaita while...

The premiseoftheongoingYear

Fiveseriesis onthesurfacepretty

straightforward:untoldstoriessetin

thefinalyearoftheEnterprise’s fi ve-

yearmission.Butas thefirstfewissues

demonstrate,notonlyis therea greaterarc

overandabovethatset-up,butthecreators

seemas muchconcernedwithcharacter as

theyareplot– perhapsmoreso.

Sublimecharactermomentsabound

inYearFive. AfterSpockgivesa handily

expositorysummationoftheEnterprise’s

missiontocontaintheenergyofan

explodinghypergiantstar,Chekovrolls his

eyesat Spock’sclinicalverbosity,towhich

Suluresponds,“It’sSpock,Pavel.If you

wantbrevity,talktoa Klingon.”Notlong

after,inconversationwithMcCoy,Kirk

TRICORDER

COMICS / BOOKS / POP-UPS

01 02

An ambitious new project from IDW, Star Trek: Year Five sets out to tell the

full tale of the fi nal 12 months of the U.S.S. Enterprise’s fi ve-year mission, as

depicted by a rotating “writers’ room” of creators. The result is one of the

best Star Trek comics yet published.