Advance Review — The Enterprise Races In ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The Scorpius Run’
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
It’s a race – Star Trek style. What else do you need to know? The setup isn’t all that important anyway, and the visuals of the ships are gorgeous. So start your warp engines!
Overall
8.5/10Call it a different kind of space race in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The Scorpius Run #1.
Lost in an uncharted and stormy area of space, the USS Enterprise encounters an alien who says she can help the crew navigate to safety. That largely turns out to be true, assuming they can win the Scorpius Run – a race against other space-faring aliens. Win and they can go home. Lose, and their ship as well as their lives become forfeit.
It may not be the most innovative setup, but any opportunity to revisit Captain Christopher Pike and the pre- James Kirk Enterprise is a welcome one. And pitting the ship and crew in a race is bound to lead to a lot of fun in future issues of this limited series.
Writers Mike Johnson and Ryan Parrott have done an admirable job of capturing the crew’s voices, particularly Pike. He’s fast with the quips, but also has a commanding presence. Perhaps the greatest compliment to bestow on the two is that you can hear the Strange New World actors delivering most of these lines. Given the pair’s background in writing Trek comics in the past, that may not come as a surprise, but it is certainly welcome.
Similarly, artist Angel Hernandez does a nice job of translating the Paramount+ actors onto the printed page. Every character is recognizable, with most being spot on all of the time. (There is a curious flip-flopping of helm officer Erica Ortegas and navigator Jenn Mitchell that only true Trek fans will catch. But Hernandez corrects himself partway through the issue.)
Even more impressive are his external shots of the Enterprise and other spaceships. They take on a painted quality, with the help of colorist Nick Filardi.
A special shout out to Michael and Laura Allred, whose trippy variant cover demonstrates that the couple would be amazing doing the interiors of a Star Trek comic.
It’s a good start to this space race. Let’s hope that the creative team, like the Enterprise, can keep up the momentum.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The Scorpius Run #1 will be available for purchase today.
