...You're a fake, you hear me? A FAKE! Tholians don't have thin necks, round eyes or dark... whatever you want to call that skin. We're crystal!
Between that, the Gorn (in the video game, which the comic then followed up on) and the Archons, it oughta be crystal-clear by now that whatever Abrams and Orci originally intended, the makers of this comic consider the Abramsverse to have been an alternate universe - not an alternate timeline - from the very beginning. Nero simply knocked askew a timeline that was up-to-that-point only loosely paralleling the Prime Universe at best. This is Star Trek's Ultimate (non-Marvel) Universe.
Honestly, I'm not sure if IDW really gets how alternate the Abramsverse is supposed to be. Hell, even though Trek XI has Spock Prime able to instantly recognize Kirk and Scotty, the Ongoing series still continues to feature versions of the characters drawn to resemble the TOS actors. As recently as last year we had a multiverse story which in addition to other versions of Chris Pine's Kirk, gender-swapped versions of the Abrams crew, versions from different species, there was even a Kirk drawn in Shatner's likeness.
I just read the concluding part of the Tholian two-parter last night - god, what a letdown. The whole issue seemed to be designed to make Kirk as ineffectual as possible: every time he starts to do something, either one of his crew either does the job for him or makes it unnecessary for him to do anything at all. The Keenser stuff was actually enjoyable (about time somebody did something with this character), but Kirk really came off as Captain Dunsel in this one. And once again, as with IDW's other "episode reimaginings," the new version of "The Tholian Web" carried none of the tension or emotional impact of the original. I wish they'd give up on re-telling episodes that were great the first time and stick to telling entirely original stories.
It's long been speculated that Loskene was wearing some kind of helmet in TOS - and we never saw their true form. (Not to mention that it was a helmet made out of a plastic placemat, the same material as used to make body armour on Troyius and Elas.) Then along came "Enterprise"... http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Tholian
My review of Star Trek #48 and it's far far superior to issues #46 and #47. http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2015/08/comic-book-review-star-trek-48.html
haven't read the new issue yet but I'm confused about the preview of issues 50-52 saying it's about mirror verse because they already did the mirror story (of the reboot characters) in other comics and unless it's a continuation of those (unlikely due to how those ended.. ) it feels like they are ignoring their own comics if they show another mirror verse of the reboot characters. I'm curious to read those comics. Also the ones about the Academy make me excited!
I think we'll have to see how this all plays out. Mike mention in As for the Academy tales when I interviewed Mike Johnson he said this about them, "MJ: These are all-new adventures featuring the iconic crew at the Academy during the 2009 movie, between their arrival as cadets and their departure on the Enterprise after the destruction of Vulcan. We are also introducing a new cast of cadets at the Academy in the “present” time after the events of INTO DARKNESS, while the iconic crew (now a few years older) is away on their Five Year Mission. The two storylines will intercut and ultimately tie together in a cool way that I can’t spoil yet. I’m co-writing this series with Ryan Parrott, who readers will remember as the author of issues #18 and #20 of the Ongoing series, which featured flashback stories of Uhura & Spock (#18) and Chekov & Sulu (#20). Ryan’s a fantastic writer who knows Trek inside out and makes whatever he works on infinitely better." Full interview btw - http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2015/07/interview-mike-johnson-talks-star-trek.html
Mirror Khan? http://www.startrek.com/article/is-it-the-holidays-already-idws-trek-titles-for-december
Hold on... A species of bird people named Felidae, which is the Latin name for the taxonomic family of cats? I know Trek sometimes goes overboard with the implausibly appropriate alien names, but I don't think this is much better.
I read the last issue and that was quite intriguing, good story about prime directive story! Bummer I couldn't see what the other alien species looked like. the 'chicken' alien babies are cute He also recently stated, about the academy series: http://www.thetrekcollective.com/2015/09/the-spectrum-war-3-preview-and-other.html the novels are like that too and I liked them, but I guess that since they aren't canon, the comic writers don't have to follow them. I hope they are consistent with their other comics, though, especially in terms of what they had said about S/U's backstory before the movie (most of the hints are in ongoing 19 - that made it so they started dating back in 2257 after she completed his course, which doesn't seem to contradict what was implied by the writers of the movies as well as the official site of stxi in which it was said in her dossier that she was the teacher assistant for Spock's class at the time of the ship assignment scene -, and the after darkness comics)
I've enjoyed a number of the Star Trek Ongoing two-parters and this one is no exception. Really liked the art and the alien race here.
I was reading Part 2 on a train yesterday and noticed that an avian guard had a hoof-like foot, but then the youngsters were shown with bird feet!
http://www.startrek.com/article/first-look-idws-trek-comics-for-january-2016 Solicitations for IDW's January Star Trek comics are now up. Ongoing #53 will be "Reunion, Part 1". I think we're finally getting some Gaila in the comic!