Now That's An Identity Crisis

Star Trek 21-23
IDW Publishing
Mike Johnson, writer
Erfan Fajar, artist

These three issues represent what is best about this ongoing comic series set in the rebooted Trek movie universe -- it's acknowledgement of what has gone before in the previous incarnation of the series without slavishly adhering to every single detail of that canon. What we get here is a rehash of the events of the original series episode "Amok Time," and yet, this is a brand new, fresh story that takes the ideas introduced in that episode and creates a brand new tapestry from them.

The story arc presented here is called "After Darkness" and is meant to follow immediately after the events of the latest Trek film, "Star Trek Into Darkness." But the arc picks up threads from both films to create a story that affects the Enterprise crew right now and also introduces a longer-term subplot that will affect the entire universe in the future.

The bulk of the issues deal with the Enterprise being sidetracked to the New Vulcan colony when Spock begins feeling the effects of Pon Farr, a Vulcan mating ritual that affects males every seven years beginning in puberty. Spock naturally assumed his human half dulled the effects of Pon Farr in his own system as he has never before dealt with the madness that accompanies the symptoms.

Instead of getting better, however, Spock seems to grow worse, losing more and more of his emotional control upon arriving at the New Vulcan colony. The crew learns that since the colony was founded, several Vulcans have fallen to the uncontrollable effects of Pon Farr and have wandered off into the wilderness of their new planet. Once gone, they are referred to as "sasaud," Vulcan for vanished. Naturally, the Enterprise crew refuses to abandon Cmdr. Spock and manages to find a solution to the new Pon Farr problem, and writer Mike Johnson does a wonderful job of making both the problem and the eventual solution seem scientifically plausible.

As for the longer term subplot introduced here for future development, after the events of "Into Darkness," Captain Kirk has been declared a public enemy of the Klingon race for his unprovoked invasion of their space. While the Klingons prepare for war with the Federation, the remnants of the mysterious Section 31 division of Starfleet from the film conspire with the Romulan Empire to hold off the Klingons. Of course, both the Section 31 members and the Romulans are already plotting to betray this fledgling alliance for their own goals.

This is a very good story that also sets in motion some future developments. In fact, my only complaint is the return of something I didn't understand the first time it surfaced in this series: the apparent common knowledge of the existence of "old Spock" in this new rebooted reality. Again, my understanding from the first film is that three people know of the existence of "old Spock": Jim Kirk, whose life "old Spock" saves; Montgomery Scott, who meets "old Spock" when he and Kirk come to the lithium cracking station Scott is stationed at; and current Spock at the end of that first film. Every time "old Spock" meets one of these three people, he cautions them about not revealing who he really is. Yet, here, for a second time in this comic series, the existence of "old Spock" is discussed generally among the crew of the Enterprise as if it is common knowledge. But then, I guess I have to let go of my belief that this is an error; "old Spock" also made a cameo appearance in "Into Darkness" and in that scene, Kirk contacts him and speaks to him openly on the bridge of the Enterprise where anyone on the bridge can overhear. I guess that must mean that the existence of "old Spock" in this universe and the fact that to him, all of this has happened before, must be common knowledge, at the very least, to those aboard the Enterprise.