DC/IDW
Creators: Mike Johnson, Angel Hernandez, Mark Roberts, Andworld Design, Chris Cerasi, Sarah Gaydos, Jim Chadwick and Michael McCalister
Release date: September 2017
This book is a sequel to Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War which brings these two franchises together.
Permanently.
You see, it begins with the end of the DC Universe. (Spoilers if you didn't read that first volume.)
The first series takes place an unspecified amount of time after the events depicted in "The Blackest Night" crossover event from DC Comics. Nekron arises once again, and having learned from his past mistakes, the first thing he does this time is take out Kyle "Ion" Rayner, the person able to harness the energies of all the rings of the emotional spectrum at once. With Rayner out of the way, everyone else seems pretty helpless to stop the embodiment of entropy from claiming much of the DCU.
In a last-ditch effort to salvage what he can, the last remaining Guardian of the Universe, Ganthet, takes six power rings — blue, violet, yellow, orange, indigo and red — and uses them to open a rift into a parallel universe. All surviving ring-bearers are also shunted into this parallel reality — Sinestro, Carol Ferris, Larfleeze, Atrocitus, Saint Walker, Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner and Killowog.
The new reality they find themselves in is the 23rd century that contains the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon and Romulan empires and the U.S.S. Enterprise — the contemporary versions from the J.J. Abrams film reboot, if that matters to you. All of the ring bearers are now stuck in this new reality.
Oh, and Nekron is there, too.
But that's the first volume of this tale, which I certainly encourage you to read. There isn't a lot of material in volume two to catch new readers up to speed. But the first volume is worth the time if you have any interest in either franchise.
This second volume picks up some time after the events in the first book, and there have been some changes in the meantime. Scotty is able to help Starfleet reverse engineer the various power rings — up to a point. Starfleet security personal now have white rings as standard issue gear — rings capable of generating personal force fields and firing phaser-like power beams. As for the original ring-slingers? They have some problems to deal with in this new reality. All of their rings were supercharged during Ganthet's shunting them off to their new reality, but even a supercharged ring eventually can run out of juice. Since no power batteries were brought with them from the DCU, none of them have a way to recharge, no matter what color of the spectrum they represent. That's where this story begins.
The various surviving DCU refugees are finding their places in this new reality. Hal and Carol now serve alongside the crew of the Enterprise. Saint Walker, Guy, John and Killowog are also working with Starfleet. Sinestro has become emperor of the Klingon empire. Larfleeze had a short alliance with the Romulans — all of Larfleeze's alliances seem to be short-lived — but in this new series, he is seeking other things to claim as his own. And Atrocitus had a brief alliance with the Gorn, but he abandons them when they prove less than useful helping him find a new way to charge his red ring.
The inclusion of all the other related Lantern characters adds to the drama of both stories, but Sinestro and Hal take center stage in this second volume. Sinestro's use of fear plays nicely against the dynamics of the Klingon empire for a time, but he's not content to simply sit and rule a portion of the universe. Meanwhile, Hal craves the importance of being out in space with the Federation's flagship crew, but he and Kirk — especially the Chris Pine version of Kirk — are so similar that they can't help but like each other any more than they can help butting heads over who's giving the orders.
I confess, the ultimate solution to the power needs of the various Lanterns' rings seems a bit of a stretch to a longtime Trek fan. A previously unknown race is discovered, one that Starfleet might have run across before if they truly existed in this reality. The introduction of another individual familiar to Trek fans also seems like a bit of a stretch here. But having pointed out both of those plot contrivances, this is still a solid, enjoyable read if you're looking for a fun adventure and are willing to simply accept a few twists at face value.
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