Martin Pasko writes the heck out of this comic book. He’s got a really complicated plot and it makes for a fantastic, lengthy read. Pasko doesn’t just come up with a great reveal for the aliens, he’s also got the really cool subplots going. He runs two subplots through the comic, resolving one and then introducing the next. And those run under this intriguing main plot.
It shows why, for once, a licensed property comic can excel. The comic only works because it’s a Star Trek comic yet Pasko so profoundly transcends the norm in plotting ability, it becomes something singular.
Unfortunately, Ricardo Villamonte is the apparently worst possible inker for Dave Cockrum in the world. Forget the characters looking too photo-referenced, they don’t even look the same between panels. And there’s no depth. Villamonte didn’t put in any shadows. None.
But that Pasko script is a wonderful thing.
A-
CREDITS
The Expansionist Syndrome; writer, Martin Pasko; pencillers, Dave Cockrum and Ricardo Villamonte; inker, Villamonte; colorist, Carl Gafford; letterer, Ray Burzon; editor, Louise Jones; publisher, Marvel Comics.