Subject: Manga Review: Star Trek | Author | Messages | Billy Aguiar
Posts: 84
 | Posted: 9/8/2006 9:20:46 AM | Star Trek: The Manga, Shinsei/Shinsei
TokyoPop
$9.99, b/w, 192, Available now!
Edited by Luis Reyes
Review by Billy Aguiar
Two stars
Marvel and DC have taken turns over the years with the Star Trek comic license, but for the first time in a long while, a new company has taken the reins. TokyoPop has released an anthology of Star Trek the Original Series tales. They have even taken a page from the comic industry playbook by featuring alternate covers for different distribution channels.
But like so many Star Trek comics, I feel that it fails to deliver the experience of the show. Part of the problem is, and was, that there have been so many episodes of the various Star Trek shows that almost any story seems derivative. Several of the anthology’s shorts reminded me of specific episodes. That may not matter for people who are not big Trek fans, but I would consider myself only a lapsed or a mid-level Trek fan at best. And for fans of manga who might experiment with this, only one of the stories is really evocative of manga, but in that one I felt like Kirk and company were slightly involved with the story’s outcome.
Actually, thinking about the stories, I think I’ve found my problem with them. I didn’t feel that any of them really challenged the characters of Kirk, Spock, Bones, et al. Sure, there were challenges to ship, but at no point did the stories take a turn and I said to myself, that is something only Kirk would do. Those character touches are what drew people to the original series, more than it being a wagon train in space or having of the technobabble of the week save the day.
So was it Star Trek, yes. Was it innovative Star Trek that felt right, I didn’t think so.
This is a weekly manga review here on the CBG site, but don’t forgot to check out my other review site, Prospero’s Manga for more manga reviews.
www.tokyopop.com
ISBN: 1-59167-44-8
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