Review — Spock Takes Command In ‘Star Trek: Picard’s Academy’ #2
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
An intriguing premise – that Jean-Luc Picard needs to learn from the Vulcan Spock about being more human – drives this story. The visuals take some getting used to but are appropriate for a story aimed at a younger audience.
Overall
8/10Who would have believed that the passionate Jean-Luc Picard could act colder and more logical than Spock?
The young Jean-Luc of Star Trek: Picard’s Academy comes off as a real piece of work. He feels he must study all the time to get a leg up on his fellow students. If that means not participating in their sophomoric parties, so what? He has no intention of seeing them again. He’s planning on captaining a starship.
Ironically, it takes the alien Spock, who has spent much of his life around humans, to try to make Picard see the error of his ways. (We’ll put aside the issues with established canon in which Picard said he only met Spock once prior to mind-melding with him on Romulus.) Spock is still Spock, but he is older and wiser – the perfect teacher to Picard. If only the cadet would listen.
Writer Sam Maggs crafts an interesting story in this limited series’ second issue. Picard is still brash and generally unpleasant – a far cry from the seasoned captain fan know and love. That growing process is part of the story’s promise. And casting Spock as a guide on the journey is intriguing. Using some established history, Maggs also deftly weaves in some of Picard’s backstory to account for his attitude. While the series seems to be aimed at a younger audience, fans who have been around the Trek galaxy a few times will still get something out of it.
Artist Ornella Greco provides suitable illustrations for a book aimed at young people. The have a broad cartoonish feel but still capture the situations and characters, if not exactly the actors who have portrayed them. (Though there is one hilarious page in which the young Picard imagines a Fabio-like version of himself commanding a starship, his golden locks flowing in the wind.)
Colorist Charlie Kirchoff does a nice job of contrasting the greys of Starfleet Academy with the pinks of Picard’s hometown, which are further contrasted with the neon hues of the cadets’ party.
This is likely not the Picard readers were expecting when they picked up the book. But by the end of the series, he will be a step or two closer to the captain’s seat.
Star Trek: Picard’s Academy #2 is available for purchase today.
