Like the new film, Star Trek: Nero gives us that familiar universe we've come love and adds imaginative and exciting elements keeping it fresh and new.
The Nero series fills in the gap of the movie that starts with Nero engaging the U.S.S. Kelvin and creating the alternate universe and ends with 'old' Spock's arrival in the new time line.
Twenty plus years. That's a long time. So what did Nero do to pass the time? Unfortunately for Nero and his crew they spent almost all of it in the mines of Rura Penthe, a Klingon asteroid where prisoners work as slaves.
On my first reading this upset me. It felt like such a rip-off from potential stories set within the new reality. But I began to realize that it works extremely well in preserving stories, rather than depriving us of them, and works to show Nero's drive and hatred of Spock and what he believes Spock is responsible for. Nero never doubts his actions and never loses his drive. And most importantly, and impressively, never loses the respect of his crew. Nero's obsession and madness on these pages is turning him into an all-time great Trek villian. Bringing us to another group of villians and his captours, the Klingons.
The Klingons don't even know what to make of Nero. He refuses to speak and has killed numerous guards in repeated escape attempts. They pit him against animals, betting on the outcome. In one such fight we see Nero losing his ear, which has absent in the film. Those 'how did that happen?' stories never quite live up to our imaginations but they add nice touches to series like this none-the-less.
The Klingons also cannot unlock the secret of Nero's ship, the Narada. They keep it in 'orbital quarantine' and have been trying to study it's technology since they captured it. In the Countdown series we learned that the ship had been retrofitted with Borg technology. Of course anything from Nero's time would be beyond the Klingons but we catch them talking about how the ship's parts 'just keep growing back'. It keeps the secrets a secret and keeps everything in a nice continuity. A nice touch that the trekkie side of me really enjoyed.
Which brings me to my biggest 'trekkie geek out' of the issue. During the escape at the end of the issue we see Nero standing with weapon in hand telling his first officer: "The wait is over!" The panel is exactly what was shown in the trailer for the film, but never made it to the movie. Now I don't know if that was a joke or part of a cut scene, but it was really cool to see that moment.
With Star Trek: Nero we're given a great story in the tradition of Star Trek that builds on the excitment created by the new movie. I'm sure how many issue this is intended to last but I'm sure I'll be left wanting more.
Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 4 - Very Good
