Star Trek: Alien Spotlight, Vol. 2

Star Trek Graphic Novels

by Keith R.A. DeCandido, Ian Edgington, Stuart Moore

Alien Spotlight Volume 2 introduces five stand-alone stories that take you on unique and intriguing adventures, each focusing on an alien species that has come into contact - and often conflict - with the Federation of Planets!

The second volume of the series includes issues on the Tribbles, Klingons, Cardassians, Romulans and Q.

Genres: Star Trek, Comics, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Anthologies, Ebooks

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2010

Reviews

[Taaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

From extremely bad to extremely good everything is included. The artwork is off most of the time, though. Kira and Garak are unrecognizable, while Picard is only possible to recognize because of being bald. Also the Cardassian storyline reads like there is a huge part missing. As if they left out full pages of dialogue that would explain what the heck is going on. And are they jumping back and forth in time (of the plot)? It all makes no sense at all.

Also it’s a little annoying that in each of those comics violence is the main plot. War, armed robbery, deceit, ... Which is something that is becoming increasingly common within Trek comics. It’s as if IDW glorifies violence, because there are no normal expeditional or humorous comics. They never reach the heart of Trek, the optimism and the belief that mankind can mature and leave poverty and hatred behind. That’s distinctly missing from IDWs Trek comic portfolio and it shows more and more that the (mainly male!) authors either aren’t allowed to write about anything than disgusting violence, or they are simply unable to.

But nonetheless the comics about the Tribbles and about Klingons were enjoyable, the one about Q would need more fleshing out. That storyline would be fit for a whole 300 pages novel. This way it seemed too rushed, but it had potential. Only the Romulans and Cardassians disappointed completely.

[Kris43 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving this 3 stars mainly because of inconsistency.
Some parts where superb, like in 1-st volume and some where hardly good.
-The part about Romulans had ATROCIOUS artwork.
-The part about Cardasians was hard to follow.
-The part about Tribbles and the Q was awesome.

All in all, its still a good comics, but not great. Volume 1 was way better.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second graphic novel in this series. The Cardassians are the first up. This takes place after the Dominion War and includes Garak and Kira. Next up are the Klingons. The captain of the Enterprise is called Harriman. Q is up after this, thinking he can handle negotiations just as well as Picard. Nope. No chance.

The Romulans are having some kind of internal conflict. Then you have tribbles that actually think (at least a little) and finally another Romulan story, this one related to the Star Trek episode Balance of Terror, probably one of the best Star Trek episodes ever.

Again, the graphics are done very well and the stories are also pretty good.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly superior to the previous Alien Spotlight collection. The art is generally improved, although nothing surpasses the art from the Borg story from the last volume. This collection is more focused on 90s Trek in general, in comparison to the bent toward TOS in the previous entry.

The highlight of the collection for me is definitely the Tribble story that concludes the book. The idea that the little guys are always thinking about grainseed and warmhands is incredibly cute.

[Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick impressions: This is pretty much like the first volume, a collection of stories of aliens in Star Trek. Like the first volume, quality is not consistent in terms of stories and art. Some stories are very good, others so so. Art can vary too. Fans of Star Trek will likely enjoy it. If you read the first volume already, this is a nice follow up.

Full review on my blog later.

[Dan Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume was better than the first.

The Klingon story was especially good.

The Q story wasn't really anything special. It wasn't much different than any Q episode of TNG.

The Tribble story was very cute.

[Danny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Q and Tribbles stories are really the best of this bunch, Cardassian one follows up on post-DS9 novelverse. Romulans...eh.

[Elliot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good fun.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the various authors and artists did well in portraying the various alien species prominent in the Star Trek universe.

[Mikael Kuoppala · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent collection of stories concentrating on different alien cultures featured in Trek. Wonderfully insightful material with interesting glimpses into the many worlds of the lore, as well as sharply smart tales with absorbed characterization.

[John Yelverton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as good as volume one was, if not better. Great for any "Star Trek" fan regardless of which series is your favorite.

[Morbus Iff · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy any of these. Felt junkish.