1255. Cloak & DaggerPUBLICATION: Star Trek: Early Voyages #5, Marvel Comics, June 1997
CREATORS: Ian Edginton and Dan Abnett (writers), Patrick Zircher and Greg Adams (artists)
STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)
PLOT: While looking for the missing ships USS Cortez, the Enterprise crew search a desert planet where they are attacked by emotional Vulcans. Rescued by the same, they discover that this is a lost Vulcan colony from before the dawn of logic and while their war-like matriarch wants to rejoin the stellar community, a dissident group does not. That same group has commandeered the USS Cortez and stranded the crew with the colony (who, after meeting Spock, aren't sure they want to go back to Vulcan, not that their "hyper-weapons" would be welcome there). In orbit, the Cortez attacks the Enterprise, and uses one of those ancient Vulcan weapons against it...
CONTINUITY: The Vulcan attackers use lirpas (Amok Time).
DIVERGENCES: The USS Cortez looks like a TOS era Reliant-class design (never seen in the original series). Its registry number is nothing like those given for the Cortez in various extra-canonical tech manuals.
PANEL OF THE DAY - Because sometimes, I've just got to showcase the art direction.
REVIEW: Yeoman Colt really fulfills the promise of the last issue, showing incredible spunk in this one. Whether shooting a found phaser rifle or making the Vulcan matriarch laugh with her impertinence, she's quickly becoming a favorite. The writers clearly have a thing for yeomen. They're not just secretaries anymore! It would be easy for this series to overuse Spock, since he's the big "name" character, but it doesn't. Cloak & Dagger uses his heritage, but doesn't give him center stage. Can the Vulcan colonists, in particular the aggressive Sutek, ever possibly rejoin their logical brothers? Unlikely, but it'll be interesting to see where this goes (and how it might later inform Spock's reunification effort with the Romulans). Plus, nice art.
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