Countdown #2 reviewed - spoilers I suppose [Definitely Spoilers]

[Sharr Khan]

Re: Countdown #2 reviewed - spoilers I suppose

Just got back from town, picked up The Last Generation#4 & COUNTDOWN#2. I must say I am REALLY looking forward to this movie! And if you haven't been reading Countdown you shuld pick up this issue! not only was it better then #1, but what happen's at the end of the issue just SHOCKED me! I was just not expecting that! At least not this soon.

Can you tell us what shocked you? Or can anyone give a detailed review as was done for the first one? Not trying to be obtuse but I doubt I'll have a chance to buy it. Thanks.

Alright if you don't mind a GIGANTIC SPIOLER!.....ROMULAS is DESTROYED!

Called that when the first issue came out! Now the motivation is making sense. not to mention Nero's primary target.

Sharr

 

[Captain Randy Hall]

Re: Countdown #2 reviewed - spoilers I suppose

So Spock is warning the council that Krypton could explode within a matter of days

At last. I've been wondering why Spock doesn't wear the headbands worn by Kryptonians in the Silver Age (which was added to make the people of the world wearing halos and their planet was designed to look like a 1950s view of heaven).

 

[Captain Randy Hall]

Re: Countdown #2 reviewed - spoilers I suppose

>>Hopefully, I'll pick up a copy tomorrow
THAT'S IF THEY HAVE ONE! Trust me Salvor, I got to my comic shop early and I picked up TWO of the last three issue's he had! I hope this is a good omen for the NU TREK movie!<<

>>I'm lucky.The owner of my local comic book store is a friend so he keeps a copy safe for me. It's just a matter of when i'll be able to go there and pick it up. Countdown #1 also sold out, so I suppose this will too. <<

Y'know, establishing a rapport with the local comic book store is a good way not to have to run from one Toys 'R" Us" to the next Wal-Mart. The guy I buy comics from takes any orders from from the Previews ahead of time. I debated whether to buy the 6" figures or the 3 3/4" ones. The sad thing is that I never liked thos small ones, and in a show of solidarity with Art Asylum, which kept producing great figures during the recent "lean" times, IMHO, should have been allowed to make a try at our hard-earned quatloos.

So all I have to do is wait for my stuff to shuffle in the store. While I used to enjoy "the thrill of the hunt," these days I'm older and hopefully wiser.

The comics store I go to is very good to us customers. Even when I upped my three-issue standard for Countdown and The Last Generation--the first time I'd dropped my TNG comics to one copy apiece--they got me all the copies I needed.

Let me recommend having a good relationship with your local LCBS. If the movie really takes off (or tanks), it's nice to have someone to fall back on.

 

[Augustus]

Re: Countdown #2 reviewed - spoilers I suppose

So I tried to buy one and they seem to already be gone in my area.

So wait, if Romulus blows up, why is Nero angry at the Vulcans?

 

[Oso Blanco]

I didn't know that Vulcan had a Senate and a Praetor as well ... and shouldn't it be Romulus instead of Romulas?

 

[EyalM]

Spoiler: how much time does this issue cover?

the timeine doesn't seem to add up. We have talk of the shock wave hitting Romulus in a few weeks but it somehow hits the planet a few pages later.

Anyway, I wonder how will they top this in the next two issues...

 

[SalvorHardin]

Ok, picked it up, read it and the story goes like this...

The issue begins where Countdown #1 left us.
The Remans have boarded Narada and captain Data arrives to save the day.And save the day he does.
After some brief introductions and since Narada seems to have taken damage, Nero and his crew are invited aboard the Enterprise while their ship is being repaired, so that they can head to Vulcan and save valuable time.
While the Enterprise is en route to Vulcan a couple of interesting things happen.
Nero mines the Enterprise computer for information and shows some interest in one James T. Kirk.
And we finally learn why Data is alive. Apparently his "neural nets were successfully imprinted onto B-4's existing programming". In other words, what most of us already suspected and the only really logical solution that was left after what happened in Nemesis.

Meanwhile, back on Romulus they finally realize the threat that unusual supernova represents. But it seems that Spock hasn't really changed that much during his presence there because they show no desire to trust him and his word that he will return with a solution.
Instead they plan to evacuate Romulus and put to vote an invasion to Vulcan to take the Red Matter device by force.

Jumping back to the Enterprise in orbit above Vulcan, ambassador Picard makes an appearance and thanks to him Nero and Spock are allowed to land. It is here that we learn that Spock's stay on Romulus has not been kind to his reputation with his own kind. His name has been tarnished.

Spock presents his case to the Vulcan High Counsil, but much as their Romulan brothers they also seem filled with mistrust and skepticism.
They finally decide not to help and that they can not turn over secrets of Vulcan science to the Romulans.
Nero is infuriated and claims that the time for words is over and it is time for action.
He departs for Romulus, leaving all the decalithium with the Enterprise and Spock and Picard to try and change the Vulcan's mind.
As he departs he warns Spock that if Romulus dies he will hold Vulcans responsible and gods help them when he returns.

The issue ends with Nero reaching Romulan space and witnessing what seems to be Romulus' destruction.


That's about it folks. A nice issue, with some questions answered and with Nero moving closer to the "villain" we are supposed to get in the movie.
The art was very nice just like the first comic and I'm looking forward to #3.

Here are some previews :

 

[Franklin]

I can't say I care much for what's happened to Spock's reputation. Would it be logical for the Vulcans to overlook that by this time he's probably had a century of service that was incredible and heroic? Does that not count for something? Has Spock lost his persuasive powers exactly when he needed them most?

Wouldn't Ambassador Picard vouching for Spock help? Wouldn't Picard have a voice and sway?

Vulcan is a member of the Federation, certainly Spock could've found some Federation scientists who saw what he saw, and he could get the Federation Council to order the Vulcans to turn over the red matter for the safety of the entire universe. Acting unilaterally like this on something so vital, the Vulcans truly are villains to ally and foe, alike.

Also, there's something chilling in the Vulcan denial of aid. Very close to Kirk's initial reaction to the Klingon disaster in TUC. "Let them die." Very close. Worse, in a way, since they are distant cousins to the Romulans.

Aparently, Spock is the only one in the universe with sound science, too. Amazing.

 

[Franklin]

Spoiler: how much time does this issue cover?

the timeine doesn't seem to add up. We have talk of the shock wave hitting Romulus in a few weeks but it somehow hits the planet a few pages later.

Anyway, I wonder how will they top this in the next two issues...

Sorry for the double post, but this is very true from the point of view that even if the Vulcans decided to help, they ran out of time. So, it's actullay become moot that they refused. And why would Nero blame them one way or another at that point? The Romulans themselves lost valuable time denying the danger of the situation.

I don't know. It's a comic after all. The bubble gum of reading.

 

[M'Sharak]

I can't say I care much for what's happened to Spock's reputation. Would it be logical for the Vulcans to overlook that by this time he's probably had a century of service that was incredible and heroic? Does that not count for something? Has Spock lost his persuasive powers exactly when he needed them most?

Wouldn't Ambassador Picard vouching for Spock help? Wouldn't Picard have a voice and sway?

[...]

In the "Unification" episodes of TNG, wasn't it shown that Spock's mission to Romulus was undertaken without the sanction of either the Federation or the Vulcan High Council, potentially setting him up to be regarded among the Vulcan leadership as something of a loose cannon? The events depicted in Countdown... how many years after those of "Unification" do they take place? Would that have been enough time to erase misgivings among the establishment concerning Spock's employment of "cowboy diplomacy"?

 

[miraclefan]

Spoiler: how much time does this issue cover?

the timeine doesn't seem to add up. We have talk of the shock wave hitting Romulus in a few weeks but it somehow hits the planet a few pages later.

Anyway, I wonder how will they top this in the next two issues...

Sorry for the double post, but this is very true from the point of view that even if the Vulcans decided to help, they ran out of time. So, it's actullay become moot that they refused. And why would Nero blame them one way or another at that point? The Romulans themselves lost valuable time denying the danger of the situation.

I don't know. It's a comic after all. The bubble gum of reading.

^ Hey! Go read WATCHMEN, Saga of the SWAMP THING and tell me if that's ( bubble gum ) reading!

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: Countdown #2 reviewed - spoilers I suppose

A very good issue! Just a little odd that Picard doesn't seem to have aged a day, though.

Well to be fair only seven years or so have passed since NEMESIS(2379 - 2386, based on the comics' 24th century stardates). Picard didn't change that much between GENERATIONS and NEMESIS either...and that was eight-plus years.

 

[Kchunda]

Re: Countdown #2 reviewed - spoilers I suppose

Called that when the first issue came out! Now the motivation is making sense. not to mention Nero's primary target.

Sharr

Re: the primary target. . .

I understand why Nero was looking around the Enterprise's data banks for information, simply out of curiosity about a culture his people have had such a tumultuous relationship with since before its founding. . .

. . . but why does he go the "Starfleet" "History" "Enterprise" "Captains" route? What could he hope to learn by doing so, and what could be "useful" to him from that perspective?

 

[EyalM]

Re: Countdown #2 reviewed - spoilers I suppose

Re: the primary target. . .

I understand why Nero was looking around the Enterprise's data banks for information, simply out of curiosity about a culture his people have had such a tumultuous relationship with since before its founding. . .

. . . but why does he go the "Starfleet" "History" "Enterprise" "Captains" route? What could he hope to learn by doing so, and what could be "useful" to him from that perspective?

Probably wanted to find more about Data.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: Countdown #2 reviewed - spoilers I suppose

Re: the primary target. . .

I understand why Nero was looking around the Enterprise's data banks for information, simply out of curiosity about a culture his people have had such a tumultuous relationship with since before its founding. . .

. . . but why does he go the "Starfleet" "History" "Enterprise" "Captains" route? What could he hope to learn by doing so, and what could be "useful" to him from that perspective?

Probably wanted to find more about Data.

Or maybe as a member of a different race with a different set of perspectives Nero was just trying to find out as much about his enemy as possible even if some of it ended up being superfluous from a practical point of view. Better to know too much than too little?

 

[Franklin]

Spoiler: how much time does this issue cover?

the timeine doesn't seem to add up. We have talk of the shock wave hitting Romulus in a few weeks but it somehow hits the planet a few pages later.

Anyway, I wonder how will they top this in the next two issues...

Sorry for the double post, but this is very true from the point of view that even if the Vulcans decided to help, they ran out of time. So, it's actullay become moot that they refused. And why would Nero blame them one way or another at that point? The Romulans themselves lost valuable time denying the danger of the situation.

I don't know. It's a comic after all. The bubble gum of reading.

^ Hey! Go read WATCHMEN, Saga of the SWAMP THING and tell me if that's ( bubble gum ) reading!

OK, but those are hardly like the complete works of Jacqueline Susann or the novels of Harold Robbins. They were the giants!

 

[Franklin]

I can't say I care much for what's happened to Spock's reputation. Would it be logical for the Vulcans to overlook that by this time he's probably had a century of service that was incredible and heroic? Does that not count for something? Has Spock lost his persuasive powers exactly when he needed them most?

Wouldn't Ambassador Picard vouching for Spock help? Wouldn't Picard have a voice and sway?

[...]

In the "Unification" episodes of TNG, wasn't it shown that Spock's mission to Romulus was undertaken without the sanction of either the Federation or the Vulcan High Council, potentially setting him up to be regarded among the Vulcan leadership as something of a loose cannon? The events depicted in Countdown... how many years after those of "Unification" do they take place? Would that have been enough time to erase misgivings among the establishment concerning Spock's employment of "cowboy diplomacy"?

Yeah, perhaps Spock used up a lot of good will during that time. Kind of tragic, really.

 

[cooleddie74]

I can't say I care much for what's happened to Spock's reputation. Would it be logical for the Vulcans to overlook that by this time he's probably had a century of service that was incredible and heroic? Does that not count for something? Has Spock lost his persuasive powers exactly when he needed them most?

Wouldn't Ambassador Picard vouching for Spock help? Wouldn't Picard have a voice and sway?

[...]

In the "Unification" episodes of TNG, wasn't it shown that Spock's mission to Romulus was undertaken without the sanction of either the Federation or the Vulcan High Council, potentially setting him up to be regarded among the Vulcan leadership as something of a loose cannon? The events depicted in Countdown... how many years after those of "Unification" do they take place? Would that have been enough time to erase misgivings among the establishment concerning Spock's employment of "cowboy diplomacy"?

Yeah, perhaps Spock used up a lot of good will during that time. Kind of tragic, really.

"Countdown" happens in 2386 based on the 63000-range stardates in the books. Which places both the overall storyline and the genesis of Nero's time-travel plot 18 years after "Unification(TNG)".

 

[Sharr Khan]

No one said reunification would be easy or even popular among either half of the Vulcan/Romulan divide. If anything its always seemed like Spock's personal crusade rather then a popular political notion.

I'd think a certain segment of Vulcan's would want to try to forget about "Them" those others who fled the planet to make war.

Sharr

 

[M'Sharak]

In the "Unification" episodes of TNG, wasn't it shown that Spock's mission to Romulus was undertaken without the sanction of either the Federation or the Vulcan High Council, potentially setting him up to be regarded among the Vulcan leadership as something of a loose cannon? The events depicted in Countdown... how many years after those of "Unification" do they take place? Would that have been enough time to erase misgivings among the establishment concerning Spock's employment of "cowboy diplomacy"?

Yeah, perhaps Spock used up a lot of good will during that time. Kind of tragic, really.

"Countdown" happens in 2386 based on the 63000-range stardates in the books. Which places both the overall storyline and the genesis of Nero's time-travel plot 18 years after "Unification(TNG)".

Which, even in terms of human memory, isn't really all that long -- less than a generation. Dictators, politicians and other public figures from modern history are vilified today over events and actions which took place much longer than 18 years ago. Vulcans would express their mistrust differently, of course, and presumably in more logical fashion, but they live longer and they would remember longer someone who went against the grain of Vulcan society and tradition.