Star Trek: Discovery #2 Review

Star Trek: Discovery #2 Review
Writers: Kristen Beyer and Mike Johnson
Artist: Tony Shasteen
Colorer: J.D. Mettler
Letterer: AndWorld Design
Publisher: IDW

Review by Michael Farris, Jr.

Star Trek: Discovery #2 continues the story of T’kuvma’s journey to restore glory to the Klingons by studying the teachings of Kahless, the “first true Klingon,” with hopes that he will witness the prophesied return of Kahless to unite the Klingon houses. We catch up with T’kuvma as he is completing his training at the Boreth monastery, clearly outshining all the other students. As his teachers are considering T’kuvma’s visions and what they could mean for Kahless’s return, he is summoned back home to witness the wedding of his sister J’ula, who originally inspired T’kuvma on his quest.

When he returns to Qo’noS, he struggles with competing forces pulling him away from his desire to return to Boreth to further study the teachings of Kahless. And things at home aren’t quite how he left them. Does his sister J’ula still have the same spark that motivated T’kuvma? Should he stay and complete the task that will bring back glory to his family? Do his visions signal that he is, in fact, Kahless reborn?

I have to confess that I did a little Wikipedia surfing in order to get a better context of where this Trek tale is taking place since, while I’m a big fan of the series, I’m not really in the mood to shell out $10/month to watch the newest show [insert sideways glare at CBS and their money-grubbing schemes]. However, once I got the idea of who T’kuvma’s character is within the Discovery show itself, I was all into this issue. The first half of the issue gave me Batman Begins training montage vibes with some religious “when will the prophecy be fulfilled” overtones sprinkled in. The second half of the issue presents an interesting conflict between the desire to improve oneself by leaving or improve the community by staying. And the end is a total cliff-hanger that kept me interested in what the next issue will bring.

As far as the art, I was blown away by the ornate detail that was put into a lot of the backgrounds and objects throughout T’kuvma’s world. The stunning contrast between fiery cavern and snow-blown mountains on Boreth particularly stole my attention. In fact, the background details are so well done that, oftentimes, it seems like it outshines the characters. And I don’t exactly know why, but I kind of dig that.

Verdict: 
Buy it. It’s a pretty intriguing Trek backstory so far, and I’m looking forward to the next issue. I’m sure the true and the faithful who are watching the Discovery show [insert another sideways glare at CBS] will enjoy it more, but with my quick background research to get context, this comics series so far has me interested enough to keep going. And it even has me interested enough to sign up for a free 3-day trial and splurge through the Discovery show when it’s done in February [shakes fist at CBS].