Well, we’re finally at the end of the Star Trek: Resurgence tie-in comic from IDW Publishing! The game may be coming out later this year, but the comic series has given us a great look at the U.S.S. Resolute. The prequel comic has introducing us to the ship, its crew and given us a fascinating story. But now that it’s over, how was it, and what does it tell us about the upcoming game!
Star Trek: Resurgence Issue #5 is available via Amazon.com
An Explosive Previous Issue!
Last month we saw the U.S.S. Resolute on the run from the Talarian’s utilising Dr Leah Brahm’s experimental Warp Technology. The previous issue ended on the cliffhanger of this going very wrong, dropping the Resolute out of Warp, and exploding systems near to our First Officer, Commander Sutherland.
I thought this might have been the end for Sutherland, mostly because we know he gets replaced by a new First Officer, Jara Rydek. However Sutherland does turn out to have survived the explosion, but not without injuries. It seems that his entire left eye has been burned or damaged from the blast.
This is the end
Now we may have just said that Commander Sutherland survives, and yes he survived last issue. In surviving last issue, he gets the chance to sacrifice him in a way befitting a Starfleet officer in this final issue of Star Trek: Resurgence.
The Warp Matrix has completely de-stabilised not only the warp core, but the warp core ejection system as well. Sutherland decides to go to the battle bridge, separate from the saucer, and take the engineering section away to make sure no one else dies from the critical warp core.
Battle of the One-Eyed Men
Commandant Hektar has been the primary antagonist of this entire series. He has been a very imposing villain physically, with half his face burned off, and been somewhat of a threat for our characters. However I have never really felt there was too much threat from him. This could be because for an issue and a bit they were working together, which lowered the stakes.
Hektar catches up to the Resolute and tries to take the warp core, not caring it is going critical, thinking it is just another Federation Ruse. He even fires on escape pods of the Resolute’s secondary hull. Commander Sutherland flies the engineering section at Hektar, giving him what he wants. However in doing so the warp core explodes, with both Sutherland sacrificing himself to save his ship and Hektar getting what he deserves.
I do have to say, it is somewhat nice that in this final confrontation between the two, both of them have been scarred. One of them, seemingly from War. The other from saving his crew. It does have some nice symbolism there, but I wish the comic did a little more with it, which may be a limitation of only having 5 issues.
New Frontiers
We get a couple of debriefing scenes between the various members involved in this mission. Dr Leah Brahms is chastised by the Zefram Cochrane Institute for continuing research which they shut down for being too dangerous, and turned out to be too dangerous. She is allowed to remain with the Institute.
Captain Solano hands himself in to Starfleet Command, and believes they will take his command for this whole incident and almost causing war between the Federation and Talarians. However he is ordered to remain in charge of the Resolute, and keep the incident under wraps. With the loss of its engineering section, it now needs a new one!
Five issues into this series, and I have only just realized that the engineering section in the comic is different from what we see in the game. The answer was under our noses this entire time!
Conclusion
Overall I am extremely satisfied with the Star Trek: Resurgence comic series! The character writing and story was good. The art throughout these issues has been stellar, with some amazing cover art that I would like to frame! It set us up on this adventure before the game, and changed the ship and its crew into what we would come to see in the game.
I will say from an antagonist point of view, I did not really like the Talarians. It was nice seeing Jono Endar again from The Next Generation and see how he has done in his society. The biggest disappointment however was Commandant Hektar. Hektar was a cool villain, visually. He had a cool backstory, fighting in the Dominion War. He just wasn’t as much a presence in this series as I expected and wanted him to be.
Connections to the Game
This may be the case, but regardless of how I felt the villains were, the development of the crew is what really matters in this series. Mostly because we will be seeing some of them again in the Game. Captain Solano is a cool understandable captain. Our description of Solano from the game is that he has overseen 6 months of refit on his ship, and has a lot to prove because of his last mission. This comic series was his latest mission, so it is nice to see that backstory fleshed out here!
However the biggest strength in the character work for this prequel comic, is Commander Ben Westbrook. In descriptions of him from the game, we learn he is upset he wasn’t chosen for First Officer, over the other playable character in the game. We now know he was best friends with the former first officer, and saved by him.
An of course, we see Jara Rydek at the end when Starfleet Command says that they will give the Resolute a new first officer, setting up the game, where we will be playing this new First Officer!
New Star Trek Comic Series Launching!
Resurgence may be over, but hot on its heels ‘DS9 – The Dogs of War’ launches with issue #1 of a 5-part series!
Synopsis: BORK! An extremely rare purebred corgi from Earth makes its way aboard Deep Space 9 when Quark cuts a deal to procure it for a high buyer. After all, a Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all!
But Latinum the corgi comes with unexpected cargo that shakes Captain Benjamin Sisko to the core: a Borg component discovered by a crew sent to uncover Cardassian technology after the station’s reoccupation.
Don’t miss out on this exclusive “lost episode” celebrating the 30th anniversary of the fan-favorite show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the debut comic series by acclaimed author Mike Chen (Star Wars: Brotherhood, Here and Now and Then) and Star Trek comics artist extraordinaire Angel Hernandez (Star Trek: Picard-Stargazer, Star Trek: Discovery-Adventures in the 32nd Century)!
Release Date: 5 April, 2023
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