PUBLICATION: Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #1, IDW Comics/DC Comics, October 2011CREATORS: Chris Roberson (writer), Jeffrey and Philip Moy (artists)
STARDATE: Unknown (during original 5-year mission) / In the Legionnaires' timeline, it seems to be just after The Great Darkness Saga (2982)
PLOT: In a divergent universe, the Imperial Planets are waging war against the shape-shifting Durlans. Simultaneously, Enterprise crew members are accidentally beamed down to that universe's dystopian Earth, and Legionnaires crash their time bubble on that same Earth.
CONTINUITY: The divergent universe features elements of both the Mirror and DC Universes, an Earth empire (with two swords across Earth instead of one) is called the Imperial Planets, shades of both the Terran Empire and the Legion's United Federation of Planets. The divergent universe has Durlans, a mirror Shadow Lass and a Captain Tomorrow that may well be Tommy Tomorrow (Tommy is Kamandi in an alternate future, so the character may synch up with the 23rd century). The Imperial Planets defeated the Dominion in the 23rd century. Ship designs seen at Imperial Earth include ones based on the Federation's, the Klingons' and the Vulcans'. The Earth itself looks like the Borg Earth seen in First Contact. Admiral Komac (This Side of Paradise, Amok Time) and Mr. Kyle appear. The Kobayashi Maru rates a mention (The Wrath of Khan). The Imperial Planets have a corrupted version of the famous Star Trek speech that ends with "boldly go where no man has gone before... and conquer!"
DIVERGENCES: None.
PANELS OF THE DAY - Spock and Brainiac 5, two guys on the same wavelength
REVIEW: I was really stoked about this project. Over the past year, Chris Roberson has been a rising star in comics, finishing up the horrible Grounded Superman storyline in an actually satisfying way, launching a cool Elric series, and continuing his excellent work on I, Zombie. I'm a big Legion fan and matching the heroes from the future with Star Trek is an excellent idea. Though the opening chapter is basically all set-up, Roberson scores his first points with his choice of teamed-up continuities. The Star Trek cast is from the Classic series, NOT the Abrams reboot, and the Legionnaires are from the classic 80s era before any of THEIR reboots took effect. Despite the 650 years between the two franchises, these share a similar aesthetic and philosophy. The two teams cross over thanks to a multi-dimensional snafu, with a universe mirroring BOTH their universes acting as a cool nexus. I mean, who doesn't love alternate universe stories? Roberson has a good understanding of all the characters he's writing, with small moments like Sulu being happy to see his home town of San Francisco, or Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl being kind of huggy. He also laces the comic with trivia (like the Tommy Tomorrow connection), but never in a way that will confuse readers. In fact, I think Legion fans who know nothing about Trek, or Trekkies with no knowledge of the LSH can definitely enjoy this. The art by the brothers Moy is fun and expressive with no reliance on stiff photo reference for the Trek sections. IDW and DC give you a number of choices for covers. There's the fairly standard Phil Jimenez group shot, a crazy awesome Keith Giffen action cover, and Gabriel Rodriguez' diptych above. The link he draws between Spock and Brainiac 5 is supported by the comic too, as the two characters make the same realization at the same time. Can't wait to see them actually pair up (and who else will, for that matter)!
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