In 2009, IDW saw what they felt was a hole in the Star Trek comic book library and decided to capitalize by creating their own 3-issue adaptation of the much beloved Star Trek sequel to the Motion Picture, some twenty-seven years after the movie’s initial theatrical debut. And the only question I had to ask was…
Why?
For those who don’t know, Star Trek: The Motion Picture got a comic book adaptation from Marvel Comics that kickstarted their short-lived ongoing series before they eventually lost the license. Shortly after Star Trek II’s success, DC Comics gained the comic rights and produced a bunch of stuff that included multiple Star Trek series as well as a bunch of one-offs. They also produced comic adaptations of Star Trek III through VI as well as Generations before losing the rights back to Marvel, who did an adaptation of First Contact and after that, we wouldn’t get another movie adaptation until 2009’s Star Trek came along, but that’s another story.
For some reason, DC never went back and did their take on Wrath Of Khan when they had the rights. And as it became the only Trek movie of the original crew not be graced with a comic book adaptation until 2009 when IDW took up the task and decided that the world needed a Star Trek II adaptation. So now that we know why we didn’t get a Star Trek II adaptation back in the day, the other question remains… “Why do we need this now?”
In 2009, the Star Trek feature films were readily available for purchase on DVD, VHS, or whathaveyou. Sometimes, they’ll pop up on Netflix. Comic book adaptations made some sense when home video was more of a premium or whenever you wanted to cash in on the hot new movie. Making a new comic based on the new movie made sense. Making a new comic based on a movie from thirty years ago – even if it’s a highly regarded movie – is baffling. The only reason this would exist is so that IDW can fill that missing hole in their trade paperback collection of all the movie adaptations to comic form… wait, did Nemesis or Insurrection get comic books too or is there a market for those as well.
So IDW created this series so that they can snug it in between Marvel’s Motion Picture comic (which led to a brief run of comics under Marvel before the license went to DC) and DC’s Search For Spock comic (which was slightly retooled to fit in with their ongoing series at the time). In that respect, however, what we have is a comic adaptation that not only exists solely for a particularly cynical purpose, but makes no effort in hiding that exact point.
In terms of adapting the story from film to comic, it’s a fairly paint by numbers, almost word-for-word copy-and-paste adaptation of the script to comic form. It’s not adding anything new to the story, such as restoring missing scenes or alternate takes. There’s no fleshing out story bits. Nothing that allows the story to take advantage of the comic medium and expanding things in ways you couldn’t on film. Not that I was expecting it because I’d imagine a few “picky” readers being upset at some things being changed or altered from what happened on screen, but that’s part of the charm of an adaptation. If I wanted the same thing as the movie, I’ll watch the fucking movie. Otherwise, what is even the point of all this?
Wrath Of Khan lacks soul on the page, which is the exact opposite of the film it’s adapting, which was a more livelier film that the motion picture that preceded it. Everything about the way it’s written and plotted to fit three standard comic book magazines feels like a mechanic fitting the pieces into place, but lacking the soul that made the source material fun.
Making matters worse is the art, which is not only not very good, but also so ill-fitting and out of place that it makes the work even more anachronistic. When you read these in a collected compendium, you expect some sort of flow or evolution from story to story. But when you go from one story with its clean line work to these fully painted out and at times gruesome panels before hopping back to the consistent clean art of DC’s efforts, it’s such a jarring jump that it hurts the flow immensely. I wouldn’t have minded this if the art in this newer entry were decent, but it looks like tracing screenshots one minute, random stuff in another, and melting wax models posing as the characters in question.
Fans of Star Trek movie adaptations who were in dire need of a Wrath of Khan comic to fill that hole in their collection can rest easy knowing that their prayers have been answered. Everyone else, however, need not apply to this one. Just stick with the movie. That’s still a fun time.
dtm666 