Breaking All The Barriers: Reviewing ‘Star Trek’ #26

Time and space are very fun concepts. Breaking or bending them is just business as usual for most Starfleet crews. Especially when some version of the Enterprise is involved.

As Lore’s destruction wave continues its path across all of creation as television Trek meets film Trek in the dimension-hopping Star Trek #26. The next chapter in the story comes from Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Angel Hernandez, Lee Loughridge, and Clayton Cowles.

A lot of people’s feelings about the Kelvin universe, the universe of the rebooted 2010’s Star Trek trilogy of films, are complicated. Not mine.

Nope. I really enjoyed those films, flaws and all, and the way most of the actors brought some new still very Trek in nature energy to their roles. I wish we had more of them, but contracts and time have not won out in regard to that matter. At least here we get to see that crew in action, one more (or last?) time.

The way that Lanzing and Kelly play with the fabric of Trek never stops being fun. They weave together so many different eras and peoples, finding ways to make what should be opposing feeling entities feel perfectly at home together. From the quieter characters gushing over each other moments to the big bold Starfleet stands against it all devastating climax. All of it works both connective tissue wise but especially character-wise.

This is an issue that feels rapid-fire but also like a luxurious slow-burn at the same time. It allows us to dip into some feel-good character interactions and banter amidst the chaos of the impending Lore-guided wave of destruction.

No matter if it’s quiet or loud action focused, the pages have such great vivid life thanks to the continued great Trek-related work of Hernandez. There is a reason that his art travels across the current franchise of titles at IDW. So many wide-scale and personal level details, giving bold life to all things from the small to the vast. Yet, that same detail and depth can be pulled back in an instant to make sure that a moment or character beat has the full attention it needs or deserves.

Little flourishes help to make sure that the two crews and their technology feel quite different, while also feeling very similar since they are all still Starfleet. Little flares (see what I did there?) here or there sparking some light or dark differences that help the universal differences more apparent.

As always, the color choices are on point because Loughridge now knows this realm, whichever one they happen to be in at the moment, through and through. A perfect example of the mention of the differences standing out can be found in the coloring work. On the opening pages, the cold blue from the really shiny movie version Enterprise stands against the more splashy and vibrant colors of the “Prime” universe Theseus bridge and crew.

Once the crews are together, their particular lighting and color aesthetics sort of blend together to create something united. It flips back and forth at times, from the quieter to the more vibrant. Some of the room color schemes that have become standard for the Theseus depiction leak their way over to the Enterprise in the most right there but also still subtle ways.

There is a lot to be said and conveyed within this issue. Cowles continues to masterfully make it flow with all the right emotional resonance. Letting the words bounce around the page in logical controlled ways while injecting every single word with all the right tonal beats. He drops in the right modifiers at the right time to give emphasis and send particular sentences into a bigger or smaller space. There is just something to the way it’s all presented that makes sure that with every word, I’m hearing the voices of the actors who played these roles and the particular way they played the roles.

Just as it should be.

Star Trek #26 is now available from IDW Publishing.