What do you think?
Rate this book
Gold Key Star Trek Comics
Star Trek - The Key Collection: Volume 2
Picks up where Volume 1 left off - reprinting issues 9 through 16 (1971 and 1972). Sceptre of the Sun, The Brain Shockers and Mutiny on the Enterprise are among the unique Trek adventures reprinted here. Get an idea what the series might have looked life if they had had a better special effects budget.
228 pages, Paperback
Published December 8, 2004
1 person is currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Len Wein
1,585 books155 followersLen Wein was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men (including the co-creation of Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus). Additionally, he was the editor for writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons' influential DC miniseries Watchmen.
Wein was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2008.
Wein was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2008.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 4, 2023
I really enjoy reading the Gold Key Star Trek books. True, they are filled with errors, inaccuracies and glitches. But they are still amazingly creative stories that bring the original Enterprise crew back to life.
When I reviewed Volume 1, I noted that the tunics worn by Kirk and Sulu were green and not gold. While Captain Kirk did wear a ceremonial tunic that was green, that shirt is not the worn being worn by him in these books. Then I read an article on Mental Floss.
A couple of days ago, I learned that the 3 tunics worn by the crew of the Enterprise were supposed to be the colors of red, blue and GREEN! However, due to the lighting of the sets, the green uniforms came out appearing as yellow/tan on screen. I've got some mild color blindness issues, especially with green. Thanks to that online article, I now understand why it feels like my brain was always playing tricks on me when I watched classic Trek. I always felt like when I looked at Kirk or Sulu or Chekov, I was seeing 2 colors at once and I really was!
As for some of the other errors, I don't think I can excuse them anymore. In the forward of the previous volume, the editors remarked on how many of the problem with the early Star Trek books was the fact that artist Alberto Giotlitti and Nevio Zaccara both had never watched the show. They mostly had stills from the series and props to work with in order to craft the artwork. This is why Gold Key printed Kirk's tunic as green- because it was! However, we're now covering books 9-16 and it's 1970-71. The artwork problems should be fixed by now!
The Federation phasers look more like a Klingon disruptor. Spock's ears are the size of my feet! And for some reason, Bones' tunic is green instead of medical officer baby blue. And Scotty isn't wearing his engineering reds. The bridge of the Enterprise- it looks impressive but it's not the Enterprise. The very act of transporting from ship to planet also looks really different- cool- but different. But since none of the artists ever watched the TV show, I can't fault the creative license.
I will say that the likenesses of the main characters are second to none. By issue #16 of Marvel's Star Wars series, the art team still couldn't get Luke Skywalker to look like actor Mark Hamill. By issue #16 of this old school series, not only does Spock look like Leonard Nimoy, I'm expecting him to jump off the page. Alberto Giolitti's work is that lifelike! But not all Klingons look like French wrestler turned actor Maurice Tillet!
As for the writing, I did see a large jump in quality. Len Wein pens these stories and you can tell that he at least had watched the series. I'm not sure if he was a Trekkie as some of Spock's dialogue seems too emotional. But if you really think about it, it's hard to not be emotional. I tried to write some Vulcan appropriate dialogue in my head recently and it's darn near impossible. But everybody else sounds pretty close to their onscreen counterparts.
This was a fun read. Quite flawed. But it was an enjoyable adventure that I wish to continue by getting my hands on the remaining 30 some odd issues that I don't own.
When I reviewed Volume 1, I noted that the tunics worn by Kirk and Sulu were green and not gold. While Captain Kirk did wear a ceremonial tunic that was green, that shirt is not the worn being worn by him in these books. Then I read an article on Mental Floss.
A couple of days ago, I learned that the 3 tunics worn by the crew of the Enterprise were supposed to be the colors of red, blue and GREEN! However, due to the lighting of the sets, the green uniforms came out appearing as yellow/tan on screen. I've got some mild color blindness issues, especially with green. Thanks to that online article, I now understand why it feels like my brain was always playing tricks on me when I watched classic Trek. I always felt like when I looked at Kirk or Sulu or Chekov, I was seeing 2 colors at once and I really was!
As for some of the other errors, I don't think I can excuse them anymore. In the forward of the previous volume, the editors remarked on how many of the problem with the early Star Trek books was the fact that artist Alberto Giotlitti and Nevio Zaccara both had never watched the show. They mostly had stills from the series and props to work with in order to craft the artwork. This is why Gold Key printed Kirk's tunic as green- because it was! However, we're now covering books 9-16 and it's 1970-71. The artwork problems should be fixed by now!
The Federation phasers look more like a Klingon disruptor. Spock's ears are the size of my feet! And for some reason, Bones' tunic is green instead of medical officer baby blue. And Scotty isn't wearing his engineering reds. The bridge of the Enterprise- it looks impressive but it's not the Enterprise. The very act of transporting from ship to planet also looks really different- cool- but different. But since none of the artists ever watched the TV show, I can't fault the creative license.
I will say that the likenesses of the main characters are second to none. By issue #16 of Marvel's Star Wars series, the art team still couldn't get Luke Skywalker to look like actor Mark Hamill. By issue #16 of this old school series, not only does Spock look like Leonard Nimoy, I'm expecting him to jump off the page. Alberto Giolitti's work is that lifelike! But not all Klingons look like French wrestler turned actor Maurice Tillet!
As for the writing, I did see a large jump in quality. Len Wein pens these stories and you can tell that he at least had watched the series. I'm not sure if he was a Trekkie as some of Spock's dialogue seems too emotional. But if you really think about it, it's hard to not be emotional. I tried to write some Vulcan appropriate dialogue in my head recently and it's darn near impossible. But everybody else sounds pretty close to their onscreen counterparts.
This was a fun read. Quite flawed. But it was an enjoyable adventure that I wish to continue by getting my hands on the remaining 30 some odd issues that I don't own.
March 21, 2016
Improves marginally on volume one in that the writer (no writing credits for any volume other than this one, tellingly), Len Wein, had clearly actually watched the show and at least attempted to have the characters act and speak as they did in the series. That doesn't make the stories any less programmatic or uninspired, but it does make them margianlly more readable--enough so for the book to be enjoyable, at elast.
August 27, 2017
Unlike the stories in Vol. 1, which read like no one involved had ever seen an episode of Star Trek, the stories in vol. 2 are more true to the television show. The characters look closer to their television counterparts. The science is more believable. And the stories, now written by Len Wein (who went on to write the award winning Swamp Thing with Bernie Wrightson), are light years better. Great fun for Trekkies.
October 24, 2014
onestamente le storie iniziano a diventare un poco troppo naif in questo volume, che si salva per i sempre eleganti disegni di Giolitti.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews