Miss what happened in the last issue? Catch up with our review of I.D.I.C. Part 4.
Star Trek: Boldly Go’s I.D.I.C. story is about to wrap up, but it still has a few tricks up its sleeve. The last issue was probably my favourite of the bunch thus far: Captain Kirk’s from multiple universes were scattered across different dimensions with a mysterious presence watching each of them die in no-win scenarios. It was dark and ominous and added a new level of mystery, so Part 5 had a lot to live up to.
Instead of hiding the mystery of who, or what, is behind ur multiple universe mash-up, we get right to the reveal: Gary Mitchell is the one pulling the strings. Mitchell, for those who don’t remember, is a former Starfleet officer and Enterprise crew who basically gains superpowers thanks to an energy field. His newfound abilities (telepathy, telekinesis, etc.) turn him into a someone cruel and controlling, and Spock and Kirk have to take him out before he destroys the whole crew. Both in the Original Series and the Star Trek comics, Kirk is the one who pulls the trigger, and now in Boldly Go, Mitchell is not pleased about it.
Mitchell brings Kirk back to watch himself (or an alternate universe version of himself?) immediately after Mitchell’s death, taunting Kirk.
I’m not too sure of Mitchell’s motives for this whole ordeal. He’s grown even more powerful, as evidenced by the ability to hop between universes and move people through them. He calls himself a god, says he’s killed all other versions of himself so no one can defeat him, and has come back… for revenge on Kirk? At one point he says no matter how powerful he gets, he’d bothered by the knowledge that Kirk is out there thinking he’s important, so Mitchell orchestrated this whole multi-universe crossover to… prove that Kirk can fail and die? It’s one hell of a grudge he’s been carrying.
Mitchell wants Kirk to admit that he was wrong to have killed him way back when, but it seems like he’s taken a long way to get to that point.
While you’re busy scratching your head at what Mitchell’s up to, I.D.I.C. decides to throw you for another loop: Kirk challenges Mitchell to give him the same god-like abilities, and Mitchell accepts. He gives Kirk the same glowy-eyed power and the two of them are about to fight to the death on even playing ground.
It’s a good ending to the issue and I’m excited to see how the finale plays out (Kirk is obviously going to win but you know what I mean!) but I’m still not sure how I feel about the big reveal of Gary Mitchell. He feels like an afterthought, like the real goal of I.D.I.C. was to get a bunch of different Kirks and crews into weird situations, and then we needed to come up with an explanation, quick! But after setting the story up over four issues, could any explanation have felt satisfactory? Was I always doomed to be somewhat disappointed?
Part 5 is a solid entry and a good transition to the final showdown but just doesn’t have the wow factor I was looking for.
A few bonus humorous moments in the issue worth mentioning: Mitchell mentioning an alternate universe where they’re all just “fictional characters,” Mitchel bringing Kirk into a room full of hundreds of Kirks where they all start brawling and going “I’m shocked.” Who knew evil wannabe-deities still rely on sarcasm.
