Thursday, May 31, 2012

Star Trek/Doctor Who Crossover Event: Assimilation 2 issue 1 Review

Yesterday I popped down to my local comic shop to pick up the first issue of the new Doctor Who Star Trek: the Next Generation crossover comic: Assimilation 2.  Ever since I heard that this comic was coming out, I have been excited.  Though, I am not a huge fan of Star Trek I have always liked the idea of crossover media, and even more so with Doctor Who. 
 
The comic was released with several different covers.  They had two of them at the shop I go to, and I picked the one that I liked the best.  I try not to be a cover completest, so I go for what looks good to me.  My choices were cover a or cover b.  I chose cover b mainly because out of the two it was much more comic book like!  I like the hand drawn aspect of comic books, and have never been a fan of comics with actual photos on them. This becomes important soon.



As I opened the comic up I was shocked to find the art was not what I was hoping for.  While J.K. Woodward's art is fantastic, I just don't like this realistic style of art in comic books.  It takes me out of the action for some reason.  The images look as if Woodward found the appropriate photographs for the composition he wanted to make, traced them, and painted their tracings.  This isn't a criticism of the style, more of a personal taste.  However, I do feel it promotes an epic feel, which I feel it what they are going for with this story.

The series is written by Scott and David Tipton with Tony Lee.  And for the most part this issue focuses on the TARDIS crew.  This first issue is very much a set up for what is to come.  The reader gets a very basic idea of what is going on in the first few pages, then they are swept off on a seemingly unconnected adventure with the Doctor, Amy, and Rory.  The Characterization is pretty spot on for the characters and their voices are captured very well I think!  The Doctor is very much in character, wearing a hat that I am sure he picked up on the adventure, which he tends to do.  Rory gets to dig down and explore a little bit about his Roman days.  It really is a strength of the writing.  As the story progressed the Doctor Who bits are very spot on, but to be honest we see very little of the Star Trek universe.  I was actually glad to see a real focus on the whoniverse in this issue, but I think a little more of the Trek universe would have made it a little more accessible to trek fans!

I would say that the biggest weakness of this book is that it is, indeed, a set up for what is to come.  We get no real indication of what is going on, and it seems like the issue is more concerned with a seemingly unrelated adventure for the Doctor than the actual crossover.  We get only a few pages of some federation content near the beginning of the book, and only see the Star Trek cast on the last page, which I find to be unfortunate.  I feel that the action could have started earlier.  Now, I have to wait to get ant of the good "Explaining why your there" kind of stuff!

Over all it was a good book, but I think this is going to be better enjoyed as a complete series than as individual issues.  I feel that the art could stand to be a bit more "comic book" in nature, but I admit that is a personal opinion and that others will probably find it epic in nature.  I am looking forward to get a little more background info in the next issue and perhaps find out why the Borg and Cybermen are working together! 

I recomend this comic!  I think if you look at it for what the whole is going to be it will be a fantastic story, even id this issue was the pre-credit sequence to the series!

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