Star Trek 1417: Ruling in Hell Part 4

1417. Ruling in Hell Part 4

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Khan - Ruling in Hell #4, IDW Comics, January 2011

CREATORS: Scott and David Tipton (writers), Fabio Mantovani (artist)

STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)

PLOT: Civil war breaks among Khan's people. While those loyal to him prevail on the field of battle, Khan corners the traitor Tamas and kills him. With a smaller population and the dissidents' cave offering a food and water source, they last years in the harsh environment, until the Reliant's landing party finds them.

CONTINUITY: See previous issues (Khan, Botany Bay, Ceti Alpha V, Joaquim). The comic ends where Star Trek II begins.

DIVERGENCES: None.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Trekkie bling
REVIEW: The last chapter is as visual as the rest of the series, which makes sense in that Khan is more a man of action than of words. The desert warfare seems relevant to wars today, but we don't dwell on the larger tactical portrait. Instead, we have a fair-looking fight between Khan and Tamas, and a victory of sorts that explains how the Botany Bay's crew survived to the point where the movies showed them again. No real surprises, just a solid filling in of the blanks and a well-intentioned homage to the character made famous by Ricardo Montalban. As one of four issues, it's a bit thin, but as part of a collection, this will seem like the grand finale of an epic story. Worthy of the great Khan.

Comments

Shlomo Ben Hungstien said…
after i read this issue the first time i felt the fight seemed a bit anti-climatic. especially with the way Khan kills Tamas so dispassionately. then i remembered that whole thing about revenge being a dish best served cold as the saying goes. on a general note i also thought it was a bit odd how Tamas was so down on Kahn's leadership when he never had any solid alternatives their situation. but then again the infighting among "augments" seems to be part of their DNA every bit as much as their superhuman abilities. ever wonder why Terrel and Checkov didn't do an emergency beam out the minute they saw Kahn's party?
January 16, 2011 at 11:33 PM
Shlomo Ben Hungstien said…
i almost forgot to mention i really liked Kahn's speech before the battle. that was a nice touch.
January 16, 2011 at 11:39 PM
Siskoid said…
They didn't know it WAS Khan's people (Chekov only realizes when he notices the ship's signage). So they were just getting to know the locals.
January 17, 2011 at 7:50 AM
LiamKav said…
Sorry Siskoid, but I think you're misremembering. Chekov and Terrel see the cargo containers, have a look round, Chekov sees the "Botany Bay" signage, panics and gets them to leave, then they bump into Kahn.

Presumably they couldn't beam up from inside the contains, as there's no reason for them to waste time getting their survival gear back on. I would guess that maybe they did try and call for an emergency beam-up but they couldn't get through to the ship.
January 17, 2011 at 9:05 AM
Siskoid said…
Ah yes, that's it.

Of course the simple answer to David's question is: If they'd beamed out, there wouldn't have been a movie.
January 17, 2011 at 9:48 AM
Post a Comment