Villordsutch reviews Star Trek/Planet of the Apes #4…

An uneasy alliance has been forged between Captain Kirk and Colonel Taylor! But will it be enough to prevent Commander Kor and his Klingons from toppling the regime of Doctor Zaius?

We’ve arrived at the penultimate issue of this mash-up that on paper shouldn’t be working, but actually on paper is working fantastically well. At only five issues this series is moving along at a perfect tempo, not too fast to miss the beat and neither is it dragging. I truly am loving this break from the norm in the Star Trek universe.

In Star Trek/Planet of the Apes #4 Commander Kor finally lifts the veil on his tri-dimensional chess set and we get to see his pieces in play; he’s surreptitiously swayed a large portion of the Gorilla army – not all – to rise up against the other classes of Apes. He’s also armed them to the teeth; not only that but they are making their way to the city. Before all of this is revealed however Kirk along with an away team join up with Taylor, Cornelius and Zira to investigate the now vacant Klingon dwelling to see if they can find any clues to what their endgame may be. It’s here the Gorilla coup d’état is discovered and Zira is transported to Ministry of Science to alert them of their findings and hopefully stop the conflict before it starts. However Kor aims to give this chaos a little push.

J.K. Woodward Cover

This issue is an extremely busy one. It’s rather packed with story to the point you’re wondering if this may be a bumper issue as there is a lot going on. Scott and David Tipton have however kept the story flowing quite brilliantly even capturing a excellent moment of Scotty getting carried away explained time-travel and sling-shotting around the sun to both Cornelius and Zira, with Kirk having to gently remind Scotty about the Prime Directive. Again this comic is made that bit more special with the perfect artwork from Rachael Stott, who IDW should seriously consider offering the chance to be a resident artist for more Star Trek comics in the future, and with the colours from Charlie Kirchoff this comic shines. Subscribers of this comic are treated this issue to an amazing cover from J.K. Woodward, for which when I now see a piece of his fantastic art I instantly say, “That’s a Woodward”.

Today you need to go out and buy Star Trek / Planet of the Apes #4 – it’s that simple.

Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.