Comic Book Review - Star Trek: First Contact [First Contact Day Exclusive]

In honor of First Contact Day, IDW has released a special digital edition comic tie-in of Star Trek: First Contact. Much like the film, this comic tie-in throws the traditional Star Trek theme out of the window for a more action-packed adventure featuring the Borg...

"When the Borg attempt to alter the history of the universe by travelling back in time to stop Earth's first encounter with alien life, it's up to Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise to stop them... if they aren't assimilated first!"

As a tie-in to the Star Trek: First Contact film this special edition comic follows the plot pretty much to the letter. There isn't any new information or scenes that you wouldn't find within the movie. The majority of the comic follows the action upon the Enterprise-E, while the odd page centres on the away team down on Earth. Its full-on action as Picard and the hapless Enterprise crew attempt to stop the Borg's attempt at altering history. 

Considering that the comic comes in at 52-pages writer, John Vornholt hasn't done too bad of a job. There is unfortunately moments where the events are glossed over, but that's regrettably what happens when you're only given a certain amount of pages to fill. The side story of Riker, Geordie and, Troi breaking the Prime Directive is condensed to about 8-pages (yes, that cringe-worthy bar scene is also included). 

When it comes to writing, John Vornholt follows the film's script to the letter. If you like me and liked Star Trek: First Contact, then this comic is a faithful recreation of the key events. To be fair you can't go wrong when you're adapting a film into a comic...

The art style is a little disjointed but serviceable. Illustrations are fairly detailed and Terry Pallot has captured the casts likeness quite well. The action comes thick and fast and is filled with plenty of cells breaking art with plenty of "zaps!" and "whoosh!". Background characters do look a little odd and on occasion there as some fantastically bad facial expressions. It wouldn't be so bad if this was a comic from 1998, but it isn't. The choice of colour is also a little weird. There is a lot of single tones used throughout which gives everything an almost drab, sterile look.

If you dislike the film then this comic isn't going to change your mind. Everything from the writing to the lacklustre colours just feels out of place within a modern comic. If the comics purposely designed that way then regrettably the decision why has blown way over my head. The only real plus is some great choreographed action scenes and the outward shots of the Enterprise-E. 

Rating 4/10

Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow Geek Culture Reviews on Twitter and Facebook @GeekCultureRev