Synopsis:
The doomed Starfleet crew members, the red shirts, must track down spies on an isolated planet in this graphic novel.
Stranded on the snow-ridden planet Arkonia 89, the crew of the U.S.S. Warren has a small window in which to pin down spies seeking to steal classified secrets and keep Starfleet data out of their nefarious hands.
They face threats not only from their faceless enemies but from the brutalizing elements and wildlife of a planet far from home. In this complicated story of betrayal, loss, and redemption, the red shirts’ lives and Starfleet’s sanctity are on the line…and no one is safe.
This heartrending story by writer Christopher Cantwell (Star Trek: Defiant) and artist Megan Levens (Star Trek) marks a new beginning for the Star Trek universe, featuring Starfleet’s most intrepid and doomed crew members: red shirts. Now, finally, they get their own story.
Collects the complete miniseries Star Trek: Red Shirts #1–5.
Review:
I haven’t read a ton of graphic novels and the ones I have read I haven’t reviewed. But, when I saw the opportunity to read through a graphic novel focusing on one of the best in-show jokes from Star Trek, I jumped at the chance to read Star Trek: Red Shirts. The killer cover sold me on it and there are oodles of alternate covers and art prints inside this collection of five issues from the Red Shirts miniseries. The story art is fantastic and fits well with the story itself, which is able to stand tall all on its own in the massive universe first popularized by Gene Roddenberry back in the 1960s.
As for the story within Red Shirts, at first it feels like writer Christopher Cantwell is going for the dark humor embedded in the mythology of the show ever since it first aired — that anyone with a red shirt on an away mission will die (often in gruesome and horrific ways). Through the first half of the collected volume there are plenty of creative deaths that our fearless red shirts fall victim to, but the over-arcing story bleeds through, taking us on a fun, classic Trek tale, complete with Romulans and Klingons and a whole lot of political intrigue.
The throughline to the story is one Ensign Miller, who we are told and shown from the start that he barely survived a previous away mission, only to come away with a brutal facial scar while other officers didn’t make it. That incident informs his actions and trauma as he and 10 other “red shirt” security officers head down to the planet Arkonia 89 to figure out who is trying to steal Federation secrets. For the first half of the book, it almost turns into some scenes from Suicide Squad where we’re treated to various casualties among Star Fleet’s finest.
What I liked about Star Trek: Red Shirts is that Cantwell didn’t treat them as an absolute joke. There was definitely some dark humor in there, but Miller and his crewmates are competent, if not excellent, at their jobs. But sometimes that job calls for a little extra sacrifice that you don’t typically see from the yellow or blue shirts.
The clothing styles hints at the time period behind during the original run of the 60s TV series and Cantwell gives us a little fan service by tying in this story ever-so-slightly with characters we know and love from that time period.
The Star Trek universe is so vast with so many possibilities and I’m glad that we got Star Trek: Red Shirts. It takes a concept that we’ve poked fun at for years (including John Scalzi’s great book Redshirts) and fleshes it out with a sound concept and story that doesn’t treat the characters as a running gag.
I definitely recommend checking it out, for both the story and the great art style that feels very Trek, while also taking some liberties with alternate covers showcased throughout the graphic novel.
Thank you to IDW Publishing for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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