I didn't like countdown comic book (spoilers for comic/movie)

[Capt. Vulcan]

I really enjoyed the movie, and I had heard good things about the countdown comic books. Some even said they were better than the movie, but I'd have to disagree.

I'll get the good out of the way first. It answers some of my questions, like how a mining ship is so powerful, the exact circumstances that led to the time warp, and what the heck red matter is. They delved in to the background of the villain a bit and fleshed out some details that end up being seen in the movie. Like how the spear that Nero uses to kill the Kelvin's captain was actually the ceremonial spear held in the romulan high council. (It's like he got stabbed with the ark of the covenant or something.) The explanation for the tatoos was pretty interesting too. They also explained why Nero seemed to know so much about kirk and the enterprise.

The bad? Way too much fanservice. I mean... did literally every new person they meet HAVE to be from tng? Seriously. There couldn't have been one captain or ambassidor or engineer that wasn't from TNG? Not only that but they all had to be super bad ass. Like every other scene after Data shows up is Spock saying "hello my old freind, it is good to see you" or people talking about how great they are.

Vulcan Council: Should we trust them?

Vulcan Council 2: What the fuck are you talking about? That bald mother fucker over there is THE mother fucking Picard! That black guy? He just built the fastest ship in the whole damned galaxy! Data commands the fucking enterprise... THE ENTERPRISE! Not only that but they're best buddies with general Worf who can only be killed by surprise! It says that right in his goddamn bio.

Vulcan Council: Oh right.

Had I read the comic first, it would have ruined the "I am and always will be" scene in the movie. By the fourth book I expected Spock to get a splinter just so he'd have to go to sickbay and meet Dr. Crusher Mega MD. Oh yeah and it wasn't limited to hero's either, the Borg just had to be involved somehow and the Enterprise is the only ship that can survive the Narada. It must have taken all their restraint not to make Lt. Ku the child of a tng person. It's like they got the rough ideas for the comic then just inserted the top 5 serched star trek terms in google or something and wrote a story around it.

Nero's sudden vow to destroy Spock and Vulcan seemed sloppy to me. He goes from a suspicious ally to "I will kill you and all your race" too quickly for me. Everything leading up to that was good, it just seems to transition to ultra vengeance mode too quickly for me. Which is unfortunate since Nero's reason for vengeance was one of the things I was looking to find out by reading the comic.

Nero getting worf to beam aboard their ship. Ok, kind of makes sense in the comic since that's his first time, and it would have been fine had he only done it this once. But no... in the movie he goes on to do it two more times... each time being more catastrophic than the last! Good plan Nero, no wonder they made you head of the mining guild.

Decalithium? DECALITHIUM? That's just lazy. Hey, dilithium is cool... trilithium was even MORE cool... let's just turn the fucking knob to 10! I thought red matter was actually very elegant and cool. But decalithium? That's as bad as the typical sci-fi alien creature naming convention of <race name><descriptor><familiar animal name>. Cardassian Hissing Squirrel! Romulan Farting Monkey. ect. Just lazy.

So yeah, not the worst comic ever but I was sorely dissapointed by it.

 

[roliver]

let's just turn the fucking knob to 10!

Why stop at 10? I'd go all the way to 11!

 

[Therin of Andor]

The whole point of "Countdown" was to give TNG fans a lead-in to the new film. For people who still didn't think that TOS was "their" series.

Sure, the writers could have come up with generic, or even well-written, brand new characters to be Enterprise-E captain, 24th century Vulcan ambassador, a starship designer and the Klingon representative, but TNG people buying this comic were looking for familiar faces.

When the comic mini-series (and other new titles) was first announced, one of the editors said something like, "The world is our oyster. We don't have to follow the Pocket novels. We can even bring Data back in B-4 if we like..." (I haven't been able to find the actual quote.) So I was kinda expecting that one. And, of course, Picard was on the promotional cover art.

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

Eh, I guess I can see their angle, but I think it still could have been handled with a little more subtlety. Why not make the builder of the ship be a smaller character like O'Brien and have Martok or someone show up with the birds of prey? And Worf went from ruler of the Klingons, to ambassador, to disgruntled federation officer, to klingon general? It really came off like a fan fic to me. Really it could have just been Data and Picard, even though having B4/Data become the captain of the Enterprise sounded stupid to me.

Not only that, but had I read the comic first it would actually have damaged my enjoyment of the movie, since a bunch of events from the comic are repeated in the movie. Like Nero stabbing people with his spear and ordering captains on to his ship and the constant surpise appearance of familiar people in places you wouldn't expect.

 

[DaveyNY]

I liked the Prequel TPB (which I bought & took with me to read in the theater)...

I'm not so crazy about your choices in the poll though... So I didn't vote...

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

I can appreciate the drawings, they were skillfully made. Good use of certain color palettes and certain angles. Nice style. But the story was abrupt. That's probably why I don't like comics much; the pictures are supposed to tell the story. But they never do; not really...

 

[Jeri]

I'm glad we bought and read the book; it helped a bit, I think. Comics aren't my thing, but they were better than I thought they would be. The trade paperback was nice.

 

[miraclefan]

I would have voted, but you didn't have ''just as good as the movie'' as an option.

 

[MvRojo]

It was good. It set up Nero's motivation in a way that I wished the film had.

 

[Good]

I actually liked the Borg angle. It helped explain both the Narada's look, and it's "badassitude."

 

[DontFeedPhil]

For those of us that never even knew that these comics existed could you explain the borg angle and Nero backstory in greater detail???

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

The basic jist is that Nero helps Spock in trying to stop the super nova that destroys Romulus, but spock doesn't do it in time so Nero blaims him and all of vulcan for the death of his family and civilization. The mining ship was just a mining ship till remnants of the romulan empire meet Nero on a secret star base and give him hybrid borg tech to exact revenge on the vulcans. The tech allows the ship to self heal and learn from combat encounters.

The story

So nero is the head of the Mining guild in romulus which seems to be a respected but lower caste. Spock still lives on Romulus trying to attain unification and has had enough success that he no longer needs to live in caves and can live in the open. Spock discovers this star is going to go super nova and tells the romulan high council, which pretty much chooses to ignore him. At the same time Nero happens to be mining decalithium near the star and discovers the same thing Spock has, and ends up being the sole supporter of Spocks theory. They have tea together and have a heart to heart conversation which ends with a failed attempt at a mind meld. Weighing between his duty to his empire and the love of his family he breaks the law and decides to help Spock, who has come up with a plan that requires taking precious romulan decalithium and refining it using top secret vulcan technology to make red matter. They decide to go to the Vulcan with some contraband decalithium and ask the senate for use of the tech.

On the way there they're randomly attacked by remans but are saved by captain Data and the Enterprise. Nero hangs out on the enterprise and spends his time reading up on Kirk and other heroes of the federation in the database. When they get to Vulcan the vulcans don't even want to let Nero come near the planet but Ambassador Picard is able to pursuade them. Once on Vulcan they pretty much get the same response they got on Romulus. No way are they letting the Romulans have a glimpse at their awesome red matter tech. But being Vulcans they decide they're going to debate it for a few days. Data and Spock have a conversation about the parallels in their lives including both being resurrected by having their memories imprinted on a new body. Neither party is really amused the conversation. Nero realizing that they're just sitting around says "fuck this I'm out" but Spock is able to convince him to at least leave his cache of decalithium just in case the council changes it's mind. Nero says ok but for some reason ends it with "so help me god if you don't save Romulus I will blaim you and hunt you down forevers!" Because clearly leaving the decalithium behind was going to change things somehow.

The star goes nova and Nero gets there just in time to watch Romulus explode, taking his pregnant wife with it. He goes emo and pretty much blames everyone including the romulan high council... which happens to be hailing him at that moment. They show up on the mining ship and start demanding things of Nero, since he's just a humble miner, including proclamations about how they're going to re-start the romulan empire. They have with them some special ancient spear that symbolizes the authority of the high council. Nero takes the spear and stabs the leader of the high council in the chest, much like what will happen with the captain of the kelvin. Just then some federation medical ships show up and ask if they need help. Nero thinks "wow the only way they could be here so fast is if they were waiting to pick on the bones of the empire and intentionally let romulus die." He convinces them that they have injured people and gets them to lower their sheilds, only instead of beaming people they beam over the fragmentational warheads that we're so familiar with now. (Apparently they're futuristic mining charges.) Many blue shirts die.

Using info from the high council they rendezvous at a secret fall-back point that the council was heading to, and meet some agents of something like the tal shiar on a super secret high tech starbase. Nero suggest they give him weapons so they can defend themselves. She gives them the borg tech full knowing he really wants revenge because she is similarly inclined.

Meanwhile the council remembers how awesome Data and Picard are and let them make the red matter. LaForge shows up with the Jellyfish, the fastest ship in the galaxy, and spock decides to go on a suicide mission to the super nova.

Nero tests out his new borg mining ship by blowing up whoever gets in his way, which in this case ends up being General Worf and his fleet of warbirds. Nero does the old "we want the captain to get on a shuttle craft and come over here" which we'll get familiar with in the movie. While Nero sits there waiting for Worf, the Klingons fly to the borg ship in space suits and board the Nerada. We get some typical close quarter klingong combat. Worf gets to Neros throne and starts yelling for nero to come out of the shadows. Since Nero read all about worf while he was hanging out on the enterprise he knows that Worf is apparently only susceptible to surprise, and is able to stab him through the chest with a giant anime tentacle of undetermined origin.

Just then Picard, Data, and LaForge show up piloting the Enterprise and start shooting up the Nerada. Nero taunts them with images of a barely alive worf bleeding all over the Nerada, and says he'll allow Worf to be beamed to the Enterprise. Both sides know this means lowering of shields, but the enterprise just lowers and raises the shields fast enough that the Nerada can't really take advantage. Pew pew pew! Nero says "wow the enterprise is awesome" because it's the only ship to survive the Nerada onslaught and he decides to just leave in pursuit of Spock. He get's there just in time for spock to detonate the red matter device and they get sucked in to time.

Picard, Data and LaForge see both ships dissappear and pour a forty on the bridge for their homey spock. Little did they know it was their universe that was dissapearing. (j/k)

The end.

 

[DontFeedPhil]

Thanks for that...

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

What the OP is referring to is called "fanwank".

When something is actually bad in a dramatic sense, but only good for hardcore fans who want references.