1356. The Hollow Crown, Part 2PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Romulans - The Hollow Crown #2, IDW Comics, October 2008
CREATORS: John Byrne (writer), John Byrne (artist)
STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)
PLOT: Gaius has been promoted very quickly to commander, even against Arenn's wishes. She's agreed to become the Praetor's queen only to make Gaius his heir. She's actually working with a rebel group to take the Praetor down. Meanwhile, Kor is fueling Gaius' need for revenge with doctored tapes revealing Kirk murdered his father in cold blood. At the wedding, the Praetor makes Arenn his queen and Gaius his heir, but later sends his own cousin (also a potential heir) to kill his adopted son. It doesn't work as the Klingons kill the cousin. On her wedding night, Arenn kills the Praetor and then commits suicide by destroying the palace with a Klingon bomb, hoping to implicate and eject them from Romulus. However, Kor and Koloth convince the new Praetor that the rebels were responsible. As per their plans, he announces a military initiative against the Federation, and so the Klingons bypass the Organian Treaty.
CONTINUITY: See previous issue (Kor, Koloth). The Romulans are now using Klingon-style cruisers (The Enterprise Incident). Koloth has earned a year of punitive duty for his failure in The Trouble with Tribbles. The Klingons are motivated by the meddling of the Organians (Errand of Mercy).
DIVERGENCES: None.
PANEL OF THE DAY - John Byrne was always a Shakespeare fan.
REVIEW: A LOT happens in this short 2-issue mini-series, but it's of course still to be continued later (in Star Trek: Romulans - Schism). What's exciting is that both sides score a satisfying win. On the one hand, we have Arenn, vomiting after she kisses the gross Praetor and not leaving the bomb to do all the work. She kills him personally and only then blows up the palace. And yet, there's just as much enjoyment from seeing the Klingons succeed in their long game of turning the Romulans into a puppet empire. Byrne weaves in shades of Hamlet in this, although his Danish prince may not be as smart as Shakespeare's original, which will likely lead to tragedy anyway. Very good stuff.
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