STAR TREK: GODSHOCK - graphic novel

Captain Benjamin Sisko (of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series) has returned from his three year  entrapment in a different dimension with the mysterious 'Prophets'.  And with his return come some god-like powers. He's now commanding the U.S.S. Theseus with a crew of mostly familiar set of faces: 
 Data, Beverly Crusher, Tom Paris, Worf, Lilly Sato, and even Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, as well as his son, Jake. But what good are god-like powers if they fail you when you need them most?

Someone is killing gods in the most remote parts of deep space and Sisko and his crew are tasked with uncovering the root of the matter and stopping the perpetrators. But what should be a slam-dunk for someone who is omnipotent becomes dangerous and potentially deadly. Sisko will need all the combined abilities of his team to survive.

It's been awhile since I've read a new Star Trek graphic novel and I was excited to get into this. While I initially had some doubt about the pulling together of these different crew members from the different television series', I actually found it to be a bit fun. Still, despite how much I like Scotty and the original series, his inclusion here just didn't feel right (yes, I understand he's now in this era).

I do wonder if I've missed something with Sisko.  Is there another book or series detailing Sisko's abilities that I missed or don't remember?  What is the purpose of giving him his own god-like powers just to take them away in this series?

I found the story to be just a bit tedious.  I think this is systemic to graphic novels that are put together from a regular comic book series, as opposed to a graphic novel written as a novel.  When writing for a monthly (or bi-monthly, or quarterly, etc) series there's a certain amount of reminders about what's come before. It's great when reading on a regular, delayed basis, but definitely slows things down when reading as a novel.

What works well is the contrasting story themes.  On the one hand we have gods and godlike powers with battles and threats abundant.  But the heart of the story is about humanity and the simple will of what's important to humans ... family and those close to us.

The artwork is decent but inconsistent. On one page we might get some really well-drawn characters (these are mostly very familiar figures to us all) and then the next page will feature the same characters but if not for an identifying feature (skin color, hair color, uniform, etc) we might otherwise not know who the characters are. This can sometimes be a real problem and since this is a graphic novel, where the art is part of the story, this definitely loses some points for me.

Looking for a good book? Star Trek: Godshock is a graphic novel assembling a variety of familiar Star Trek universe characters and putting them together to take on unknown dangers. Star Trek fans should enjoy it but non-Trek fans won't find much of interest.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

Star Trek: Godshock

authors: Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing

artists: Ramon Rosanas, Oleg Chudakov, Joe Eisma, Erik Tamayo

publisher: IDW

ISBN: 9781684059904

paperback, 192 pages

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