Star Trek: Holo-Ween #2 is written by Chris Sequeira and published by IDW Publishing. Artwork is by Joe Eisma and colours by Charlie Kirchoff. Letters are by Clayton Cowles. Main cover art (left) is by Francesco Francavilla.
Star Trek: Holo-Ween #2 is available now, in print and on digital platforms where all good comic books are sold.
Synopsis
The exciting weekly Star Trek horror event continues through all of October! Redjac—posing as JACK THE RIPPER—has infiltrated the Enterprise-D and taken control of the holodeck, luring unsuspecting victims and feeding on their fear. Not to mention Redjac has turned Data into a monstrous incarnation of Frankenstein. With more and more crewmates falling victim, Captain Picard and his crew decide to fight fear with fear and turn themselves into classic Terran monsters to confront Redjac.
Review
“Nightmare has truly become a reality on the Enterprise” says Deanna Troi in the opening monologue of this week’s issue. The four-part horror series is unravelling over four weeks, capitalising on Halloween through the eyes of the crew of the USS Enterprise-D. With only four issues there’s little time to waste and issue #2 drops us right in to the action, picking up where last week’s issue left off.
This week there’s a lot of exposition to get through before Sequeira is able to get down to some brilliant horror action. In true Trek style, the crew of the Enterprise-D get around the conference room table to explain their way out of the problem. Much of the issue is resigned to this dialogue heavy sequence as Doctor Crusher suggests an ingenious method to try and fight back against Redjac. Using technology from Deneb III, Crusher plans on turning Troi, Captain Picard, Commander Riker and Lieutenant Worf in to classic Earth Halloween monsters. Characters who will be psychologically able to withstand Redjac’s attacks.
The explanation of their plan does test the limits of how far Sequeira can push the boundaries of Trek logic. There’s enough technobabble to keep the narrative on track but this definitely takes Star Trek: Holo-Ween in to more comedic territory. Thankfully the actual implementation of the plan, ludicrous as it may be, is what really makes this issue worth reading. As The Mummy (Troi), Wolfman (Riker), Creature from the Black Lagoon (Worf) and Hyde (Picard) enter the holodeck the book really hits its stride.
The rest of the story becomes a breeze as the classic monster play out scenarios recognisable to fans of the old Universal monster movies. It’s quite genius to see these characters playing out these fantasies in this way. It’s more heightened and melodramatic than a holodeck episode of the series and plays well in to the strengths of Joe Eisma’s artwork.
This issue, of course, looks great. The holodeck setting for the second half allows Eisma to go off-book and stray in to far more original territory. Whilst his rendering of the ship is great, it’s more fun to see him playing with these familiar characters mashing them up with the classic monster movie designs.
Verdict
A solid second issue in the four-issue, four-week series. Artist Joe Eisma’s work to mash up Star Trek with the world of Universal Monsters is worth the price of the book alone.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
