I leave the Gold Key Treks behind… I know there are more issues to get through, but I don’t have them all yet. So it’s time to boldly go forward with Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Sadly, this will be my only entry in the Marvel Comics version of Star Trek. As of this date, all I have are the big Marvel adaptation, reviewed here and the three issue release of it, when Marvel launched the series.

It features a gorgeous cover painting by Bob Larkin. Marv Wolfman adapts the script penned by Harold Livingston from the story by Alan Dean Foster, and Gene Roddenberry. David Cockrum serves as the penciller, while Klaus Janson is the inker.

This magazine sized edition has photos on the inside cover, a credits and content page. It not only includes the movie’s adaptation over fifty pages, it also includes an article on the phenomenon of Trek, an interview with science adviser Jesco von Puttkamer, and a glossary of 23rd century terms.

Marvel’s Issue 1, released in April of 1980, featured cover art by Steve Leialoha, which is interesting but not as solid as the magazine edition.

The opening splash page is a mural of drawn images including the Enterprise swooping through space, pursued by a green energy ball, Kirk, Spock, Ilia standing in front of her bio-bed scan, a shot of the bridge, a Klingon cruiser, and the V’ger/Voyager reveal. It definitely makes it look like there is a lot going on.

The art looks solid, though the characters only passingly resemble the actors who bring them to life. It’s bright and vibrant, and feels completely different from the colour palette of the film.

The opening Klingon battle is reduced to a single page, and bracketed by text that suggests a divine purpose. The story then moves to Vulcan, suggesting Spock’s homeworld is more than a galaxy away from the events we’ve just seen.

As we know, Spock is undergoing Kolinahr, the final casting out of emotions and their attachments. But something touches his mind, and stirs his human half. He has not achieved Kolinahr, and he is drawn again to the stars and what may be waiting for him.

Kirk is in San Francisco, an Admiral, and he is conferring with the Enterprise’s new Science Officer, Commander Sonak. He tells Sonak to meet him aboard ship in one hour, as it will be launching in twelve hours, not the original twenty. And Kirk plans to have command.

After the unseen meeting, Kirk and a mustachioed Scotty takes a transport pod from an orbiting platform to the Enterprise’s drydock. The beautiful scene is squeezed into a single page here as Kirk reveals he’ll be commanding his old ship. We only get a couple of glimpses of the Enterprise, not the lingering, loving looks the film gives us. But Scotty is by his captain’s side.

Kirk arrives aboard, reunites with his bridge crew, and then goes to see Decker, to let him know about he change in command. While I’m not a fan of how the characters look, I do like how closely the artists worked to replicate the look of the bridge, and the rest of the Enterprise’s interiors. Again, the colour palette is brighter than that of the film, but comics are a different medium.

I like that a lot of the dialogue is verbatim, and some is adapted and changed to move the story along and help convey what is going on. But I know the film so well I can hear the changes (not to mention the score, and sound effects).

After the disastrous transporter incident, which kills Sonak, Kirk delivers his briefing to the ship’s crew on the Rec Deck. With the transmitted destruction of Epsilon 9, Kirk orders a pre-launch countdown, and the last remaining crew are brought aboard, including Ilia, and a familiar old country doctor. Welcome back McCoy!

From there, we are given a two page spread of the Enterprise racing away from it’s drydock, with insets of its departure, the bridge, and engineering.

Kirk is intent on meeting the Intruder before it can get much closer to Earth, so he orders the ship to go to warp with disastrous results. The ship is pulled into a wormhole (and the comic verion gives an interesting definition of what that is). Decker is able to save the ship, and it leaves Kirk shaken for a moment. He, Decker and McCoy convene in his quarters, to sort things out.

Decker and Ilia have a moment while McCoy has a harsh talk with Kirk about his obsession with the Enterprise, but things are about to take a turn for the better (and close out the issue when the Super Special is broken up to launch the comic series) with the return of Spock!

Issue 2, on stands for May 1980, had cover art by Cockrum and Janson, and is again, not quite as impressive as it could have been. Cover Art seems to go in cycles, we go through eras of fantastic art, then solid, then back to fantastic. At least that’s the way I feel. And this one is solid, but far from fantastic.

Spock has arrived! And everyone is delighted to see him, though he seems a lot colder and more aloof than the Spock they knew. He assists Scotty in Engineering and the Enterprise is able to travel at warp speed!

In a quiet moment, Kirk, Spock and McCoy meet in the Officer’s Lounge. Kirk is hoping to rekindle their friendship, but Spock remains reserved and reticent even with them. Spock reveals that he is seeking to meet with the Intruder, and perhaps it can help him excise the last of his human emotions.

The dialogue here is much different than the filmed version and omits the dialogue Kirk and McCoy share after he leaves.

The Enterprise then arrives at the Intruder Cloud. There is something within the cloud, and it attacks them, the barest of energy slipping through the screens, and injuring Chekov at the Security/Weapons console.

Before they can attack again, Spock discovers a method of communication, and transmits a signal. One that seems to be understood. As they penetrate the cloud Spock senses only pure logic, and the mystery deepens.

As they approach the alien craft, there are similarities between it and what appears on screen in the film, but there are also a lot of liberties taken especially in terms of colour. Again, I get it. Comics are a different medium. But there are moments when this feels like a completely different beast, all because of the colour palette.

As they draw closer, the craft sends a probe(?) of its own to investigate the Enterprise, and when Spock interferes by destroying a computer its accessing, it zaps the Vulcan, and disappears with the Deltan navigator, Ilia. We also see a clip that wasn’t in the film, but was shot, the infamous security guard getting zapped away.

The Enterprise is pulled deeper, inside the craft by a tractor beam. As the ship is drawn in, they receive an intruder alert, from Deck Four. From Ilia’s quarters. Kirk, Spock and McCoy converge on the source, and discover the Ilia probe.

McCoy runs a scan of Ilia in sickbay on a biobed, and they are troubled by what they find. And also surprised by its reactions. Kirk is intent on finding out all he can about it, and assigns Decker to work with Ilia, hoping their previous romantic connection can somehow be leveraged.

Is Ilia the only way to communicate with this thing called V’ger?

The second issue closes out with Spock using his nerve pinch on a crew member… but for what purpose?

Issue 3, debuted for June 1980, had cover art by Bob Wiacek.

While Kirk and McCoy are watching Decker and Ilia on the Rec Deck. V’ger is searching for its creator, but sees the life aboard Enterprise as nothing more than an infestation. Carbon-based units, which will be eliminated after the Ilia-Probe’s work is complete.

Meanwhile, Spock has taken thruster suit, and left the ship. Kirk takes off after him immediately, and we get a variation on the discarded memory wall scene. Kirk also joins Spock for his complete journey through V’ger. They see the Klingon vessels, and Epsilon-9 stored as patterns, and Spock attempts to mindmeld with the glowing orb on the memory construct of Ilia.

It almost destroys him.

Kirk wasn’t needed for these sequences, it’s odd having him there. Spock’s commentary should have served fine and having Kirk there takes away from Spock’s journey in this story.

Spock wakes back in Sickbay, changed, and realizing his human part is as essential to who he is as is the Vulcan-side. And he conveys the thoughts that plague V’ger – is this all that I am? Is there nothing more?

With the notification that they are almost in Earth orbit Kirk and company head to the bridge. There’s also an additional scene of Decker, Ilia and Scott in Engineering. Scotty doesn’t seem to care too much for the prob, or it’s intentions.

Spock picks up a radio signal being transmitted from V’ger. And it expects an answer. When it doesn’t receive a response it launches energy orbs around the Earth, powerful enough to wipe out all life!

Kirk makes a gamble, and promises to tell Ilia about th creator if it V’ger withdraws the weapons. But he can only do it to V’ger itself.

The Enterprise is drawn deeper, and Kirk, as a back up, orders self-destruct. If they can’t pull this off, they can at least save Earth. Spock realizes he was as V’ger is now, he sees that he needs all sides of himself to move forward.

As Kirk, Spock and McCoy reconnect as companions, the Enterprise comes to a stop. With fifteen minutes on the clock they step out of the ship, led by Ilia, to meet with V’ger.

Which is revealed to be not V’ger, but Voyager. Voyager 6! A lost Earth probe. Before they can transmit the radio code that would allow V’ger to send all of its data, it burns its antenna leads, forcing its creator to join with it.

Decker volunteers, joining with Ilia/V’ger… and a new lifeform, is possibly created!

The Enterprise is secure, the Earth is safe, and Spock realizes his place is here, aboard the ship. The crew boldly go on as the Human Adventure continues…

I got to be honest, as much as I love the Marvel Super Special Magazines, I did not care for the art at all. It conveyed what it was supposed to, but didn’t feel right. It may be just me.

That wraps it up for the Marvel comics, as I don’t have any past that. Which means next time, I dig into the first DC run (lets see how they handle the artwork and character likenesses), which picks up after Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan!