Alien Spotlight: Orions review

It's been out a couple of weeks now, but here are my thoughts on the latest Alien Spotlight issue, on the Orions.

Set on Babel, the story sees the recently promoted, and slightly bored, Fleet Captain Pike find an adventure in unravelling the illegal activities of Tellarite bounty hunter, who is also the target of the vengeful Leata, the comic's girl in the spotlight.

The story, by the ever-talented Tipton brothers, is interesting and fills the book. Getting to see Pike at this stage of life (or any really) is a rare treat. The story is engaging and enjoyable and has a lot more going on with it compared to the Tipton's earlier Gorn Alien Spotlight, which was rather more straight forward.

The art work, by Elena Casagrande (who had previously provided "art assit" on the Tiptons' earlier comics illustrated by David Messina) with colours by Mirco Pierfederici is rich and detailed throughout. The exotic location and aliens visitors to Babel are brought to life in a beautifully stylised form that maintains all the details, very similar to David Messina's art.

All in all it's hard to fault this issue, the story is big - in that it has a lot going on, and still manages to fit in the 22 pages neatly. The art is similarly near perfect throughout - I especially liked how Pike's hair had greyed in exactly the same way the older Pike from an alternative future was shown to have aged in the Early Voyages comics, whether that was intension or not it was a nice bit of visual continuity.

Once again I call for more from the Tiptons, and extend that to request more from Casagrande too. If IDW did nothing but Tipton comics by this artist or David Messina then I'd be happy, and IDW’s Star Trek line would be vastly improved!