Khan #1 Review

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by Villordsutch, Oct 15, 2013.

  1. Villordsutch

    Villordsutch Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2009
    Location:
    UK
    Hello all please find below my review of Khan#1

    [​IMG]

    Full review can be found here - http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2013/10/comic-book-review-star-trek-khan-1.html
     
  2. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 5, 2008
    Location:
    A type 13 planet in it's final stage
    So it looks like they're actually going the plastic surgery route to explain the recasting? Lame.

    Up next, a three part epic explaining why Leonard Nimoy's Spock has earlobes when Zachary Quinto's doesn't.
     
  3. Paris

    Paris Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Dec 29, 2008
    Location:
    In the future's past
    QFT. I liked the IDW trek when it first started, but with what has come out lately, i've dropped them completely. First time in years I won't be getting their trek books. Hopefully the quality goes back up soon so i can come back..
     
  4. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2004
    Location:
    New Therin Park, Andor (via Australia)
    We've just had several months of fans demanding to know why the movie didn't attempt to explain the physical differences between the two Khans, and now someone tries to provide the answer (that many of us suggested), it's "lame"?

    Kobayashi Maru.
     
  5. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 5, 2008
    Location:
    A type 13 planet in it's final stage
    I was never one of those. I thought it equally stupid when the post-ENT novels tried to explain why the prequel series looked "more advanced" than TOS by saying the technology really was downgraded.

    I personally find Khan's original backstory so flawed that attempting to reconcile the new with it's broken assumptions to be a waste of time. Marla was clearly the worst historian in Starfleet - nobody with even the most basic knowledge of Sikhism would ever see the clean-shaven, waxed-chested Ricardo Montalban and think he was a Sikh. Furthermore, they retconned Khan's ethnicity in STII by dropping the skin darkening makeup used in Space Seed and turning all his followers into young Aryans.

    And of course, made in a test tube, he can be any colour his designers intended.
     
  6. Hartzilla2007

    Hartzilla2007 Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 15, 2006
    Location:
    Star Trekkin Across the universe.
    Not to mention the whole Klingon thing. Seriously why do waste time explaining this stuff just because of the anal Star Trek fans whine so much?
     
  7. Mad Jack Wolfe

    Mad Jack Wolfe Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Nov 13, 2008
    So they were genetically engineering their street orphans in 1971 New Delhi? Sounds like something out of a sci-fi mashup with Charles Dickens. Oliver Double-Helix, anyone?
     
  8. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2004
    Location:
    New Therin Park, Andor (via Australia)
    Generally, writers write the stories they wish they could read.

    When writers choose not to try "explaining this stuff", other anal Star Trek fans whine. So the writers may as well keep writing what they want to read. And hope that it sells.

    So stop buying them.

    Are you saying that IDW should just ignore "Into Darkness" altogether? Not even try to put out comics that tie-in to Khan?

    Of course IDW is putting out "Into Darkness"-related mini-series. The "Nero" series did well for them after the 2009 series, AFAIK, better than many of their other IDW mini-series.
     
  9. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 5, 2008
    Location:
    A type 13 planet in it's final stage
    I'm not buying them, at least not until the TPB is cheap. And I'm not saying they should ignore ID at all, just that they should stick with the new version of the character and and work backwards from there, and not pander to the fans who probably don't even know what a Sikh is while complaining furiously that Cumberbatch's Khan isn't one.
     
  10. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    ^How is it "pandering?" It's always been the intention of these creators that the new timeline is an offshoot of the original, so what was true about Khan in TOS should still be true about him here. That's the premise they've been working from all along, so they're just being consistent within their own body of work.
     
  11. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2004
    Location:
    New Therin Park, Andor (via Australia)
    For every fan who says that Paramount/Bad Robot/CBS/Pocket/IDW shouldn't "pander to the fans", there's another who complains they "don't listen to the fans".
     
  12. drumvan

    drumvan Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2012
    Location:
    ann arbor, mi
    :bolian: preach it.
     
  13. CaptPapa

    CaptPapa Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Feb 15, 2009
    Location:
    I really do not know . . .

    This begins to address a question I've had, or better yet, I haven't understood. I'm not a fan of the alternate timeline, so I'm ignorant of the 'reality' of it. I thought that since the timeline separated, this new timeline could do whatever it wanted to with events and people, irrespective of established 'history'. Which is why (among other things) I didn't understand the necessity to explain the differences between the Khan appearing in Space Seed/Wrath of Khan, and the Khan appearing in STID. :confused:
     
  14. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    The altered timeline was created by Nero's ship, the Narada, traveling back to March 2233 and attacking the USS Kelvin. That began a new, altered sequence of events, so a new timeline branched off from the original at that moment. Anything that comes afterward is subject to change. But that didn't alter anything that happened before March 2233. Everything prior to that date is supposed to be the same.

    Here's IDW's own chart showing how the one timeline branches into two:

    http://www.idwpublishing.com/startrek/timelines.php

    Basically it's a Y shape, a fork in the road. Go back before 2233 and there's only the one timeline (well, there are plenty of other parallel ones, but they're not relevant for our purposes).
     
  15. CaptPapa

    CaptPapa Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Feb 15, 2009
    Location:
    I really do not know . . .
    ^ Okay, that's pretty clear, thanks.

    Keeping in mind I've only watched ST09 a couple of times, and STID not at all; how is nuSpock's emotionalism explained? Vulcan's emotional control obviously extents back before 2233; or is that one of the things that was changed after the new timeline was created? If so, I missed the explanation.

    And, if this is covered (probably) in detail elsewhere, I can pass on the subject. I don't care for nuTrek; my only real interest being Leonard Nimoy's participation. This particular discussion is just curiosity - if it's a problem or going to far off track we can pass.
     
  16. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    First off: Look at "The Cage," which is set about four years before the 2009 movie (albeit in a different timeline). In that pilot episode, Spock smiles openly. In many of the early episodes, he's more overtly emotional than he later became. Maybe the younger Spock was just less controlled than he became later in life. A lot of people seem to overlook that these movies are depicting younger versions of the characters than the ones we saw in TOS. The time frame of the Abrams movies is about halfway between "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before." ("The Cage" was 2254, WNM was 2265, and the movies have taken place mainly in 2258-60.)

    Second: Spock saw his mother and his whole planet die right in front of him. It should be self-evident why he would be, in his elder self's words, "emotionally compromised" after such a horrific tragedy.
     
  17. DarKush

    DarKush Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 18, 2005
    I enjoyed this first issue. I thought the artwork was good for the most part and I liked the story. I'm fine with the plastic surgery route. I'm glad they did address the differences in appearance between old and new Khan. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the miniseries.
     
  18. Julio Angel Ortiz

    Julio Angel Ortiz Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2004
    Location:
    Pennsylvania, USA
    But one (admittedly fannish) thing I started wondering about since nuTrek premiered has been this:

    The Narada is the branching point. So everything thereafter will be different. But consider the series Enterprise that would be a common history for both timelines. Important events in Enterprise spin out from the "Temporal Cold War", where the mysterious players are from further into the future than the TOS / TNG eras. How could those events in Enterprise be the same if the Temporal Cold War futures of Prime Trek and nuTrek are different?

    Not being argumentative or anything; I'm just throwing out a thought for discussion.
     
  19. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    It was never conclusively established that Daniels's future was the same one we saw in TOS through VGR. It had a lot in common with it, but we never really got proof. Heck, we know that the timeline created by the events of ENT was different from Daniels's original timeline. Yet the intention of ENT's producers was to show the events that led to the creation of the Prime history we know, as season 4 in particular makes rather clear. So Daniels may have come from a very similar timeline to the one we know, but not the exact same one.

    And really, it stands to reason that a temporal war would involve factions not only from different times, but from different timelines. After all, it's not like there are only the two. Different factions could've been fighting for the survival or dominance of their own timelines at the expense of others.
     
  20. Julio Angel Ortiz

    Julio Angel Ortiz Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2004
    Location:
    Pennsylvania, USA
    ^ Works for me. :)