These Were the Voyages, pt. 9: Len Wein and Mike Carlin

Today's post covers issues 34 through 47 of DC's Star Trek, v1.

34 thru 36. The Excelsior answers the distress call from the Surak that signaled the return to normalcy at the end of issue 33. When it arrives it discovers the ship racing on a collison course with the nearest star, its captain, Spock, near death, whispering cryptic phrases of “universe destroyed… must plunge into sun” and such, and its entire crew seemingly dead.

A flashback reveals the Surak came into contact with an alien virus that kills totally, instantly. Only Spock’s half-Vulcan/half-human biology, as it often does, kept him alive.

As I read on from this point I kept waiting for someone to revive the crew of the Surak. As it dawned on me that the characters I’d grown to like over their several appearances were dispatched in a single page –

and were in fact staying dead, I lost total interest in anything else going on (twists and turns with the Romulans and Admiral Stiles being sent after Kirk.) Speaking of, this happens.

Unbelievable. Bad that it happens even once (l), worse that they bring it back next issue (r).

What an unimaginative and wasteful way of wiping the slate clean prior to Star Trek IV. As I’ve mentioned several times the new characters created for Kirk’s crew (Konom, Bearclaw, Bryce, and the rest) are okay but nothing special. Whereas the Surak characters had real personalities.

That’s comics, I guess. And you know: they immediately start putting Bryce in skimpier and skimpier things, so I bet the decision was keep the sex appeal (such as it is) and ditch the others. Spock has to get back on the Enterprise, so clean slate. Still. Why not just shuffle them off somewhere? I suppose no one in comics – or Trek – stays dead, really, if anyone really wants to use them. That would be a hell of an Easter egg in any of the new Treks. If the West Wing crew can get namechecked back in VOY, why not a small memorial for Brinks, Dr. R and the rest somewhere in Lower Decks or wherever?

Next up: STAR TREK IV: THE NOVELIZATION

Told in an unsparing 9-grid-per page style, giving it a sort of Silver Age feel and pace: one part Superman, two parts other Schwartz sci-fi. It’s a good way to cover a lot of ground and pack a lot of detail onto a page. (Which makes such things kind of hard to blog up, by the by; I picked out twenty or thirty Silver Age Superman stories I wanted to cover for the blog, but the project never went anywhere because each page in those things is like diagramming a novel. Too much work for my lazy unpaid ass.)

It's mostly the same as the book but this joke is a little different:

37. Starts off with each member of the crew getting one to two pages to talk aloud to themselves and catch the reader up on how they feel at this juncture of their lives. Interspersed with this is the running journal of a rabidly anti-Genesis saboteur (later referred to as a religious zealot) who booby-traps the engines. Sulu and Morelli break up, and Lts. Arex and M’ress join the crew. Not that they have much to do.

That doesn't change until Peter David arrives. (Next post)

Guest pencils by the legendary Curt Swan, though not one of his more inspired jobs. The still above is from TAS, obviously, not Swan's handiwork. I didn't grab any pics from this one. 

38. While chasing Argon pirates, Kirk is separated from Spock amidst the Kundiawaq Ruins, where he meets Connie McQueen, a renegade from Argon Pirate Justice. Is she that, though, or an Argonian spy?

Couple notes on this one. At the beginning, the Enterprise fires back on the Argonians who have attacked them. This cutaway to the interior of the ship as they take damage is an odd choice, no? Doesn't it seem with the looks of horror and exaggerated poses that the reader is meant to feel badly for these pirates - who are only receiving returned fire for attacking the Enterprise? 

And illustrated by Adam Kubert. Without looking, this has to be one of the earlier credits in his career, no?

39. The Enterprise is seized by an unknown force and brought to an uncharted M-class planet. Kirk, Spock, Scotty, M’Ress, and Bones are brought to the surface. They meet two irritants, first this asshole:

Then Harry Mudd, who we know we were going to run into sooner or later, unfortunately, from the cover.

You said it, Captain.

40. The “I, Mudd” sequel continues. Alien intelligence that thinks it’s humanity’s mother, yadda yadda. Which at the end is put at the disposal of the Wish Upon a Star Foundation. (Was the Space Salvation Army not available? This seems horribly anachronistic.) 

Sure are a lot of these lonely intelligent energy clouds out there, just drifting through the galaxy looking to space-nurture someone. 

And that wraps up Len Wein’s run. Which I didn’t think too terribly much of, I’m afraid. Len was and is a part of comics history, all the appropriate chapeaus, and I love that he got to be part of Trek comics history twice, however slight his contributions here. The best of his first Trek-comics run, the Gold Keys, have a zany lunacy and historical value that neutralizes their less agreeable aspects. They exist at that same sideways-timeline juncture that's such a fascinating context to DC's Trek, v1, where so much of the subsequent Trekverse was unwritten at the time, so you get crazy explanations for things and other oddities. Unfortunately, at DC, I don’t think Wein’s run ever really came alive. 

And starting it off by flushing the Surak crew was a bad move. 

On to the Mike Carlin Era. Perhaps better known as editor, Carlin garnered (I should say "has garnered," as he's still kicking, but not sure how active he still is) an impressive list of credits over his decades in the industry. 

41. Bearclaw’s impudence nearly gets Scotty killed. Scotty punches him, eventually.

Okay, this is getting stupid.

For these jerks, we lost the Surak crew? This is forever going to stick in my craw. I try to remember the era, when annoyingly angry anti-heroes were sort of the norm, or something to one-up or aspire to. At least very much part of the equation, story-wise, wherever you looked. It’s kind of weird how things like Morton Downey Jr. or Marion Cobretti or 90s extreeeeeeme-ness became normalized, but the irony that once accompanied them seems not to have been. (It's hard to see irony in things like Cobra or Morton Downey, Jr. but it's there. Different topic.) Either way, who the hell cares. It was a mistake to keep these guys around at the expense of the Surak crew for this long with these awful dynamics. I mean we're years deep in the series now, and the first thing Bearclaw did in the first issue was slap Bryce, now he's doing the above to her boyfriend. This should've been taken care of by issue twelve, tops. 

42. I don’t even know what to tell you about this one, except:

That's gremlins, he's saying. In case you're not the pop-out-the-pic-to-read-the-text type. Gremlins. 

Also: is it just me or does Omega Shift look a little… non-Terran? 

Maybe it makes sense if they’re still on a diurnal Sol-3 schedule, but… I mean, are they, is that the reason?

43. 44. 45. A three-parter sequel to “The Apple”. With a little “Spock’s Brain” thrown in. And "Return to Tomorrow" even.

Makora (David Saul) has become a cult leader of the post-Vaal order. He captures the crew and selects Bryce for his harem. The former Feeder of Vaal (Akuta) has penetrated deeper into the mysteries of Vaal and even learned how to harness some of its powers. Spock, after mind-melding with Vaal, restores a status quo of sorts, and the Enterprise warps away. Kirk broods over what he hath wrought; Arex saves a sick mantor. 

That last part (not Arex but Kirk's angst) gets a lot of airtime. Way too much if you ask me, but again, I'll chalk this up to the era, when explicitly putting the subtext into words was just part of doing business.

Not bad but not particularly good, this revisit to Gamma Trianguli VI. I don't see why it had to be three issues. If they'd followed the nine-panel per page format of the movie adaptation they could have wiped it out in one with room for a couple of big splashes, even. That said, it's important to remember the era and that there weren't a million deconstructions of "The Apple" (surely one of the more popular to do so) out there to choose from. It's a sequel in spirit with both the 80s and with the 60s, if that makes any sense.

Bryce is chosen to be part of Makora's harem. Would've been more interesting had it been M'ress. Or again, any member of the Surak crew, even the John Byrne lookalike. Maybe especially him.

46. Here’s a kinda-sorta sequel to “Shore Leave” and (by way of having the now-bureaucratized grown-up Tongo Rad, sort of a commentary on the radicals of the 60s like Jerry Rubin becoming stockbrokers in the 80s) “The Way To Eden.” 

Annoying character and his whole chasing Kirk around equally so. That's Sherwood, all dolled up. They must've had some directive to put Bryce and Sherwood in sexy get-ups.

I should mention: I’m not really interested in Konom anymore or any of this to-Klingon-or-not-to-Klingon stuff, so I'm skipping it. It's left to Peter David (next and penultimate post in this series) to bring out anything from the characters to care about.

47. A Kirk-obsessed commander leads a renegade attack against the Romulans. 

Another faux-Western. I am sure there is this exact same story minus a transporter or two in an episode of The Rifleman or Gunsmoke. Hopefully with a less horribly one-note-ish antagonist.

So ends the Mike Carlin era. Happily for me – these issues are not particularly good, and they did not hit the most Trek-sensible notes. 

Here's some leftover pics to take us out. See you next time.

I see the Saratoga got someone new at the science station.