Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Lost Contact #1 dives into the world of the recent series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and delivers an interesting story and concept that entertains but doesn’t quite stand out and excite.

Caleb, Genesis, Jay-Den, Kyle, and Tarima are all students of Starfleet Academy, the illustrious school responsible for the Federation’s best. One day, they dream to serve as great leaders on board ships of their own, to study the cultural intricacies of sentient life amongst the Galaxy, or to go where no person has explored before. But today, their mission is simply to execute a survey simulation on a low-oxygen, lifeless planet.

Or at least, it seems simple…until a huge storm cuts off their contact with their teachers aboard the Athena…something impossible appears: an alien. Now, they’ll have to work together and use everything they’ve learned in class about first contact to make it off the planet alive!

I haven’t watch Star Trek: Academy, so I went into the issue with a general understanding of the concept but no familiarity with the characters or specifics. You don’t need to know much, things are explained well in the beginning and the story itself is generic enough there’s no need for a deep knowledge. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Lost Contact #1 isn’t bad at all, but it also doesn’t quite deliver enough to really hook the reader.

Written by Layne Morgan, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Lost Contact #1 is a simple concept, a training mission between competing groups goes wrong. That issue is an interesting aspect and features some tension that keeps the story engaging. Where it falls a bit short is the characters themselves who do little but bicker with each other. This isn’t personalities clashing, the comic feels like it has nothing but characters sniping at each other and kvetching.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Lost Contact #1 puts forth characters who are generally not likeable. They’re grating which hurts an otherwise good concept. By the end of the comic, I was wishing for real acid rain and to end them all. It’s one thing to have two “leaders” clashing or a character whose curiosity creates danger, this is characters who do nothing but argue and feels like they don’t like each other.

The art by Coralí Espuña is good, but the comic has an issue with its colors by Nora Serrano. There’s rather odd white splotches on the characters, meant to add shading but is so different, it’s hard to not stand out. It makes the characters look like mannequins at times and it’s distracting. But, the character designs are good and the alien world is interesting. The art delivers the emptiness that the planet is supposed to convey, adding tension to the story.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Lost Contact #1 isn’t a bad start but there’s small things that add up to create a rather blah reading experience. Recent Star Trek comics highlight what could be, tension between characters but there’s more than that. Overall, this has some good ideas and tension but falls rather flat.

Story: Layne Morgan Art: Coralí Espuña
Color: Nora Serrano Letterer: Neil Uyetake
Story: 7.25 Art: 6.75 Overall: 7.0 Recommendation: Read

IDW Publishing provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

---

Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle