920. Gods' Gauntlet - Chapter Two: The Last Stand!PUBLICATION: Star Trek v.2 #21, DC Comics, July 1991
CREATORS: Howard Weinstein (writer), Gordon Purcell and Arne Starr (artists)
STARDATE: 8530.7 (follows the last issue)
PLOT: Scotty quickly rematerializes the people he was beaming, after which Kirk gets a message from the leader of the Reversionists. Unlike the leader of the Lerikan people, he's quite willing to compromise, and as it turns out, the leader's aide (last issue's faux-ambassador) wants to force his leader to do so. She won't hear of it and gets shot by her aide for it. Meanwhile, Spock investigates a power source in orbit and his shuttle is destroyed. He finds himself carried to safety down to the planet by a god-like being, the member of a race that helped Lerikan society evolve and is now in the process of testing their faith... so that they reject their religion! The unbending leader actually passed the test and is resurrected for it as the Lerikans now move on into enlightenment.
CONTINUITY: None.
DIVERGENCES: None.
PANEL OF THE DAY - Kirk faces down God... again.
REVIEW: Cute twist, but the comic has some grating elements. First of all, last issue's cliffhanger is dreadfully resolved. The transporter got zapped and Kirk and McCoy's atoms were blasted outward, and now... oh Scotty managed to make them materialize after all. More than lame, it's a cheat. But more importantly, and this is criticism I level at a lot of Weinstein's novels and comics, the Enterprise crew doesn't really matter. The same thing would have happened had they not been there. They're not really catalysts or stakeholders, just visiting a world Weinstein has set up. Musings about whether or not the Enterprise will ever meet the real God are just insulting. The first chapter was promising, the second is a distinct disappointment.
Comments