Saturday, June 8, 2024

Book Review: Star Trek - Picard's Academy vol. 1


Before becoming the Federation’s finest, Jean-Luc was an ordinary student at Starfleet Academy with sights on the stars. His path forward was charted: blow his classmates out of the water on the infamous Evasive Maneuvers exam and graduate early. But there’s a detail Cadet Picard hadn’t factored into his plan: the exam was a group project and he’d need to make friends with, ugh, people if he stood a chance at passing.

Federation starships aren’t run by a party of one, after all. During the training exercise, Picard accidentally puts the lives of himself and two of his classmates—Doq and Marty—in danger!

Star Trek: Picard's Academy - Commit No Mistakes will be published July 23, 2024. The creative team is Sam Maggs (writer) and Ornella Greco (artist). IDW Publishing provided an early galley for review.

This volume collects issues 1 to 6 of Star Trek: Picard's Academy. It introduces us to a young Jean Luc as he is frustrated with his progress and reluctant to work with others. While an established pattern of his youth, this is not part of the character I bonded with during the early days of The Next Generation run. So, I was a bit lukewarm to the story itself.

Add to it that the artwork is done more in an animated style, which gives the whole thing a bit of a less serious spin. Don't get me wrong - I've been a fan of animated style comic series in the past, but it just did not completely work for me for Trek. I prefer my Trek comics to have art that reflects the actors as accurately as possible.

Given all of this, I was a bit distant for this one. I am sure it will, however, resonate with the right audience.

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