Star Trek 1419: Infestation, Part 2

1419. Infestation, Part 2

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Infestation #2, IDW Comics, March 2011

CREATORS: Scott and David Tipton (writers), Casey Maloney and Gary Erskine (artists)

STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)

PLOT: Kirk, Spock and McCoy infiltrate a working facility on Calibus VII, escaping from the walking dead, and hoping to find the source of the "disease". They meet a friendly robot whose creator was attempting to make a more humanoid brand of machine when he was misled by Britt, a woman split between various worlds (in Infestation #1) and the personified hive mind of the zombies. Instead of helping him create human-looking androids, she used him to deliver the undead infection to everyone in the colony. McCoy finds a cure, which he uses on the robots' creator. While the facility is under siege by zombies, he finds a way to dose the cloud layer with the cure. Britt attacks, but falls into a vat of the stuff and is destroyed. The plan works, and the population is cured. Except it isn't. McCoy's medicine only prevents the symptoms (the killer madness and low brain activity), but the colonists are still infectious undead. McCoy vows to find a real cure and the planet is placed under quarantine.

CONTINUITY: None.

DIVERGENCES: None.

PANEL OF THE DAY - A piece of the action II
REVIEW: The comic alternates between extremely talky scenes of exposition and almost silent action set pieces, and it's McCoy that really comes out on top. His medical tommygun, the biggest prescription he's ever filled, and much of his dialog are really fun. The other principals aren't quite treated so well. Spock comes up with contrivances that make the plot work, and Kirk is somewhat out of character with his respectful stance towards the guest A.I., and delivers a cheesy line at the end. I haven't read the other crossover books (G.I. Joe, Transformers and Ghostbusters), but they probably follow this book's premise, giving each version of Britt its own back story regarding the infestation in that universe. That helps the story stand on its own, without reading even the source book, though of course, it makes more sense if you have. Overall, I'd say this issue was better than the first, perhaps even upper average as far as these things go. The Tiptons can usually deliver at least solid entertainment, and the art is, well, variable.