A Star Trek-themed spooky season celebration continues in Star Trek: Holo-Ween Issue #2, out now from IDW Publishing! Set in the middle of the golden era of The Next Generation, the series sees Captain Picard face off against Redjac. It’s an interesting choice for a villain, one that harkens back to the Original Series rematches from early TNG like “The Naked Now”. Thankfully so far this one’s been infinitely better, and writer Christopher Sequeira is more than up to the task.
Redjac’s now wreaking havoc aboard the USS Enterprise, feeding off the crew’s fears. It’s even turned our beloved android Data into Frankenstein’s Monster. Can Picard and his crew fight back and contain the monster horde? Will Redjac finally be defeated once and for all? Find out in this review of Star Trek: Holo-Ween #2.
WARNING – This review will discuss spoilers for Star Trek: Holo-Ween Issue #2. If you’ve not read it, you should turn back now.
Disguise Time
What better way to hide yourself amongst a crowd of monsters than to become one? Or at least disguise yourself as one. In order to rescue the crew trapped on the holodeck, the senior officers access potentially life-threatening technology to disguise themselves as classic horror monsters. It’s a cool idea, and each of the monsters actually fits the individual officer.
There are a few minor characters seen in the sickbay as well. Everyone’s likeness is translated nicely, plus the few of them that get to speak are written really really well. The odds of these characters appearing again in live-action are slim, so it’s nice to know that they live on. I was especially fond of the way that Barclay was written throughout Star Trek: Holo-Ween Issue #2, perhaps the most actively courageous he ever was before his appearances in Voyager.
The whole thing even fits canon too, because how many times did the mission away team include the captain, first officer, security chief, and counselor? It’s almost tradition on TNG to put all the senior officers in danger at once. But hey, we get to see Picard as Dr Jekyll so how bad can it really be? Although Troi as a Mummy fits her almost too well, a natural extension of her already powerful abilities.
“Intercede Now!”
With a countdown to brain injury, the team only has half an hour to save everyone. I wasn’t sure how it would go offscreen, reading at all manner of different speeds, with the exact passage of time unclear. To be fair, cutting back to an ever-decreasing amount of time is probably the best you could do. But still, I feel like it was interrupting the action in some places.
Interrupted though it may be, there’s a lot of fun action here. It’s a nice diversion from the frequent phaser fire you get in every other Trek comic. Even among other non-Trek comics, where else are you going to see a Wolf Man fight Jack the Ripper? This is nothing short of delightfully goofy. With real stakes and fully indulging in all forms of comic book silliness, the back end of Star Trek: Holo-Ween Issue #2 was an exercise in glorious excess.
The scene shared between Troi and Data was really well done too. Both of them are removed from Earth, with little knowledge of horror tropes. Seeing the two of them translated into monsters, rescuing one another was perfect. However, saving Data isn’t the entirety of the mission. Now that the senior officers all have their heads screwed on straight, they still need to contend with Redjac and a terrified mob!
Preview – Star Trek: Holo-Ween Issue #2
Conclusion
A terrified and angry mob of Redjac-controlled crew was an interesting development. There was a bit of it in Troi’s closing log, but I hope it’s something that the next issue really delves into humanity having darker monsters within them. Although they only have about 15 minutes to escape, or else the senior officers will turn into monsters forever! These are some endearingly silly stakes here, and I’m here for it. It’s a refreshing change of pace after a lot of serious comics.
Thankfully we don’t need to wait a month for the next issue, and Star Trek: Holo-Ween #3 is out just next week! I’m absolutely loving this series, and releasing it all this October is great. I only hope that the rest of the series is able to live up to this high standard, showing us all sorts of Star Trek-style horror tropes. Can’t wait to see where the rest of the series takes the beloved TNG crew.
You can pick up your own copy of Star Trek: Holo-Ween #2 out now from all good comic book stores. It’s also available to order both physically and digitally from Amazon as well as from IDW Publishing’s website. For all Star Trek news, reviews, and other lore dumps, be sure to follow the team here at Trek Central for more!
Credits – Star Trek: Holo-Ween Issue #2
Writer: Christopher Sequeira
Artist: Joe Eisma
Colorist: Charlie Kirchoff
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design & Production: Neil Uyetake
Group Editor: Heather Antos
Editorial Assistant: Vanessa Real
Coming up…
In Issue #3: The fight for the holodeck is on! The Halloween “away” team, consisting of Troi as the Mummy, Riker as the Werewolf, Picard as Mr. Hyde, and Worf as an amphibious Klingon Mkr’an are being chased by a mob of crazed, Redjac-controlled crew members. Meanwhile, Dr. Crusher and Commander La Forge monitor their crewmates’ neural outputs in a frantic attempt to keep them from entering irreversible states of psychoses and fully integrating with their monster personas.
Release Date: October 18, 2023
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