Star Trek: Year Five #8: Oh, What a Tangled Web…

This issue of Star Trek: Year Five picks up the moment the previous issue ended and wraps up one storyline while creating two new ones in the process. Hey, if the creative team keeps putting out this quality of work, they can start two-hundred new storylines for all I care. It has to be a difficult time for Star Trek editors. Even though the franchise is steady, its meat & potatoes (the movies) are in a state of flux when deals couldn’t be reached to put number four of the “Kelvin Universe” films into motion. So, there’s only so much you can do. Sure, there’s a couple of great Star Trek series on the CBS All Access network, but the crew that everybody’s pounding down the door to see is Kirk, Spock, Bones, and company.

Thankfully, they’ve got a great writing team of Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly. They not only know their Trek history, they know where to go with it. Lazing & Kelly create a really fun story featuring the Tholians and a new alien species that I think it’s safe to say we’ll be seeing for a while to come. The pair of authors write Kirk & crew like nobody’s business. You can hear the words they write coming out of the mouths of the actors, and they give you a really nice taste of background characters without pandering to hardcore Trekkers, at the risk of losing brand new & casual fan. The story has a distinct beginning, middle and an ending, yet flows seamlessly from issue to the next.

Just like the last issue, this issue features art by Stephen Thompson and just like the last issue, he’s really, really good. Again, there’s some new tech to show off and Thompson designs new and cool stuff while keeping it very much in the Star Trek wheelhouse. Thompson does like to use double-page spreads and normally I don’t mind them, but it seems like he’s almost overused them in the last two issues. While they didn’t take anything away from my enjoyment of the issue, at one point they do become a bit distracting. I hope in future issues he uses them a bit more conservatively.

Letterer Neil Uyetake is a master of his craft and I love seeing his name in the credits. This issue he’s got some very challenging panels to work with. Because of the placement of character or scenery that would really lessen the impact if they were covered up, he splits the dialogue balloons into smaller ones with 3-5 words each in them. Thankfully, they’re Kirk lines, and when you read them they’re exactly where William Shatner would………..break……………………….hissentences. Bravo, Neil!!