Review: Star Trek vs. Transformers by John Barber, Mike Johnson, Philip Murphy, et al.

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2019 (contents: 2018-19)
Acquired and read June 2019

Star Trek vs. Transformers

Written by John Barber & Mike Johnson
Art by Philip Murphy & Jack Lawrence
Colors by Priscilla Tramontano, Leonardo Ito, & Josh Burcham
Letters by Christa Miesner

This was a fun, a crossover between the cartoon of Star Trek and of Transformers, which turns out to be a good aesthetic match, even if one is from the 1970s and one the 1980s. The Enterprise discovers that Klingons and Decepticons have teamed up to attack a dilithium mining colony, and must team up with the Autobots to defeat them. It's got a lot of the stuff you might expect and that you want: someone says "more than meets the eye," Spock makes fun of why giant robots would "disguise" themselves as dinosaurs, Starscream makes fun of the Klingon language. The very best part is when Captain Kirk mentally bonds with Fortress Maximus, reconfiguring him into Fortress Tiberius.

Captain Kirk "knows every rivet and fuse"? Really? Hey, if it gets me a transforming Enterprise, I'll allow it.
from Star Trek vs. Transformers #3 (art by Jack Lawrence)

Honestly, the downside of this book is that it's not nuts enough, especially coming off the back of reading Transformers vs. G.I. Joe. That series had more craziness in its #0 issue than this does in five, and it's not as if this is a premise that demands to be taken seriously. And John Barber is a co-writer on both! Give me Spock vs. Shockwave in a logic battle (or Spock vs. Galvatron!), or Uhura finding a Decepticon cassette in her console. But what is here is fun.

I really liked Philip Murphy's artwork. It's styled after the old cartoons, down to basing panels on stock shots from Star Trek occasionally, but it uses those templates as a basis for being expressive and inventive. Occasionally storytelling was clunky, but to be honest, I'd read a whole legit Star Trek comic drawn this way.

Next Week: This turns out to be a good transition, because now I'm reviewing a series of Star Trek comics I read, from the movie era.