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A review by jarrahpenguin
Star Trek: The John Byrne Collection by John Byrne
5.0
John Byrne's Star Trek comics are fun adventures, well-plotted and imaginative while remaining true to the universe of TOS and first films. Byrne's character drawing sometimes verges on caricature-y but conversely his renderings of characters are instantly recognizable, unlike some older Trek comics where Captain Kirk occasionally looked like a middle-aged Ted Danson. The colours and renderings of different eras of ships and uniforms are excellent, as are the way panels are laid out to create visual interest, though I sometimes had a hard time following flashbacks/flashforwards in the story. He also does a good job showing pre-existing characters at different life stages without needing to spell out for us who they are.
Even though the collection includes a few different IDW miniseries, it all ties together quite well, which is impressive. Byrne not only ties together major plot points like Romulan/Klingon/Federation geopolitics but also brings back peripheral characters so you can see how they grow and develop and interact in different parts of the Trek universe. The "Assignment: Earth" comics featuring Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln are a lot of fun, sort of a mash-up of James Bond and Doctor Who. The Romulan storyline is sometimes a bit slow but ultimately delivers on its Shakespearean ambition.
I mostly picked up the collection for the stories about Number One, which did not disappoint. I loved his take on her early and later days in Starfleet at a point where all we really had to go on in canon was "The Cage"/"The Menagerie." Overall the women in the comic were treated pretty well, more in line with the era of their publication than their original television appearances. There was also good racial diversity in the Starfleet crews represented and it was integrated seamlessly.
My only wish for this collection is that there would've been a little more bonus content. Other than the cover art for the individual issues and one concept art page, the collection was limited to the comics themselves. It wasn't even easy to figure out what year they were originally published (in and around 2008). The book could've benefited from, at minimum, a foreword on the signficance of this work in the Trek comic universe.
Even though the collection includes a few different IDW miniseries, it all ties together quite well, which is impressive. Byrne not only ties together major plot points like Romulan/Klingon/Federation geopolitics but also brings back peripheral characters so you can see how they grow and develop and interact in different parts of the Trek universe. The "Assignment: Earth" comics featuring Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln are a lot of fun, sort of a mash-up of James Bond and Doctor Who. The Romulan storyline is sometimes a bit slow but ultimately delivers on its Shakespearean ambition.
I mostly picked up the collection for the stories about Number One, which did not disappoint. I loved his take on her early and later days in Starfleet at a point where all we really had to go on in canon was "The Cage"/"The Menagerie." Overall the women in the comic were treated pretty well, more in line with the era of their publication than their original television appearances. There was also good racial diversity in the Starfleet crews represented and it was integrated seamlessly.
My only wish for this collection is that there would've been a little more bonus content. Other than the cover art for the individual issues and one concept art page, the collection was limited to the comics themselves. It wasn't even easy to figure out what year they were originally published (in and around 2008). The book could've benefited from, at minimum, a foreword on the signficance of this work in the Trek comic universe.