Tuesday, March 28, 2023

The variant cover has nothing to do with the interior, but okay.

Instead, we get an alternative-version of a classic episode, that's largely gone off the rails by this point. From 2015, Star Trek #47, "The Tholian Webs, part 2" Written by Mike Johnson, art by Rachel Stott. This was part of an EC Comics variant month, with the variant by Derek Charm.
Several issues of the IDW series were re-dos of original series episodes with the new movie cast, and maybe some modernization. Plus, I'm pretty sure they skipped clunkers like "And the Children Shall Lead." This started as "The Tholian Web," but diverges quite a bit: by this point, under the distorting affects of interphase, Scotty had separated the drive section of the ship from the saucer; Sulu had taken charge of the bridge; the Tholians had both parts of the ship trapped in their energy web; and Bones had put himself into a medically-induced coma. (In the original episode, those affected by interphase were enraged and inarticulate; here Scotty and Sulu have turned on everyone but otherwise seem themselves.)
But the crew starts to turn the tide: Uhura stuns Sulu, while Scotty is knocked out by his little sidekick, Keenser. (The alien lieutenant had a spotlight issue earlier and may have been a fixture of this series!) McCoy's antidote to the effects of interphase had been completed, and Spock brings him out of his coma. Kirk manages to get to Keenser, who had worked out a solution to punch through the Tholians' web, and outside of that the separated Enterprise is still more than a match for their ships. The ship sections are reunited and they escape, and although Kirk is disappointed the Federation was going to be dragged into another war, he was proud of his crew, and ends the issue with a pleasant drink with the taciturn Keenser.
Not a bad issue; just not as fun as the variant.

2 comments:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Hey that IS a nice alt homage cover. Although to me, that Klingon looks more like a Predator due to the amount of dark shadows obscuring his face. Anyone else see that too?

googum said...

They went with helmets in the movies and a more ornate, baroque style in Discovery, because the traditional black leather armor/bumpy forehead Klingons had been in play since Star Trek: the Motion Picture and all through TNG, DS9, Voyager. They became too familiar, I think.