Star Trek and Green Lantern: The Spectrum War Volume 1 Review

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Hello and welcome to the pull bag. This is episode

372 I'm of course TFU and Mike joining me is

Ryan the uneven flow Mark Lee. Hello, sir. Hello

And we are here once again It seems like I've

used Ryan most of 2019 for almost everything

Yeah He cries, but he enjoys it all at the same

time Oh boy, we gotta talk off air. No, anyway

uh... uh... now we can talk on air it's not that

bad no i'm joking and this time i don't believe

going yes where no lantern has gone before uh...

first time we've done star trek no you missed

out on that you missed out on it was the twenty

twenty it was the idw i was gonna say Back in

episode 360, Steve Megatron and I did the IDW

2020 Star Trek thing where it was like an alternate

whatever in the future, in the past or whatever

it was, the 2020 issues. But technically, if

we hadn't done that, this would have been the

first Star Trek thing on the podcast. In any

case, if anyone listening has not figured it

out at some point with my mentioning of it on

occasion, I am a gigantic Star Trek fan. On occasion,

you talk about it religiously. Pretty frequently,

but not always on the podcast. No, not always.

Just pretty frequently. Anyway, yeah. I read

the books. I have watched all the shows. I have

it all on Blu -ray. My name is in the credits

of the Deep Space Nine documentary. That's one

of them Kickstarter things, wasn't it? Indiegogo,

but yeah. Same thing. Ended up being well worthwhile.

Yeah, very cool. Um, yeah, I am a... I would

say casual trick fan at best. I'm not as obsessed

as some people are. Boo! Boo! No, I'm just kidding.

It's fine. I'm more so meaning Steve Megatron.

But, um... Oh, Steve's a lightweight compared

to me, too. No, I'm kidding. Anyway. It's one

of those things where I grew up watching TNG

and... When I eventually ended up in Kentucky

in the 90s, my dad would watch TOS on TV, on

rerun kind of things, syndication, whatever you

want to call it. And I had already watched so

much TNG from 87 to 92. So the time I was seven

to the time I was 12, when he started watching,

because my parents were divorced. So when I went

to live with my dad in 93, and he starts watching

this, I'm like. What is this show? Who are these

people? Where's the bald guy? Who are these people?

Exactly, like, what's going on here? Well, if

you want the real bald guy, you gotta watch Cisco

on DS... Oh, anyway. Okay, should I rephrase

and offend everybody? Where's the white bald

guy? I mean, it's not all that offensive. Right,

I know. It's just true with the English or the

white. Sorry, the supposed to be Frenchmen, but

they made them English. So if you ever want to

laugh, track down these instances of Patrick

Stewart talking about how originally he was going

to be French. And it just, oof, it was not going

to work well. Thank God they didn't do that.

Thank God they did not, you know. Having somebody

pretend to be different ethnicity or upbringing

or accent, et cetera, et cetera, not gonna go

well on a series that's gonna run seven years

and have multiple films. It's hard to keep it

up. There's one person I can think of that's

more for film than anything else, and he only

got four films, sadly. He didn't get five. uh...

and that's uh... pierce brosnan who is i believe

irish he played James Bond obviously in the nineties

uh... but yeah Star Trek Green Lantern uh...

again you and I kind of have a similar background

when it comes to some of these things Green Lantern

I mainly know animation stuff like Jon Stewart

yeah that's how I started out too so it's always

weird to me when you start reading the comics

and Hal or Kyle are frequently the focus because

yeah growing up I wasn't into comics until later

on until into the 90s and even then I think I

only started really reading like Green Lantern

that kind of thing in the early 2000s right and

yeah it's so yeah John it was my Exposure to

Green Lantern John and you know, Phil Lamar and

it's just the insanely great job he did So yeah,

it's always it's always been jarring to me that

yeah as soon as I read a comic Al is usually

Well ever since Jeff Jones brought him back how

has been the focus? But of course it was Kyle

before then and John's just kind of around It's

unfortunate because the show Really proved what

you can do with the character and that he could

be really interesting. Yeah Yeah, but yeah, thanks

I know the Green Lantern core know the different

colors of the lanterns Although in this one we

get the black and white most notably from blackest

night. Yeah So this is Star Trek Green Lantern

Volume 1 The Spectrum War. This is from IDW Publishing

and DC Comics, because... And it's the Abramsverse

Trek, too. I should mention that. Yep. Which...

I really enjoyed 2009 Trek. Not so much Into

Darkness, and then I do actually... Quite like

Beyond, it's not perfect, but it's more Star

Trek than the other ones were. And I like that,

and there's definitely a lot of things to like

about it. So anyway, I have no issues with this

being that universe. If anything, I think it

actually helps it work better? Yeah, because

basically the story here is just to not really

summarize, not to take your summation away here,

but it's one of those things where Necron...

Destroy it essentially is destroying the DC universe.

This is back in the new 52 day This is this is

originally published like July of 2015 folks.

So this comic is four years old at this point

It should be noted blackest night. Not a new

52. That was original Yeah, that was originally

events of way back when but yeah, this is all

yeah because The way it works is, this is all

alternate universe for everybody, though. You

know, this is the alternate Star Trek universe.

So it's also an alternate universe for all the

Green Lantern Corps, because they... Long story

short, the Enterprise discovers Garnet, one of

the prime leaders of the Green Lanterns. One

of the Guardians, yep. Yeah, Guardians. Geez,

brain freeze. While your brain is freezing, let

me get this out of the way. Written by Mike Johnson.

Art by Angel Hernandez. Colors by Alejandro Sanchez.

And the letters are done by Neil Yucate. Series

edits by IDW. For IDW, it's Sarah Gaydos. And

for DC, it's Jim Chadwick. Interesting to note

on this how old this is. Publisher listed on

this, Ted Adams, who is no longer the publisher

at IDW. That was a while ago now. Yep. They've

been through a couple. They've been through.

It's a revolving door, sadly, and we don't. Which

sucks, yeah. We don't talk about that. We don't

talk, yeah, an awful lot about the behind the

scenes or what's going on with the company or

anything like that. And I don't want to get into

it, but man, they're a good company. They're

an amazing company that has had a lot, a lot

of things going on. over the years since we started

this show, since we started doing coverage. And

a lot of bad luck. And a lot of really, really,

really, really, really, really, really bad decisions.

Yes. That have led them to the point they're

at now. Anyway. So yeah. So back to it. Yeah,

the Enterprise discovers, one of the Guardians

discovers the rings. They accidentally activate

the rings while scanning them. Slash Scotty using

tacky on tacky ons do everything in the friggin

Star Trek universe. I swear They're used for

time travel. They're used anyway, but Yeah, because

of this the rings activates and we get to see

a number of different characters within the Star

Trek universe Longtime Trek fans will be surprised

slash excited by The Abrams verse version of

General Chang Chang, of course played by Christopher

Plummer Famously in Star Trek 6 the undiscovered

country great great movie great performance really

good character Happy to see his presence here.

Although little sad that you know, he kind of

Kind of kicks it at the end. Well alert, but

With so yeah in the end we get new lanterns in

the Star Trek universe, combining with the lanterns

we know and love or loathe from the DC universe.

The only, like, hell I can take or leave. I have

no real issue with hell, Jordan, whatsoever.

Or would I more so have an issue? I have the

bad guys as the loathe, anyway. Oh, okay, well,

there's that. But, like, we all have our favorite

Green Lanterns or Lantern Corps characters. Yes.

I'll freely admit that Hal is not my top. My

top two lanterns are John and Kyle. Hal is a

close third and Guy Gardner is just like... I

never liked Guy. I liked all of the other green

lanterns. I don't get the love that Guy gets.

We get to do an episode on that. We can do an

episode on that. Why does... why do people like

love and or hate guy gardener yeah i i don't

know i think he's too brash and it's weird there

are characters like him that are lovable that

i prefer more like booster is a great example

of it booster gold is a brash very much kind

of douchebaggy but It's enjoyable, but there's

a character crossover No one really wants guy

Gardner and booster gold doing something because

two annoying characters do not make them not

annoying anymore I don't know what it is. I guess

maybe his boosters got a bit of a heart on them

Like when the chips are down, he does the right

thing guy usually just continues being douchebag.

Anyway getting way So yeah, we get to see a team

up between the different lanterns and our Trek

characters. Notably and probably smartly, they

don't give Captain Kirk a ring. Not yet. No,

not in this volume. So the Enterprise crew that

get them initially are Chekov, Bones, Dr. McCoy

for anyone who's not. Everybody should know Dr.

McCoy, my favorite original series character.

Anyway, Ohura. and eventually Sulu, but of course

Sulu's is constructed by Scotty who figures out

he can use the replicator to replicate a very

basic ring. So long story short, the bad rings,

I don't know what to call them, the rings that

are traditionally evil end up on track enemies.

So Chang gets the Sinestro core's yellow ring.

Yep, and immediately wants to go to war with

the Federation of actually first he becomes Emperor

then he decides to go to war with the Federation

a Romulan senator gets an orange ring also goes

to war Federation and the red ring for hate goes

directly to a gorn Which interesting choice actually

good choice. I should say too. Yep, and other

trade that ox damn it atrocious Atrocitus. Atrocitus.

There you go. Jeez. I don't know why. I always

had trouble with that. Anyway, teaches him, and

surprise, surprise, he goes out and attacks the

USS Constellation, and guess what? Wants war

with the Federation. Federation not real popular

in... Apparently not. In any case, though, they

end up having to band together when it's discovered

that Necron also followed the Lanterns to this

universe. That's pretty much it I got for the

plot summary, but the other thing though that

so Johnson shows a good understanding of Trek

and the Lantern universe yeah, I was really impressed

with that because if you're gonna combine them

and Not have it as to be blunt a soulless cash

-in. That's just meant to ride the coattails

of the names of both of them Yeah, you could

do that, but he didn't and So necron's plan initially

involves reviving vulcan, which of course was

destroyed in 2009 star trek. Yes And it was really

smart. I was impressed with that and we even

get you know spock's mother at point two and

just He clearly actually knows the universe and

watched it and he knows both universes tubes.

Like I say used general Chang from Star Trek

6 yep It's fun Yeah, it's very fun. I was not

sure going in like I've had these books since

the trades came out Numbered I think the trades

came out in 2016 and 2017 for each because there's

two volumes of this But we're just talking about

volume one for now Next week will be volume two

if somebody couldn't get around to read. Oh shit.

It's me Mm -hmm, so it's You know going in I

had no preconceived notions. Yes. I saw the covers.

Yes. I knew it was Abrams verse I like the Abrams

verse you're right Everybody is right into darkness

is the weakest of the three films if not potentially

the worst Star Trek film. Potentially worst.

Potentially worst. That's a show for another

day. We've got a few down. I love Star Trek,

but oh boy, there are a lot of bad Star Trek

movies and shows. Anyway. Final frontier. But

what I love, like you said, is how Mike Johnson

basically seems to love both of these franchises.

I don't know how you know I mean I know like

sometimes writers will pitch something to to

a comic company or something I don't know if

this was given to him or if they said hey do

you want you know like I don't know if this is

what I mean when I say given to him I don't know

if this is like Lou Shimer way back in the 80s

days for filmation writers here uh Robie Gorin

you write this here uh Larry DiTullio you write

this I don't think that was that way back then

either, but I don't know. But I love how we get

the reveal of Hal at the end of the first issue.

My ship. Why is my friend's skeleton on board?

I think that is super cool. I love the art in

this. The lines and the colors. The colors pop

so much. And you have to have an artist that

can work with not only the Star Trek stuff, but

the Lantern stuff and... Oh my god, it works

so well. If you said any franchise crossing over

the Green Lanterns and tried to tell me Star

Trek, I'm like, how's that gonna work? Especially

if it was the regular universe, not the Abrams

-verse, if it was the TOS, TNG kind of thing,

and I'm like, hmm, I don't know, but this works,

because to me, they're all very, very young kind

of people and whatever. it's one of the things

I mentioned too when we did Star Wars is space

scenes and spaceships seem to be really hard

to draw and holy cow is it all fantastically

done in this the enterprise never looked so good

oh yeah this is some of the it's some of the

best Shrek art I've seen and there is quite a

bit of Good trek arts as well from the comics

over all the years from Marvel owning it to DC

to man Actually, is there any company that hasn't

owned the trek license at some point? I should

look that up one of these days anyway But yeah,

this is really well done and you're right the

coloring is it just fantastic Did you catch the

flash reference in this? No, okay, so It's at

the close to the middle of the second issue When

they're being attacked when the red ring finds

its its bearer and Hal says felt another shock

the red rings found a home He's going up against

somebody breathing fire at him and his ring protrudes

this green Police thing. It's his property of

CCPD. Oh, yes the shield. Yep I'm like I had

to look at that really really closely at least

apart Yeah, there was that and then it took me

a second to realize When how makes his own sort

of outline around the enterprise and gives it

the NCC number? It's the number of one for yeah,

it's his Yep section or his sector. Yeah, there

we go It took me a second to realize that just

because I'm man i'm so used to looking at a starship

and it's always 1701 or... oh i got so confused

i think i think it's this issue this trade or

it might be the next one at one point there's

a different ship a different enterprise and it's

1017 i'm like wait a minute did they screw that

up right yeah it's the constellation but i'm

like wait a minute did they screw that up what's

going on there poor USS Constellation gets destroyed

in every universe at some point stars have to

fall I don't know I would just stop naming ships

that at this point anyway yeah this is if you're

a fan of either it's a must read should read

it's fantastic it is absolutely fantastic and

it is so much fun and that's something we talk

about by the way a lot is like there's not as

many fun comics Yeah, it's getting better again,

and here's the thing like I know our good buddy

Optimus solo He's not a flight. He flat -out

refuses comic crossovers or crossovers in general

like what in what in what world do those universes

kind of crossover? every crossover I've read

Since before he even said that or even after

now. I'm like hey that like rereading this Oh,

it makes sense. Gant that enacted Last Light,

and Last Light allowed him to jump universes

or, you know, whatever kind of thing, and it

made sense of how the Lanterns and their enemies

got to the Star Trek universe. What really kills

me with this is seeing Chekov, because... Yeah,

Anton Yelchin, of course. In the process, the

real -life actor of that character from the Abrams

verse died. So that's... Yeah, so it's... Part

of it, too, is the art on this is brilliant.

The likenesses are perfect. You can easily tell

which character is which, A and B, which actor

portrayed them. And Hernandez does just an outstanding

job with it. And yeah, it's kind of Yeah, it

is really sad. I can hear his voice in my head

every time he says captain Yeah, he does it in

that specific way that he always does because

of with his accent and I can give it Yeah, I

can always hear his voice and my I've only read

this once for this ish for this recording I have

not read this this trade these this crossover

before so this is the first but just reading

it aloud not aloud but you know just reading

it and hearing the voice in my head I'm like

oh wow yeah he's no longer with us sadly I love

the battles I love again the art and how each

of them is done from Atrocitus, to Sinestro,

to Larflees. I mean, you know, all of the evil

Lantern characters, all of the good Lantern characters,

and how they have others inhabit the rings that

are the Star Trek characters, that was genius

how they did that. Well, the whole thing too,

you mentioned that, you know, Kevin doesn't like

crossovers. This is perfectly well done by somebody

who understands how both universes work as a

way to get around the whole, well, you know,

is this in continuity? First of all, by the way,

things don't have to be in continuity. If you're

going to do something fun, just do it. Yeah.

I got over that. You know, I can't remember when

I kind of got over that. I used to be one of

the real sticklers for continuity in. Everything

especially comics. I don't remember what year.

I just kind of decided hey, you know what if

it's good and it's fun who cares? When it's set

it was probably reading all the old x -men and

getting a heart a headache from Yeah, trying

to hey Wolverine's in 12 places at once how can

it be or all the other things that used to happen?

But yeah Wolverine's in space while also on earth

while also but If it's well done, and it's fun,

I don't think it matters. But having said that,

he did it in a way that it all made sense, and

it could have actually happened, that sort of

thing. And yeah, you're right about the crossovers

too. Lately, there have been some good ones in

things that I don't know... I don't know if you

had told me that Batman and the Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles... Would be a really fun enjoyable

read animated film read again Yep, in the injustice

games and it would all work really well and be

a lot of fun I don't know if I would have agreed

with that, but I would have been wrong if I said

no It's been a good batch of And it should be

another crossover But this was with Marvel The

Avengers, uh, Transformers crossover, which,

oof, that was not so good. When did they do that?

In, uh, the IDW Transformers 1 universe. We'll

have to talk about that sometime. Oh lord, I,

I have never, I don't think I've ever heard about

this. Oh wow. Yeah, no, it was a miniseries set

during the Shun series of events early on. Oh,

that's, that's why. It was early on, it wasn't

the good. Yeah, it wasn't when things got really,

anyway. But this is the good stuff. As a Trek

fan, this is a blast. As a Green Lantern fan,

this is a blast. When you put them all together,

it is just pure fun. Pick it up if you're a fan

of either universe, and if you're a fan of both,

you should already have this. Yep, absolutely.

And throughout this, and once they figure out

the ring technology and whatever else, Scotty

spends his time trying to figure out how he can

adapt the ring technology to replicate it, to

use, have personal force fields and phasers.

So you don't actually have to have, like, he

basically figured out the Starfleet version of

the iPhone or something that combines, you know,

Walkman and this, that, and the other thing all

into one thing with all this. So I thought that

was cool. I just think this is really, really

fun and that's what it's meant for and that's

what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to bring

two universes you love together for a fun adventure

that has, you know, all the high stakes you could

want. It has all the comedy bits. Like the very

first thing when Gant that gets on board, you

know... What does Bone say? Bone says what he

always says. He's dead, Jim. I mean, you know,

that's just the way it is and the way it always

will be kind of a thing. I love the space battles

between Sinestro and Hal. I think those are really

done. Again, the art is just something amazing.

There is one art page here, and I actually screencapped

this and threw it on the pullbag Facebook page.

It's close to the end where Sinestro is doing

his monologue. And in return, I'll show you the

worst fears. A ship and its crew destroyed thanks

to your pride. It's got all of the main Trek

people. It's got Kirk, Chekov, Sulu, Bones, Scotty,

and Spock. You go to a wide -out shot of it.

It's all of them on each side of Sinestro's glowing

yellow eyes. Like, wow. That's an amazing page

Yep, and I said before everybody looks You know,

we've talked about this a few times. It's got

to be really difficult when you have real human

people to draw But everybody in this on it pretty

much on really every page just looks perfectly

like their actor likeness Yep They do And even

when the other lanterns show up, you know, John,

Guy, Killawog, they all look like their classic

looks. You know, they all go in to help. I feel

like Killawog might be my third favorite lantern,

actually, with Hal at four. Yeah. That's tough.

Killawog's fun, too. I like him. Yeah, he is.

He's no pooser. Yeah, Kyle's great. I wish he

was in the animated series or animated shows

more. Yeah, he was only really in Superman. the

animated series for like one episode and then

and then really briefly during the sort of time

stuff where Green Lantern actually like changed

to different incarnations of the character in

Justice League yeah which was by the way that

was great there was one I think it's Young Justice

when it's John and Hal and they're looking for

other green lanterns and somebody said wasn't

there a another green lantern on earth guy something

and john and hell both turn and go no no alan

scott's the other green lantern on earth right

no guy don't know what you're talking about okay

yeah yeah anyway rating yeah rating uh i gotta

give it a five This is just so much fun like

it's not you know said this before I'll say it

again not everything needs to be watchmen held

blackest night Just kind of loosely based around

Yeah, it can just be an enjoyable read yeah,

and the characters from both universes look good

up against each other like there's covers of

You know there's a cover With Kirk and Jordan

next to each other that is done by Tony Shastain

I'm looking in the cover gallery now on the trade

here There's one that's really cool. It's Kirk

Spock and Uhura Coming out of the Green Lantern

battery with Hal flying next to them and all

the villains in the background. That's very cool

It's just again super fun I don't know how much

of the IDW Star Trek stuff we're gonna do in

the future. I know Steve and I are gonna do Mirror

Broken at some point. Actually, I think that's

episode 374. And obviously, if we can figure

out the time, you and I and Steve will do Star

Trek Transformers, which is the two animated

series going head -to -head from IDW. But yeah,

I mean, for this, Star Trek Green Lantern Volume

1, absolutely loved it. Thought it was great.

Five all around. Wasn't anything that took me

out of the story. Wasn't anything that I looked

at that was like, huh? I think the only negative

you found was that they mispronounced or misspelled

the... Yeah, they're going to say the Klingon

home world wrong, but like you have to do. Yeah.

That's just one thing. Like I said, I'm not a

stickler. Hell, you could say that like maybe

in the JJ verse it was named or slash spelled

differently. Who cares? Yeah, could be. Anything

else you want to say about this before we get

the heck out of here? Nope. Alright folks, join

us next time for Star Trek Green Lantern Vol.

2, Stranger Worlds. And make your great escape

into comics, we will catch you next time. I'm

at Nightbeat on Twitter. Yes, he is at Nightbeat

on Twitter, I forgot that. I forget a lot of

things these days, folks. I'm at TF2 and Mike

as well. Still make your great escape into comics.

Yes, always do that. You've just heard the latest

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So until next time, make your great escape into

comics and unleash the geek in you. The Enterprise

show me the bridge of the Enterprise yet shattered

and piece of There have been five Federation

ships with that name, please specify by registry

number NCC 1701 no bloody a B C or D Program

complete enter when ready