Star Trek Green Lantern: The Spectrum War #1
IDW Publishing/DC Comics
Written by: Mike Johnson
Art by: Angel Hernandez
Color by: Alejandro Sanchez
IDW Publishing may have the craziest crossovers in the comic book industry. Recently they have been using Star Trek as a vehicle for these awesome mash ups which include crossovers with Planet of the Apes, Doctor Who, The X-Men, Ghostbuster, GI Joe and Transformers. The biggest challenge with an unconventional crossover is trying to set in a world that makes sense for both universes participating. This is why Star Trek makes the perfect bridge for these crossovers because its mythos is centered around discovering new and uncharted galaxies. Luckly for IDW I am a sucker for a good crossover and their most recent event feels like it was made just for me.
Star Trek Green Lantern is like a childhood dream come true as Star Trek was a family staple in my house and one of my fondest memories of a child. While Green Lantern has become one of my favorite superheroes of thanks to Geoff Johns and his amazing run. So you can image my excitement when I found out these two franchises would collide in an intergalactic “Spectrum War.”
Star Trek Green Lantern #1 is a great start to a story I am really interested in seeing play out. Writer Mike Robinson gives us a first issue that is primarily set up but an intriguing one none the less. Robinson introduces us to our Star Trek cast and a rather simple explanation for the injection of the Green Lantern universe. There is little action in this issue but that shouldn’t detour you as best thing about this issues is seeing for the rings choose as hosts. Robinson does a great job of building this tension while at the same time introducing us to our villain the dangerous and ruthless General Chang (whom most Star Trek fans will be familiar with from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.)
Angel Hernandez’s art on Star Trek Green Lanterns is an intergalactic feast for the eyes as he nails like likenesses of J.J Abrams Star Trek cast as well as our villain and brings something new to the Green Lantern character designs. Every panel is full of beauty as Hernandez’s attention to detail pays off with every image. As any Green Lantern fan knows color is extremely important and while Hernandez’s pencils are picture perfect, Angel Sanchez’s colors are just what this book needed to give it the Green Lantern Stamp of approval. His bright and often blinding pallet lends itself perfectly to a book that so desperately depends on color.
Star Trek Green Lantern is by no means a perfect book and if you aren’t a fan of either of these properties you may find it dull as it requires a pretty strong familiarity with both franchises. But for Star Trek and Green Lantern fans this comic is definitely worth a look as it may be IDW’s most sensical crossover yet as these two franchises mesh so well. Also After seeing the final pages of this comic I can honestly say you will have a hard time saying no to issue 2.