The Super Powered Fancast

Star Trek #500

IDW Publishing

Written by Jordan Blum, Patton Oswalt, Jody Houser, Magdalene Vissagio, Stephanie Williams, Morgan Hampton, Mike Chen, Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly and Christopher Cantwell

Art by Leonard Kirk, Vernon Smith, Megan Huang, Tench, Megan Levens, Angel Hernandez and Davide Tinto

Colors by Lee Lougheridge, Charlie Kirchoff, JP Jordan and Nick Filardi

Letters by Jodie Troutman and Clayton Cowles

The Rundown: Multiple stories celebrate the infinite possibilities and strange tales within the Star Trek universe.

I Knew You Were Tribble When You Walked In

The events of the classic television episode “The Trouble with Tribbles” are recounted by an unexpected entity, a tribble itself. To make things even stranger, this tribble’s memories recount its unexpected attraction to and machinations to get the attention of Captain James T. Kirk.

An interesting and unexpectedly fun story filled with classic moments with a new and interesting twist. The visual style of the art was impressive and I really enjoyed the visual perspective of events from the eyes of a tribble.

Yesterday’s Shadow

La’an continues to deal with her feelings for an alternate reality version of James Kirk while trying to learn more about the real deal from his brother serving on the Enterprise.

The story is a nice, short interlude that showcases La’an as a person beyond her stoic demeanor. There is also some funny back and forth between her and George.

The Unexpected Mentor

Discovery is dispatched to help a planet undergoing dangerous seismic phenomenon. When a child is reported missing, Burnham goes into the dangerous village alone to find her and discovers in the child the things she enjoys about Starfleet.

A nice short story that contains some great character moments for Burnham.

Latinum Glove

Rom and the rest of the Niners prepare for a rematch on the baseball field with their Vulcan rivals as they train a new member of the team.

Conceptually, it’s an okay story. If you haven’t read The Dog of War, you will have no context or connection to anything in this story and tonally it feels like filler rather than anything necessary.

Go See Cal!

Rutherford and Tendi create a Soong-Type android on the Cerritos and their use of a questionable compensator will lead to a dramatic showdown with their creation.

An entertaining short story that is pretty par for the course for these characters. It entertains, but isn’t going to break any new ground with these characters.

What’s a Q to You?

QJ finds himself sick and one of the side effects of his illness is the revelation that he is being watched. A revelation that his father uses as a lesson in knowing your limitations.

A fun and engaging short that breaks the fourth wall in an interesting and unexpected way while leading the character to an interesting revelation.

The Final Masterpiece

Lore finds himself at the center of creation and will use Data to help him craft the perfect universe with himself at its center. A universe he will come to discover is not as perfect as he thinks.

An entertaining, darkly engaging interlude from the events of the bigger story and hopefully, it will inform what comes next in the arc.