REVIEW: ‘Star Trek: The Q Conflict’, Issue #2

Published by IDW Publishing, Star Trek: The Q Conflict #2 is written by Scott Tipton and David Tipton, pencils by David Messina, inks by Elisabetta D’Amico, colors by Alexandra Alexakis and lettered by Neil Uyetake. This amazing team continues their work placing a galactic who’s who of Star Trek characters, hero and villain alike, in an epic intra-franchise miniseries.

Issue one introduced the means that would bring all of our favorite captains and their crews together for the very first time. A conflict between reoccurring godlike beings from the Star Trek franchise, the Metrons, the Organians, Trelane, and Q, has put entire star systems at risk. After being confronted by Picard, Q challenges the mortals of Starfleet to solve the beings dispute through a competition. With each race choosing their captain as a representative, issue two has the games begin to decide the fate of the universe.

In issue one the godlike beings selected their champions: Captain Janeway for the Metrons, Captain Sisko for the Organians, Captain Kirk for Trelane, and Captain Picard for Q. Originally, I thought they would simply pit each captain against each other crew for crew, ship for ship. However, issue two opens with a pleasant twist where each of the four beings select the remainder of their team with all the available crew members draft style. With a delightful mix of crews made up of Starfleet officers spanning hundreds of years of Star Trek lore, the stage is set.

The first challenge presented to our heroes is a race to capture an ancient gateway engine once used by the Iconians. Fans of The Next Generation may remember the Iconians from the episode Contagion in season two where the crew of the Enterprise discover a long since abandoned Iconian gateway control room in one of their adventures.

The ancient race possessed technology that allowed them to travel the stars in a method much more advanced than Starfleet currently has. Q explains that the winner of this challenge will be allowed to use the gateway engine as an advantage in the upcoming challenges if they could figure out how to use it.

I am not one to spoil a reader’s fun so I will let you see which captain and their assembled team is the victor of the first of what I hope is many challenges. I will say that the decision to intermix crews the series favorites is one I am so glad they went for. Kirk with Worf, Riker with Janeway, Picard with Spock, and Sisko with Data, the writers really put personalities together that is already providing interesting dynamics that will undoubtedly lend to the success of this miniseries.

Q has mandated that the captains try their hardest to be victorious lest their planets be destroyed. This causes each of the teams to pull out of all their tricks and expertise despite their unfamiliarity with each others’ ships and themselves. This really allows the characters uniqueness to shine through as mutual respect is shown throughout the issue.

Overall, issue two delivers what I hoped for after my issue one review: quips, callbacks, quality interactions and a compelling battle of greatest minds in Star Trek. I am really unsure of the next challenges that will face our heroes next. It is obvious that they are binding their time, waiting for an opportunity to strike back against their puppeteers. Knowing Q, that won’t be so easy.

Star Trek: The Q Conflict #2 is available anywhere comics are sold.