1023. Mourning StarPUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation #21, DC Comics, July 1991
CREATORS: Michael Jan Friedman (writer), Peter Krause and Pablo Marcos (artists)
STARDATE: 44295.3 (follows the last issue)
PLOT: The Enterprise-D abandons its fruitless search for its lost shuttle and Picard is forced to declare the away team dead. Though he holds a funeral in their honor, he doesn't really believe they're dead. Somewhere else in space, Wesley pilots the Einstein to an agglomeration of ships all melded together...
CONTINUITY: Kyle Riker, Will's father (The Icarus Factor), gets news that his son is dead. Also seen receiving the news are Lwaxana Troi, Dr. Pulaski and Selar's parents (who haven't appeared elsewhere).
DIVERGENCES: None.
PANEL OF THE DAY - Having a field day with disassembled Transformers.
REVIEW: Stories where characters are only believed to be dead are a sort of cheat just to get some pathos in, usually by featuring mourning and eulogy scenes. Meanwhile, the viewer/reader knows full well that the characters are alive and well, and is simply not connecting to those scenes in a meaningful way. YOU are not in mourning, so you're just counting the minutes/pages until the characters learn the truth. These are still well constructed character moments, and I especially liked the cut-aways to other places and people learning about their loved one's death. It makes the Star Trek universe so much more interconnected, and it's something very easy to do in a comic, but very difficult on tv. So exactly what these books should do! The cliffhanger features a striking image which should prove interesting next issue.
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