Star Trek: Year Five, Book 3: Weaker than Man
by
Jackson Lanzing, Ángel Hernández (Illustrator), J.K. Woodward (Illustrator), Collin Kelly, Jody Houser
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Just when I thought this series couldn’t get better, it did. Credit where it’s due to the writing team – and to the art team who does a little experimenting in all these issues.
After some very interesting twists and turns along the say in the preceding story-arc, this one sees the action, intrigue and overall narrative amp up yet again and in fact take us in directions quite unexpected.
The crew has returned to Earth to find that after five years, the Federation they knew and Starfleet itself have evolved and grown.
The writers continue the trend of slowly weaving in social change to bridge the gap between the future-sighted vision and feel of the original show, with the evolving social mores and cultural standards and practices that have happened in our real world since then. And what’s enjoyable for someone like me is that things like addressing the overly feminine role of women (including the short-short skirts) and gender identity as with Bright Eyes being gender neutral are handled in a subtle and matter-of-course way instead of being thrown in my face as far too many comics, books and shows tend to do nowadays.
Frankly, I have no problem with “woke” concepts and I think most changes in these matters are for the better of all, but pop-culture and its creators are in most mediums quite heavy-handed in their “message” which becomes more like “MESSAGE!!!!” when it’s put to the audience; here however, it’s the deft touch of the Star Trek spirit that had a forward thinking approach and challenged the audience just by doing a thing without flashing a big neon sign on it or speechifying that I find is present in this series and I wish more people utilised.
There’s no shortage of action – in case that’s what you want more of that than me – as a whole new and unexpected Klingon threat appears from out of nowhere and threatens literally the entire Starfleet armada. The only one who can save the day? James T. Kirk, and all he has to do, is lay down and die.
And if that were not enough, with the backdrop of Federation elections that could upend the way we know the world, there is also a raging pandemic on Alpha Centauri that might have less-than-natural origins. Oh and did I mention that we not only get a major glimpse into the life, times and origins of the unpredictable and dangerous Gary Seven and his companion, Isis, the crew has to face a stowaway danger before the arc is over that threatens all their lives! (How’s that for tense and engaging!)
Overall, this volume not only continues the solid and deft handling of characters, storylines and concepts from the first 12 issues/2 volumes, but it builds on it and as we head to the 5th and final volume, shows no signs of letting up anytime soon.
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Click below for the reviews of the other volumes:
Star Trek: Year Five, Book 1: Odyssey’s End
Star Trek: Year Five, Book 2: The Wine-Dark Deep
One Happy Monk 
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