IDW Publishing's Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War
A Graphic Novel Review
It’s been a rough week. I needed a little pick me up. Fortunately, IDW provided it for me. There’s not a whole lot that can make a geek smile wider than a mash-up of two of his favorite properties, at least when it’s well done. And I have to say that Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War is very well done. Seriously, I enjoyed it.
Now, to be fair, the Star Trek characters in the book are taken from the JJverse. Spock shows his emotions, he’s in a relationship with Uhura, etc. It’s all there. The drawings look like the actors in the JJverse and not in The Original Series. I know some fans don’t appreciate the reboot because it’s not drawn purely from ST:TOS despite the fact that the first movie clearly states the universe as an alternate reality. You are, of course entitled to your opinions and have a right to be a stick in the mud if you so choose. I won’t stop you. Probably. I mean, I could try but let’s face it, a purist is a purist of puritanical purity so I doubt that it would help.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I’ve been a Green Lantern fan since the days of the Reagan Administration. Even better, a lot of the various lantern characters are drawn either from classic GL lore or the Blackest Night storyline and I really enjoyed Blackest Night, even if I did read it so incredibly long ago that there was no Jimbo’s yet.
*GASP*
Imagine that. A world before my goofiness was made public and brought out for all to see. How much darker a world that truly was. But that’s all in the past and you all have the true privilege of surveilling my goofiness on a regular basis.
You’re welcome!
Or sumfin’
I was a bit skeptical when The Spectrum War came up in my recommendations because I wasn’t sure how well the two universes would mesh together. I mean, Star Trek has that name for a reason, and GL has always been a space faring series, at least going back to the Silver Age of Comics/Hal Jordan’s origin era but that doesn’t mean much. There’s a lot of space opera type stuff out there and not all of it mixes well.
The thing is, IDW has some pretty skilled writers. Mike Johnson wrote this and he did it in such a way that allowed him to blend the two universes seamlessly, with a perfectly believable (for spec-fic values of believable) premise. I really enjoyed seeing everything come unglued at the beginning of the story. And no, it doesn’t work with the canon of either series precisely, but this whole thing screams “alternate reality” in a way that no one character ever could.
I don’t want to get into spoilers here, so I won’t go all Hogwarts Houses on which Trek character got what ring. Down that road lies madness. That being me getting made when one of you disagrees with me. And let’s face it, no one should ever be allowed to disagree with his most terrifical Jimboness. I am great and terrible. All should like up me and des…
Whatever
I guess they mostly make sense though and one in particular had me chuckling. It was a good time. And Scotty is Scotty and does something Scotty-ish but I won’t tell you what. It was cool though.
The villain of The Spectrum War was definitely someone I was familiar with. I’m not telling you which universe he came from, but it worked to tie the thing together. Fans of the JJverse will definitely get where the villain goes and why as well. I kind of shook my head at that one, but it made sense and it works.
I always get nervous when I start talking about comic book art because I know that there is a technical vocabulary that writers have that I should use but I don’t know the language. Suffice it to say that any fan of the two series that doesn’t like the art in The Spectrum War should be kicked by alligators and then fed to donkeys. Or sumfin’. Listen, it’s beautiful. There is nothing like the black of space to show off a Federation starship or a glowing lantern, regardless of what color. The scenes that take place planet-side and on the Enterprise itself are done just as skillfully. It doesn’t get much better folks, seriously.
And there is a collection of art at the back of the book that’s incredibly epic, including one picture of Hal Jordan making a Vulcan Hand Salute construct that I’m really going to need a poster of. And it’s not like that’s all there is to the art. That’s just my favorite piece. Maybe my favorite part about reading graphic novels using my Kindle Unlimited membership is the fact that they put this stuff at the end of the book to get the extra page turns. I’m okay with that though. More, please. Seriously, when you’re a book reviewer there’s something really cool about art that you can simply look at and don’t have to decide if and how this is going to fit into a review/
I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I’ll never get a The Spectrum War movie and that makes me sad. Seeing some of these spectacular visuals on a big screen or, better yet, in IMAX would be unbelievably awesome. There is a lot here and DC owes us for the Green Lantern movie that they released back in 2012. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Guy Gardner in Superman, but I’d like to see something with Green Lanterns getting a little more screen time.
But the fact that the book will never see the big screen is my only complaint about the book. Well that and the fact that I wouldn’t go into The Spectrum War without at least a bit of knowledge about each of the two universes. This one was definitely meant for those of us who are looking forward to geek out. I’m glad I did.
Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War
IDW Publishing, 2016
Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.