Star Trek 876: Hell in a Handbasket

876. Hell in a Handbasket

PUBLICATION: Star Trek #52, DC Comics, July 1988

CREATORS: Peter David (writer), Tom Sutton and Ricardo Villagran (artists)

STARDATE: 9000.4 (follows the last issue)

PLOT: The Mentite Castille has turned the Enterprise into Dante's Inferno and the brdige crew must go down the depths of that illusory Hell to get to him. After many travails, they find Lucifer/Castille and Spock snaps him out of it with a mindmeld. Castille is soon undergoing medical treatment for his rare illness, the Enterprise heads once more towards a plague-ridden planet in need of help, and Bearclaw stabs Kirk in the chest...

CONTINUITY: None.

DIVERGENCES: None.

PANEL OF THE DAY - In the comic, it's raining "dirt". In the Comedia, it's raining feces. You make the call.
REVIEW: Now, I happen to have read Dante's Divine Comedy, so I should be a little more enthusiastic at the prospect of such a literate hallucinatory issue. And while it's well enough plotted, with various crew members being placed in danger in appropriate circles for their appropriate sins, it's still hallucinatory. Yes, a few nice visuals (I especially like the frozen over parts), but I have a hard time connecting to material that "isn't really happening". Of course, any boredom I might have felt is forgiven once I hit the cliffhanger to beat all cliffhangers!