***THIS REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON THE NERD BLITZ PATREON***
Star Trek IV is easily one of my top five favorite Trek Movies or Episodes.
Fittingly, the fish out of water humor just fuckin’ sings, the story is incredible and sci-fi gold.
I think it should go without saying then that when good ol Fitty man presented me with this here book to review, my dingle was atingle…to put it mildly…
So, buckle the fuck up, gang, cause we are going to the 80s!
As is the usual with my fancy pant reviews, this is your official ***SPOILER ALERT***
Cover by Howard Chaykin: Um, okay, this is a wee bit weird cause, uh, this is…it’s hard to explain this one, gang.
Howard Chaykin is credited with “painting” this cover…but, uh, this isn’t a fuckin’ painting…
Okay, overall, I think I like it, it looks like a cool promo image, let me just make that clear.
But the credit on it is just plain fucked up because it looks like a mishmash of shit and no where near a painting.
I mean, I think it’s pretty goddamn clear the pictures of Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and Sulu are shots of Shatner, Nimoy, Takei, and Nichols with drawnings over the actors actual faces.
It seems like somebody was scrapbooking and put a collage together, drew new faces to avoid likeness rights, and sent it to the printer.
I don’t see much painting going on either, just a lot of meshing images together.
This cover looks like the 80s equivalent of an Instagram post, it’s all fake, manipulated, and filtered to the point of exhaustion.
Frankly, a movie poster or an actual promo image would probably work better though.
Art by Tom Sutton & Ricardo Villagran: I’d say it’s pretty standard 80s fare, and the further we get from art like this the more I appreciate it.
Digital art is still a few years off, so this has that hands-on warmth I always talk about with old comics and animation.
And as sloppy as it could be at times, I genuinely do miss it.
I would trade digital art and go back to this in a heartbeat.
Written by Mike W. Barr: After reviving Spock, Kirk and crew take the Klingon ship and head back to earth to face the music.
As they’re heading back, a deep space probe has arrived on earth seeking to communicate with now extinct whales.
The probe can’t make contact and it’s message is causing all electronic equipment to malfunction, causing Kirk and his crew to have to go back in time, retrieve a few whales, and save the entire planet!
The story is the same as the movie, but a bit more streamlined.
For instance, the great character beat of Sulu discovering the helicopter, one of my personal favorite moments, is sadly absent.
Also missing would be some of the more notable jokes, like both beats of Bones meeting the old lady with kidney issues.
And that sucks, but it’s still a fairly good adaptation.
Which is actually kind of surprising to me, because this is only a 64 page comic.
I mean sure, this movie and its story aren’t super complex or complicated, I understand that, but it’s still a 2 hour movie.
I can think of a lot of uncomplicated movies that get adaptations that run for multiple issues and total up to more than 64 pages and leave out shit tons more than a 2 beat joke about a 23rd century doctor giving an old lady a pill that grows a new kidney.
That is fuckin’ impressive, man!
All in all, it’s a great book.
It’s interesting to read it all in 1 go and ponder why they didn’t try and gild the lily and do 3+ issues like everybody else seems to.
I definitely prefer it all in 1 chunk, but it’s curious that it wasn’t broken up over a few months.
Nothing major is missing but, as a giant fan of this specific movie, I do notice the things that are.
I feel like with just 5-10 more pages we could have gotten it all back in, but it’s definitely good as is.
It does leave me to wonder how the other Star Trek movie comics shake out in that regard now though.
Bottom line, if you dig the movie there is absolutely no reason to not check this out if you get the chance.
It will satisfy the itch to rewatch the movie if you have it, and consuming it in a different medium may actually scratch the itch in a new way.
Because that’s the thing that I love about these types of comics and movie novels, taking the chance to experience a familiar story in a new way adds an awesome new perspective.
And who doesn’t want that for something they love?
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Until next time, stay safe out there, gang.
