It’s time for issue #2 of Countdown to Darkness, which means we only have two more months to wait for Into Darkness. Needless to say, I’m giddy with excitement. But don’t get too excited. The cover insinuates that there will be heavy amount of Uhura but she really only gets about two pages. Ah well, maybe next week.

But first, remember how I was disdainful of the canoncity of Robert April commanding the Enterprise in this new universe? And, I quote, they will have to do “nonsensical fanboy yoga” to explain this? Well, I’m big enough to admit when I’m wrong. I’m wrong. They explained his presence simply by saying that there was an Enterprise between the Enterprise and the Enterprise, which is the Enterprise right before they realized they needed to start giving each iteration a letter so we knew which Enterprise we were talking about.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get into this.

Last issue, we met Robert April, a man who is wearing a fairly current Starfleet uniform and claiming he was a captain of an Enterprise despite being nominally dead for 20 years. He also informs Kirk they they landed on the right side of it. Before he can explain further, the planet’s surface is wracked with explosions, which are from the civil war that is going on Phaedus IV.

Naturally, instead of explicating further, the three men run for cover, effectively leaving Sulu behind. Something they don’t remark upon until much later.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Uhura has been standing for god knows how long because she refuses to sit in the Captain’s chair. She waffles on whether or not she should send a search party to look for the away team because they are late for a rendezvous. Bones suggests they wait, claiming that this is exactly the shore leave Kirk needs in order to keep their captain sane.

Unbeknownst to him, Kirk is wandering around a cave system that April traps Kirk and Spock into when they were escaping the unknown assailants. So, it probably wasn’t the shore leave Bones was thinking of, but it was definitely what Kirk probably wanted and needed.

April explains how he came to the planet, and discovered that the aliens were discriminating against one another based on what shade of blue they were. He decides that the Prime Directive can go suck itself, and beams down to the planet laden with every weapon he can find. His first officer, Alex Marcus (whom I suspect will be important in the movies), covered for him and told everyone the captain was dead. Then he shows them the documentation of the atrocities that have taken place.

Up on the Enterprise, Uhura is met by an unexpected contact. It’s Bajoran cargo ship, which I initially balked at because I got my antecedents wrong, and assumed this was during the time of the Cardassian Occupation (I was off by about a fifty years) with a captain named Mudd. As to why she is there, no one knows… aside from the fact that she was sent for by Captain Robert April, a name which McCoy seems to recognize, but Uhura does not.

We come to Kirk and April who are discussing the Prime Directive. April is more along the lines of what we know of good ol’ Captain Kirk which is “Prime Directive? What Prime Directive?” and Kirk is uncharacteristically opposed to. When he looks for backup from his FO, Spock, he finds that he is gone.

The comic ends with yet another cliffhanger. Spock left while Kirk and April discussed Prime Directive Policy, with guns strapped to his back. What’s he going to do? We won’t know until the next issue.

Hold tight, kids! It looks it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

 

 

Story by Roberto Orci and Mike Johnson
Script by Mike Johnson
Art by David Messina