Advance Review: Stepping Away From A Game’s Glow In `Star Trek: Resurgence’#1

Comic books based on videos games have a mixed history. And it’s not usually a good sign when the sole purpose of a comic is to gin up interest for a game. But in the case of Star Trek: Resurgence, the first part of the limited series is interesting enough to warrant further reading.

Set on a new ship – the USS Resolute – with mostly new characters, Resurgence tells the story of a stealth Starfleet mission to rescue a missing scientist. While most of the crew – a largely routine group so far – are new to the reader, Trek fans should be fascinated that the missing scientist is warp drive specialist Leah Brahams, who made a few appearances in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Brahams, first as a holodeck character and later as an actual human, helped get the Enterprise out of some jams. Now she’s in need of help from the Resolute and her crew.

Making the rescue mission more complicated is that Brahams may have been kidnapped by the territorial Talaxians, a race that readers may also recognize from Next Gen.

Writers Andrew Grant and Dan Martin have done their Trek homework, sprinkling in the right number of familiar touches along with a few Easter eggs. There’s a bit more paranoia on the Resolute than is typically seen in the utopian future the franchise is set in, though. Perhaps it’s a function of the upcoming video game, or maybe the writers were looking for more interpersonal conflict than is typically found with the crew.

Artist Josh Hood has fun with the creation of the new starship, which owes a great deal of its internal aesthetic to Next Gen’s Enterprise-D. And while most of the issue’s characters aren’t based on actors from the show, Hood does a good job making Brahams look like she did the last time we saw her on television.

This first installment is a reasonable start to the limited run. The creative team is obviously under some restrictions for where they can take the story so it will fit in with the video game. But if they can make readers care more about the characters, they have a good chance of building a series worth reading.

Star Trek: Resurgence #1 will be available for purchase tomorrow.