Just took a look at the preview for issue 3, and... Spoiler: Spoilers for "The Galileo Seven": it turns out Spock is a stubborn man. YEOMAN RAND is in it!
Oh wow, that close-up of Scotty on the last page almost looks like an amalgam of James Doohan and Simon Pegg... I wouldn't have thought it possible! Great artwork in my opinion.
So, I wonder if this means that character be in the new movie? They've said repeatedly that the comic series will introduce us to characters that will be in the second Abramsverse movie.
I wish they would do more original stories not just rehashes of the episodes. This one was pretty much the exact same of the episode. Maybe future issues will have original stories.
According to IDW's press release that announced the series last summer, there will be original stories. Since the first six issues are covering "Where No Man," "The Galileo Seven," and "Operation Annihilate," the earliest we could see an original tale would be issue #7.
With regard to the first two issues of "Star Trek Ongoing" (repost from the Trekmovie talkback message board): In a comparison between the Prime Verse television episode and the New Verse comic book story, personally, I find it of particular interest to note, how some relatively minor plot changes do result in a subtle, yet rather significant shift concerning the two pieces' main narrative themes. Examining the original TV episode, I would identify two distinct, thematic motives at the story´s narrational core. The more prominent one, being of a largely philosophical nature, centers on Gary Mitchell, Kirk Prime´s´s former pupil/ good friend and revolves around the effects of uncontrolled access to power on the human psyche by extrapolating possible dangers and consequences of such a situation. The other important, but from my point of view ultimately supplemental story motive, Kirk´s personal conundrum in this episode, explores a smaller scale, more intimate topic, namely the ties of friendship and the limits of loyalty. The Abrams et al. Verse´s comic book story on the other hand, at least as I understand it, seems to emulate the new film´s approach to story telling by once again prioritizing domestic/personal issues over social/political/philosophical ones. The introduction of one small, additional plot element absent from the original television episode, i. e. New Spock' s disclosure to New Kirk of his unauthorized mind-meld with an unconscious Mitchell, effectively eliminates the entire "fallible human beings should never be trusted with uncontrolled power"- angle of the story. The overall change of narrative direction is based simply on the Vulcan´s revelation of THIS Mitchell´s complete erasure by some form of non human entity described as a force "... with no conscience. No sentience of any kind". Such a development strongly suggests, that New Kirk´s old classmate and confidant has indeed, for all intents and purposes, died/seized to exist. In my personal opinion, the implied, complete loss of New Verse Mitchell´s human person-hood relatively early in the course of the comic book story represents a substantial retooling of the original Prime Verse narrative due to the additional plot aspects´s profound impact on both of the television episode´s main themes. The revelation of a decidedly external, otherworldly and apparently quite hostile force as the piece´s true antagonist (and potentially important, future New Verse adversary?) largely eliminates the original dilemma based on the frailties of human nature. Simultaneously, i would argue, this new situation not only centralizes Kirk´s personal crux as the main narrational theme, but it also re-focuses the character´s conflict by diminishing issues of loyalty while emphasizing the previously established story motive of a young, brash captain experiencing the heavy burdens of command for the first time.
I like the reimagining idea. There are so many episodes I want to see them tackle, including The Menagerie that would give us a look at when Pike was in command. I know it wouldn't work it out, but it'd be interesting to see an adaptation of The City on the Edge of Forever that would be closer to Ellison's original vision. Hopefully, in future adaptations, they will look more at the original scripts and include the things they cut out, like in Who Mourns for Adonais when it is relieved that Lt. Palamas was impregnated.
Read issue #3 and I have to say it has the same problem as the first two issues. The dialogue is really disjointed and the story just seems to jump all over the place. The problem seems to exist because the dialogue is so sparse. I'm starting to wonder if IDW is paying by the word? The pictures are pretty though.
I think I agree. I still say that it will take 3 issues per story to do them justice otherwise we're going to get no time for any character development unless they designate some original 'filler' issues in between to do that. That isn't going to be as effective as seeding the character development into the retold stories as they go.
I bought the first three issues on Comixology last night. I was really looking forward to the nuTrek ongoing but found myself really disappointed. Was hoping for retellings of the original stories with a nuTrek twist to them but... Where were the twists? The changes in WNMHGB were extremely minute and the changes in Galileo 7 were almost nonexistent. If they aren't going to nuTrek the original stories then why not do all original Trek tales set in the nuTrekverse?
I have to admit that I too have been underwhelmed so far. But there is one story that I am hoping they will tackle if not this "year" (and I'm not speaking of a calendar year but of a 12 issue stretch) then next. It is one of the classic Trek stories that will be most fundamentally changed on multiple levels by the changes to the timeline, and that is... Amok Time! Frankly how they handle that story will do a lot to tell me whether or not this is a series worth bothering with.
I'm enjoying the comic quite a bit... I just wish they would stick with the stardate system from the 2009 movie! They only used it in the first issue! Bah!
With Orci being a consultant, I can't help but think there was a reason behind that and it has more to do with the next movie than the original episodes, IMO.
My guess is that they simply havent nailed down the timing of the new movie (or hadn't wen the comics were being written) and so went with TOS nonsense-numbers lest they overlap STXII. I'm suddenly irrationally curious to know what the stardates in those cancelled nuTrek novels were.