Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

The Comic Prequel to the Hit Movie

By Carl Lawrence

Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 Stars

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

The four books of Star Trek: Countdown are more like Chapters in this Comic Book prequel to the latest movie. There is information contained therein that people who have seen the movie would benefit from knowing although most are probably not already aware of these things.

First off though, I should say that the Art work is for the most part very good, and it is indeed a true prequel to the movie that should be viewed and regarded as canon material. This commentary about it will contain major Spoilers however, so if you would prefer to read this comic book series on your own rather than having portions of it revealed to you here, then I would advise you to stop reading at this point.

Relevant precursors that also tie into the film:

–The markings on Nero’s forehead are there because it’s a Romulan tradition memorializing loss; he does this to commemorate the death of his wife, unborn child and planet. (Interesting that we’ve never seen this cultural custom before concerning the Romulans, but that’s the reason for his tattoos.)

–Nero’s mining ship is retrofitted with Borg technology, which the Romulans integrated with their own. This happens at a highly secret Romulan military station meant for high ranking officials following a major disaster, which in this case was the destruction of Romulus.

–Spock’s ship (the “Jellyfish”) is a prototype that was also originally designed by Geordi La Forge. (FYI – In this Comic, Data Captains the Enterprise E; Picard is an Ambassador, and Worf is an officer in commission with the Klingon Empire.) The Vulcans also modify the Jellyfish as per Spock’s instructions.

–The red matter that Nero uses to destroy planets is actually a highly classified Vulcan scientific and military secret that initially they refuse to share with Spock and Nero out of concern for what the Romulans might do with it once the Hobus star problem gets resolved. Spock has also fallen out of favor with Vulcan High Command as a result of his many years working as a diplomat on Romulus, and the Vulcans now find it difficult to trust him for that reason.

These next comments are more my own personal observations, but there’s a glaring problem with the overall premise of the story, which the movie also indicates and therefore suffers from too as a result: it is clearly indicated that the Hobus star going supernova affects not just Romulus directly, but also the planets Vulcan and Earth as well. This is too far-reaching in scope and not consistent with the universe we know. Vulcan should be too far away and therefore not affected, and the same goes for Earth. Yet the story ties them all together in terms of the dire consequences of the star going supernova despite the enormous distances that there should be between these planets and their surrounding galaxies.

Furthermore, it’s a little difficult to accept that in this era of highly advanced technology that the Romulans are unable to determine what will soon happen to the Hobus star; Spock warns them, but they refuse to believe him, and one would think that their instruments would confirm Spock’s findings, and it’s basically a major crisis that could have been averted had they just listened to him and studied the star carefully for themselves in the first place.

This four-book series reaches its climax as Worf is severely injured in the final book/chapter and his fate is left in question at the end. Indeed, after being impaled the way he is on the Narada, it seems incredibly unlikely that he would be able to survive. (Nero pulls the same stunt with Worf that we see him pull with the Captain of the Kelvin in the movie, and then later with Pike too, by ordering him to shuttle over to the Narada following a battle in which Worf and his ship and Fleet end up basically at Nero’s mercy.)

However, aside from Worf’s fate hanging in the balance once all is said and done, Picard and Data, et al, and their timeline, appears to remain intact following Nero and Spock being sucked into the black hole at the end of the story, which, given the extent of dramatic changes that take place in the film, seems highly unlikely. We know, for example, that Vulcan has not previously been destroyed in Kirk’s era, as happens in the movie, so one wonders how Orci and Kurtzman would justify this, or if they have any interest whatsoever in caring to do so. They have stated in interviews, along with Leonard Nimoy, that what happens in the movie takes place in an alternate universe even though the movie doesn’t bear it out as Uhura’s use of the term “alternate reality” on the bridge of the Enterprise about midway through the film is not really enough to establish that it’s not the original prime timeline that has been altered as a result of Nero’s actions.

This Comic Prequel is an enjoyable addition to the film that otherwise fits nicely alongside it as a companion piece, but the references to the Hobus star going supernova as affecting both Vulcan and Earth are misguided and never would have passed muster to make its way into a screenplay or teleplay. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who share story credit and gave final approval to this four-book series before it went to publication should have changed that aspect of the story, but otherwise, it’s a fun read.

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