1256. Cloak and Dagger, Part 2 of 2PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Early Voyages #6, Marvel Comics, July 1997
CREATORS: Ian Edginton and Dan Abnett (writers), Patrick Zircher and Greg Adams (artists)
STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)
PLOT: Though heavily damaged, the Enterprise still manages to repel Vulcan boarding parties from the USS Cortez and disable many of the Cortez's systems. Meanwhile, Pike and his landing party are held hostage by the Vulcan matriarch. She wants the Enterprise to return her people to Vulcan. She wants to fires a "world weapon" at the Cortez that uses the planet's gravitational field and may destroy it, while Pike takes his shuttle back to the Enterprise and makes preparations to ferry them back to invade Vulcan... or else his party dies. The plan works, but the planet tears itself apart too quickly. Pike has the Enterprise dive into the atmosphere until a transporter lock can be achieved, by which point the Matriarch is dead and only Starfleet personnel can be saved. Spock then purges himself of emotion, seeing how passion kills and logic does not.
CONTINUITY: See previous issue (lirpas). Spock's ritual of purification is meant to bridge the differences in his behavior between The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before.
DIVERGENCES: See previous issue (USS Cortez).
PANEL OF THE DAY - A little too on the nose.
REVIEW: A big epic ending, with ships dramatically being blown to bits and a whole world going up in flames. It perhaps tries to cram too much action into a single issue, and the ending feels a little confusing. Wasn't the Enterprise severely damaged? If so, it's really unlikely it could dive into an atmosphere, then escape the world's destruction like that. And yet, it's all very visceral and gung-ho. The babes on the ship continue to be its best fighters, Sita and Number One both beating on Vulcans, but Chief Engineer Grace also gets a cool moment, going hand-to-hand. As for Spock's commitment to logic, I'm kinda sorry to see that happen. The writers had an interesting opportunity to show Spock before he truly let go of emotion and could show up in a much more human light. But even in the first 5 issues, they didn't, so it's not like the ritual will have much of an impact on the series.
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