In this weeks Star Trek Column Matthew Kresal takes a look at the recently released graphic novel, Star Trek: Khan.
The release last year
of Star Trek Into Darkness has inspired interest yet again in one of
the franchise's most memorable villains: Khan. In particular, the
casting of Benedict Cumberbatch into the role made famous by Ricardo
Montalban decades before opened up both controversy and a new set of
questions. Setting out to explore Khan's origins and answer some of
those questions is this volume which collects the five issues of the
IDW's miniseries that through from late 2013 and early 2014. So does
it serve Khan justice in telling his story?
It's worth keeping in
mind that Khan's origins had already been explored in some depth a
decade or so ago in the two Eugenics Wars novels written by Greg Cox
(with a third novel later filling in what happened between the TV
episode Space Seed and Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan). Those novels
recognized a basic problem of Khan's background: That Khan left Earth
in the 1990s during the Eugenics Wars but the Eugenics Wars didn't
take place in our world (or any of the later Trek episodes set during
the period). So to portray it, one has two options: work into the real
world or literally rewrite history. The two Cox novels instead turned
it into a shadowy conflict often behind real world events which came
to involve Gary Seven, Roberta Lincoln and featured appearances by a
number of other 20th century Star Trek characters. The
Khan graphic novel here takes the latter option with less than
spectacular results.
The first three issues
(or chapters as they're refereed to here) cover Khan's background
through the Eugenics Wars and the Botany Bay taking off from Earth,
via the framing device of Khan being put on trial as part of off
screen events towards the end of Into Darkness. This section suffers
from two fundamental problems. The first is that to fit in the
quarter century of time the first three issues cover - from our first
meeting Khan as a homeless amputee in 1971 to New Delhi to the Botany
Bay launching in 1996 into the necessary page count - the story is
forced to jump around a considerable amount meaning that we really only get the broad strokes of Khan's life and events. More
especially, we're given only brief glimpses of the Eugenics Wars
themselves which, while presented as something akin to a world war in
the narration Khan gives, is visually represented by a handful of
action movie style set pieces. That fact means that the significant
rewrite of history done here never quite works (and interestingly the
story itself doesn't keep to its own continuity with a character
appearing in a location within pages of it having been destroyed).
The second problem is
the characterization of Khan himself. We're presented visually with
the Ricardo Montalban Khan in this section of the story but the
writing never quite captures that Khan. Instead we're presented with
what very much seems to be the Cumberbatch Khan in terms of dialogue
and actions but simply presented with Montalban's face. The result is
an odd one and, combined with the issue mentioned in the last
paragraph, does considerably undermine a large portion of the story.
Where things get better
is in the final two issues/chapters where we meet the Cumberbatch
Khan and it fills in some of the events that would eventually lead
towards Into Darkness. Even here, the story is reduced to presenting
broad strokes, though we do get to see some of the pivotal events that
tie into the film's plot. Amongst those is a confrontation between
Khan and Admiral Marcus that answers perhaps the single biggest
question from the film about Khan's change of appearance. These
latter two chapters are the biggest highlight of the volume and
really what makes it worth reading.
Artwork of course plays
a big role and arguably here the volume is more successful. All
of the characters from Into Darkness are recognizable with
Cumberbatch's Khan, Kirk and Spock being especially well represented.
The Montalban Khan is recognizable though it's only in a couple of
moments that the artwork really captures a good likeness of him. The
artwork also makes some nice calls back to elements established in
some of the original Khan appearances, from the ship that finds him to
the look and feel of the Botany Bay itself. The artwork at times
makes up for what the writing lacks, though even that can't make up
for all the faults.
In the end then, Star
Trek: Khan is intriguing if disappointing. Despite attempting to
present the Eugenics Wars as a massive conflict and Khan as a grand
ruler, the way both are presented here are disappointing due in large
part to trying to do too much with too little space and the lack of
proper characterization for Khan himself. While things improve in the
latter part of the story, and there's some good artwork on show, it's
not enough to really salvage the earlier flaws. In a way, one almost
wants to take those latter parts and combine them with the two Cox
novels to create a definitive story for Khan because, for all of the
efforts made here, this isn't it.
Matthew Kresal lives in North Alabama where he's a nerd, doesn't
have a southern accent and isn't a Republican. He's a host of both the
Big Finish centric Stories From The Vortex podcast and the 20mb Doctor Who Podcast. You can read more of his writing at his blog and at The Terrible Zodin fanzine, amongst other places.
Previous Star Trek columns
An appreciation of Gene Roddenberry
10 things you might not know about Star Trek: TOS
Kirk & Spock - What could've been
10 things you might not know about Leonard Nimoy
The Trouble with Tribbles
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
10 things you might not know about Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek Into Darkness
Previous Star Trek columns
An appreciation of Gene Roddenberry
10 things you might not know about Star Trek: TOS
Kirk & Spock - What could've been
10 things you might not know about Leonard Nimoy
The Trouble with Tribbles
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
10 things you might not know about Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek Into Darkness