Death Comes Calling

Crossovers are a tradition in comics at this point. The second comic books decided to create shared, connected worlds, it was only a matter of time before the heroes of those books started showing up frequently in each other’s titles. The Justice Society of America was the first big crossover of heroes, but plenty more happened before that point. And then once comics were rebooted in the Silver Age, and DC decided to have two Earths going simultaneously (Earth 1 with modern heroes and Earth 2 with Golden Age versions of the heroes), their own crossovers were similarly inevitable.

But crossovers continued even outside the publishing lines of the respective comic brands. DC and Marvel eventually crossed books (more than once, in fact) and this inspired other brands to look into all the ways they could cross properties and create those synergistic tie-ins. Sometimes those books were really great while other times they were awful. Every once in a while, though, that magical sweet spot where trash met greatness was achieved and you could get some of the best worst crossovers imaginable.

Dark Horse Comics made a number of these great, trashy crossovers back in the 1990s and early 2000s, with the likes of Superman/Aliens, Batman/Predator, Superman and Batman versus Alien and Predator and many, many more. It was glorious, and awful, but that’s part of what made these crossovers so much fun to read. Dark Horse moved away from these kinds of trashy crossovers eventually, but thankfully IDW was more than willing to pick up the slack, and they did, with the gloriously awful Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War. And yes, it is everything you expect it to be from the title.

In the book the DC Universe (a version of it anyway that mirrors Earth Prime in the main continuity of the early 2010s) has been attacked by Necron, the dark avatar of Death. Necron, in his second war against the universe (see: Blackest Night for his first war against the universe), has managed to kill seemingly every living soul in the universe, prompting Ganthet, one of the Guardians of the Universe, to activate the last light protocol. This sends Ganthet and a selection of lantern rings (all but the green ring) to another universe where, hopefully, Necron would not be able to follow. Unfortunately Ganthet doesn’t survive the journey, leaving him dead on a rock when the crew of the USS Enterprise arrive on the scene.

Collecting Ganthet’s body, as well as the rings he brought with him, the crew is dumbfounded by what they find. The technology is lightyears beyond anything that is possible in their universe, leading the crew to wonder where the rings came from. That is answered by Hal Jordan, who survived the Last Light protocol and found himself in this universe. Around the same time, the various rings activate, with the yellow, orange, and red rings flying off into contested space where they select a Klingon, Romulan, and Gorn representative to wear them. The other three rings – blue, indigo, and violet – find proper hosts among the crew of the Enterprise, giving this universe new members for the corps. But Hal fears danger could be lurking, not just from the oppositional ring bearers but from Necron who, somehow, always finds a way to come back again. And if he does, this universe could face the same fate as Hal’s own…

Before I rip into this comic, and believe me I will, I want to acknowledge that I don’t think a crossover between the Green LanternMade up of aliens from sectors scross space, the Green Lantern Corp. defends the universe against threats with the power of the Green Light of Willpower. characters and Star TrekOriginally conceived as "Wagon Train in Space", Star Trek was released during the height of the Hollywood Western film and TV boom. While the concept CBS originally asked for had a western vibe, it was the smart, intellectual stories set in a future utopia of science and exploration that proved vital to the series' long impact on popular culture. is actually a bad idea. The Lanterns are space cops, off having episodic adventures on various worlds, fighting to protect what’s right while stopping the spread of evil and, by most measures, a similar description could be used for the characters in Star Trek. The two sides could have adventures together that would seamlessly flow, and I don’t even find it all that silly for Lanterns to just magically appear to adventure with the Enterprise considering all the weird and silly adventures that ship has seen over the years.

The issue with Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War is more specific to the story it wants to tell than the basic goofiness of the crossover. The story has a lot it has to get through, from the end of the DC Universe (the version shown here, anyway), the transition to the Star Trek universe, the introduction of all the key characters, the rings, the new ring bearers, the various “evil” ring bearers trying to consolidate power, and then Necron’s war against everything and everyone. All of this in a tight six issues, which doesn’t leave much room for any kind of development at all.

Bear in mind, the original Blackest Night was the second major crossover for Geoff John’s run on Green Lantern, which started in Green Lantern: Rebirth, built to the Sinestro Corps War, and then eventually led to Blackest Night after many years of publication. Blackest Night itself was a massive crossover, with the main series consisting of eight issues while many other titles were released as well. That’s a massive amount of material that was slowly built over time, and then played out at a measured pace before it all concluded.

Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War doesn’t get that kind of time or development. It’s a crossover book that, first of all, can’t spend the time setting up its own crossover. It has barely a couple of issues to get all the characters introduced and the rings sent out before the plot has to pivot hard to the next threat, which means many of the characters get the short shrift in the process. Anyone that is a Star Trek fan but, somehow, didn’t know much about the Green Lantern heroes wouldn’t get much to work with here, and the same goes for any Green Lantern fans that weren’t that deep into Star Trek (to say nothing about the fact that this comic series is set in the Kelvin universe of Star Trek 2009, meaning more fans really should have been brought up to speed by the book that probably weren’t). The book expects you to just know everyone and then shortcuts around all of it just to keep things moving.

This leads to some serious issues when it comes to key characters of the book. For instance, why do the blue, indigo, and violet rings pick Chekov, McCoy, and Uhura specifically? The book never says, and we just have to assume we know enough about these characters, like the fact that McCoy is a compassionate doctor, to understand why they were picked for these roles. There’s also the fact that the book doesn’t tell us what each ring represents (hope, compassion, and love, respectively) so anyone that isn’t super deep in Green Lantern lore would likely be lost.

Similarly, why are the three alien races (Klingon, Romulan, and Gorn) picked for the yellow, orange, and red rings? Was there no one on the Enterprise that could act as bearers of fear, avarice, or rage? Kirk lusts after the captain’s chair. Is that not enough avarice for the ring? And Spock watched his whole planet die. One would think that would cause a fair bit of lasting rage in the Vulcan, right? The book never addresses this either, which makes everything feel shaky and underbaked.

To be clear, the book could spend more time on these characters and this scenario – rings falling into the Star Trek universe – if it didn’t have to tell a redo of Blackest Night in only six pages. It would have been better if a smaller story were chosen, like the Enterprise going up against the Klingons with some or all of the rings having fallen into Klingon hands before the Enterprise crew is able to regain them, learning to wield them to protect the Federation from outside intruders. That’s a scalable story that puts the emphasis on the Star Trek heroes while letting us get acclimated to having a bit of Green Lantern lore in the story. Hell, have Sinestro team up with the Klingons (which he kind of does in this book anyway) to make the balance between sides balanced and fair.

I think this series could have addressed Necron and the rise of Death, but it needed to do it in a sequel book, one that could let the story breathe and have more time to develop. All the flaws come from a rushed pace that loses the threads of characters and story for the sake of a lot of action. Necron never feels like a threat here (nor do the Klingon, Romulan, or Gorn ring bearers) and that is a massive flaw the series really can’t get over. The creatives on the book bit off too much, tried to cram in everything they could, and it makes for a weaker story.

And yet I do love it. This is gloriously stupid trash of the highest order. It’s silly and dumb, it rushes its beats, and at times it makes absolutely no sense… but who cares? If all you want is to see Lanterns fighting alongside the crew of the Enterprise with cool lights, nifty effects, and a lot of action, then this book delivers. And, the thing is, there’s certainly a time, place, and audience for that. I don’t think that most going into this book expected a “good” story. Most of my quibbles about the book are about how it isn’t a good story, and that’s true; it’s a total mess. But you don’t come into a crossover like this expecting it to be good. It’s trash, you expect it to be trash, and it delivers trash. That’s why it’s fun.

For someone that isn’t into these characters, or is wanting something serious and grounded, Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War is a terrible book. But for anyone wanting a trashy, good time, this book is everything it needs to be. It’s stupid on a cosmic level, and that’s what makes it readable. You just have to go in knowing that’s what you’re about to get.