Despite the death of Admiral Marcus and the destruction of the Vengeance in “Into Darkness”, Section 31 continues their plot to incite war with the Kingon Empire by allying with the Romulans. With Kirk and the Enterprise once again caught in the middle of potential all-out war, the crew has to do everything they can to stand in the way of the disastrous conflict. For being built on such shaky ground, this continuation of the 'Star Trek' reboot franchise does a decent job at extrapolating from the film's events in a logical manner. Section 31 didn't build just one advanced ship, now they have a small fleet of small stealth ships and the Klingon's didn't ignore the escalation of aggression that took place during 'Into Darkness'. So from a plotting standpoint the new 'Star Trek' is acceptably straightforward, if missing a few gears. The Klingons believe Khan to have been operating on Kronos under the orders of Starfleet, apparently ignoring his little landing of a starship on top of San Francisco. However, it does the job of expanded canon well in making realistic connections that make it really feel like a continuation of the film's story.
However, it's not all sunshine in the writing department, as the characters utterly lack personality. If there is one thing that could be said for NuTrek, it's that it established a snappy banter between characters that drove its central energy. In the comic, everyone's lines are incredibly cookie cutter, usually characters blockily explaining their actions to each other. What could have been a pretty fun comic gets dragged down quick by the monotone delivery. This extends to the artwork as well, featuring that now expected stiff blandness of the licensed movie comic book that comes from an extensive use of production stills as photo references. Colorists Yuwono and Noor do a visibly attractive job painting the characters faces in a photorealistic style, but when the art focuses on anyone who didn't appear in the movie it noticeably declines.
Ultimately, it's not an unreadable book, and fans of the film might want to keep up with these potentially canon additions to the NuTrek continuity, but the personality deficit paralyzes the fun and prevents it from being much more than merchandise.
Score: 2/5
Writer: Mike Johnson Artist: Erfan Fajar Publisher: IDW Publishing Price: $3.99 Release Date: 10/23/13