Pretty solid and entertaining, although definitely not high art. It helped put me in mind for the movie, though, and I'm interested to see if it affects my opinion of any particular aspect of the film (Nero, for example -- thanks to the comic, I can totally understand where his rage is coming from. I still don't condone or agree with his decisions, but I know what's driving him).
It did seem a bit fanwankish in places (yeah, I know that's a term that gets thrown around here far too often, but it fits, so I'll stick with it). It's always nice to see the TNG crew, and I do like the fact that they've all moved on with their lives in some way (rather than still doing what they were doing on the show), but some of the appearances stretched credibility a bit... they just felt a tad too coincidental. Probably Picard most of all -- I can believe he'd be an ambassador, but it just seemed a little too convenient that he happens to be the one in such a prime position to help Spock.
Then there's Data, who, last I checked, was dead. Yeah, I know, it's really B-4 with all of Data's memories, but they kind of glossed over this rather quickly. I guess there wasn't enough time to devote to the subject, since the main purpose of the story was to provide a lead-in to the events of the movie, but it felt like a bit of a cheat. Even though I'm no fan of Nemesis, I would have preferred to see a bit more of a follow-up to what happened at the end of the movie, maybe having this android be someone that is not quite Data, but not quite B-4 -- rather, something in between. That might have made it a bit less plausible for him to be Captain of the Enterprise, but perhaps they could have figured something out. Everyone just kind of treats this android as if he were Data, seemingly forgetting that the original Data died, and that was something I found a bit hard to swallow.
Worf and Geordi -- again, highly coincidental, but their roles made some degree of sense. I could by that Worf might want to try his hand at being part of the Klingon military (and Martok could easily arrange for him to be a high-level officer, as he is in the comic). For a moment, I thought they were actually going to kill Worf, which would have been a gutsy move, regardless of the status of Countdown's canonicity. But I guess they didn't want to piss off diehard TNG fans, so it seems Worf is still alive at the end of the story. Too bad, his death could have made things a bit more interesting and memorable.
A few things struck me as implausible, most notably the capabilities of the refitted Narada. Yes, I know it incorporates extremely advanced Borg technology, but I found it a bit odd that the Romulans had such power and weren't using it -- you'd think they'd jump at the chance. I mean, look at all the damage one mining ship was able to do; if the Romulans had adapted their warships to use this technology, they'd have been freaking unstopable.
Also, how does the Hobus star cause so much destruction so quickly? It's probably at least a couple of light-years away from the Romulan system, so how does the shockwave from its supernova manage to reach Romulus in a matter of days (weeks at most)? Even if Romulus is right next-door to the Hobus system, it's also stated that the supernova threatens Earth and Vulcan as well. Does its shockwave travel faster than light somehow, i.e. through some form of subspace?
All in all, though, a fun read, and it certainly only helped to fuel my anticipation for the movie. Friday can't come soon enough!
Wouldn't bland be a comic that caused everyone reading it to say "Meh"?
