Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.reviews,rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: TOS Graphic Spoiler: "The Peacekeeper"
Date: 2 Aug 1993 14:27:17 GMT
Lines: 142

Appended below is the first of a series of Star Trek comics
reviews. Each review will cover a complete story arc (i.e., a
story arc published in four issues will be reviewed after
publication of the last issue). The focus will be on current
comics. If time permits and if no one complains too loudly about
the quality of these reviews, I may look at interesting
back-issues.   

Television episodes, movies, and novels are routinely
discussed in r.a.s.*. I hope that posting reviews of comics
will spark some discussion about this sector of the Star Trek
universe. If my reviews seem to be short and choppy, it's
because I've never done this before. On a good day, I'm a poor
writer, so please let me know what I can do to make these reviews
more useful or interesting.   

Star Trek Comics Review: "The Peacekeeper"
Review by Mark Martinez
============================================

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR CURRENT STAR TREK COMICS AHEAD


Publisher: DC
   Series: TOS
   Number: 49
     Date: June 1993
    Title: The Peacekeeper--Part One
   Writer: Howard Weinstein
Penciller: Rod Whigham
    Inker: Romeo Tanghal
    Cover: Rod Whigham
    Cover: Carlos Garzon
 Stardate: 8637.7
 Synopsis: In spite of Kirk's reservations, the Enterprise is
selected to take part in a protomatter weapon test. En route to
the test site, a humanoid carrying a black cat materializes
aboard Pacific, which is carrying the experimental weapon.
While the cat stands watch, her companion tampers with an
auxiliary control panel, then both dematerialize. After
witnessing a successful lab demonstration, Enterprise and
Pacific move into position for the field test. Two more
intruders materialize on Pacific, one humanoid, the other, an
alien. They also tamper with auxiliary controls and kill two
security guards before leaving. When the protomatter weapon
is fired at an asteroid, the Pacific disappears in a burst of
radiation, with Scotty, Chekov, and the weapon's designers
aboard.   

    Grade: s/vg, a/vg, c/vg

Publisher: DC
   Series: TOS
   Number: 50
     Date: July 1993
    Title: The Peacekeeper--Part Two: The Conclusion
   Writer: Howard Weinstein
Penciller: Rod Whigham
    Inker: Arne Starr
    Inker: Carlos Garzon
    Cover: Jason Palmer
 Stardate: 8639.2
 Synopsis: Spock can't account for the disappearance of
Pacific. Kirk is furious over the loss of Scotty and Chekov and
wants to shut down the Peacemaker project. Spock concludes
that the Pacific must have been transported, though no such
transport technology is known. 30,000 light years away, a
human, a Klingon, and two aliens are in command of Pacific.
After recovering from a bad transport, Scotty and Chekov are
forced to make repairs. Back on the Enterprise, Gary Seven and
Isis materialize. Seven, now a senior supervisor, explains
his mission to Kirk while Isis flirts with Spock. The Pacific's
hijackers are rebel supervisors who plan to use the
protomatter weapon against the aliens who trained them as
intervention specialists. The aliens, called the Aegis, did
away with weapons long ago and will be defenseless against the
protomatter weapon. To convince Kirk that the Enterprise must
help him, Seven takes him, along with Spock and McCoy to an Aegis
facility where thousands of years back and forth in time are
monitored. Kirk is apprehensive about the Aegis policy of
intervention but he is reminded of his own questionable
actions regarding the Prime Directive and agrees to
cooperate. Meanwhile, Scotty believes he can link the
Pacific's transporters with the time-space transporter used
by the rebel supervisors. Seven transports the Enterprise
into the vicinity of Pacific. The rebels demand surrender of
the Enterprise. Kirk refuses and demands the return of Pacific
and its crew. A battle ensues. The rebels fire the protomatter
weapon at Enterprise. Kirk evades the first salvo just as
Scotty triggers his jury-rigged transporter. The Pacific's
crew and the rebels enter the time-space transport stream and
Enterprise destroys Pacific. With Gary Seven's help, the
Enterprise locks onto the transport stream and reels everyone
in. Seven takes custody of the rebels and the Enterprise goes on
its way.  

    Grade: s/vg, a/fn, c/vf

REVIEW

I found this followup to the TOS episode featuring Gary Seven,
both entertaining and unsatisfying. Seven's time-traveling
capability is plausibly explained, as is the introduction of
non-human intervention specialists. The Trek universe is far
too human-centric (sorry if I am making up words) and although
this story barely touches on the history of other beings, it is
enough to whet my appetite for more. I think this is more likely
to happen in the comics than in other media.    


The featured Enterprise crewmembers were in character and
comfortably familiar. Kirk comes across as his usual,
holier-than-thou self (remember, this is Kirk I am writing
about) and Scotty comes through when he's needed most. Scotty
appears in one panel with a Swiss Army knife among his tools,
which, for reasons that I can't explain, seemed very
appropriate. The artwork was uniformly good throughout and
the painted cover of #50 is worthy of framing. Finally, for
those of you who might have expected Isis to appear as anything
but a cat, sorry.   


============================================
Grading Key
(adapted with tongue-in-cheek from "The Overstreet Comic Book
Price Guide" and subject to revision with little or no provocation) 


s       Story
a       Art
c       Cover art

mt      Mint: near perfect in every way
nm      Near mint: minor imperfections only
vf      Very fine: outstanding
fn      Fine: above-average with no serious defects
vg      Very good: average
gd      Good: readable
fr      Fair: ragged
pr      Poor: falls apart
na      Not applicable/available