Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War #1 Review

Written by: Mike Johnson
Art by: Angel Hernandez
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 8, 2015 
Publisher: IDW Publishing 

The Crossover Event of 2015!

Being a geek is great sometimes.  The amount of worlds and characters that have been created and expanded upon by many great minds over the years is mind-boggling.  Having a strong imagination often leads to crossovers you'd love to see happen. Most of the time, they don't (see Chucky vs. Leprechaun). Sometimes, however, the geek gods smile down on us and grant us a true gift...I'd say Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War is indeed a gift. 


Being the first issue in a limited series, exposition is king. Normally, I like the first issue of a story to be filled with action, but that just wouldn't work here. Mike Johnson has to take the time to familiarize readers of both series with these characters and he does a fantastic job.  Characters like Ganthet, one of the Guardians of the Universe shows up and that gives the book a unique flavor. For long-time Green Lantern fans, you see a character you know so much about and get excited as the story unfold. For Star Trek readers, you have a mystery lying before you that the crew of the Enterprise has to solve. 

That is the one part of the book I am a little undecided on--the crew of the Enterprise. Last time we saw Star Trek cross over into another universe, it was in the IDW/Dynamite adventure Star Trek/Planet of the Apes. Given Planet of the Apes hit it's peak in the late 60's early 70's, it was only fitting to have William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy's Kirk and Spock lead the show. This time around it's the modern movie version of our favorite characters, meaning the book is filled with drawings of Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, and Simon Pegg. 

If this book was meant to cross-over with the Ryan Reynolds version of the Green Lantern I could understand this decision entirely, but seeing as Green Lantern has a storied history going all the way back to the 1940's it would have been cool to have watched the TOS gang meet up with the Green Lantern of yesteryear. 

I can't complain much, though, seeing as Green Lantern sits alongside Nightwing as one of my favorite heroes, so any exposure is good exposure...except for that movie with Ryan Reynolds; that was bullshit. 

Getting back to the book at hand, the story so far is very straight forward, with a bit of a bias towards the Star Trek gang. Hal Jordan does show up in the narrative, albeit briefly.  For the time he is featured though, he looks fantastic. 

That, my friends, is where Angel Hernandez has a chance to shine in this book. Green Lantern is drawn true to form and looks exactly how I would expect the character to look in a book by his home publisher. It's nice to see that IDW gave the character the same respect. 

As for the Star Trek characters, they are the new movie versions, but the drawings are more organic than you would expect. Some artists may look at a photo and draw what they see but it's clear from start to finish that Angel Hernandez didn't take this approach. The likenesses to the actors that play the characters are spot on, while still having a bit of that "comic book feel" I'd expect from a project like this. 

Bits and Pieces

The first issue of Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War is a time of peace during what is to become something wild, dangerous, and out of control...I hope. Mike Johnson does a great job of writing both properties in a way that feels natural to the universes while still convincing us that these two series NEED to cross paths. Angel Hernandez hits a home run giving us art worthy of the legacies these two series have left thus far, with coloring in both universes that makes them feel like home. With the bulk of the exposition out of the way its going to be exciting to see what these two throw at us next. 

8.5/10