Star Fleet in Look-In : Part 3

Original Publication Date: 22 Jan 1983

Look-In Volume 13 - Issue 4

Welcome back Star Fleet fans! Shiro Hagen’s winning streak continues this week and I think we may even get a proper cliffhanger! Launch now!

Besides the usual color discrepancies we’ve come to expect from the DVD booklet, do you notice anything missing from the bottom left panel?

When you read a Star Fleet comic, do you also blast the Star Fleet soundtrack by Paul Bliss? It really helps get into the spirit of things! If you still need to pick up a copy of the CD, I believe you can still order it here!

Shiro and Hercules are taking the offensive against the Imperial Alliance, luring them away from Earth to Quadrant 770. Shiro is uncharacteristically wily and this week Hercules is uncharacteristically timid. Who ever heard of “punch-first-and-ask-questions-later” Hercules needing a rehearsal?

M. Noble

It astonishes me how well comic book artists can draw vehicles from so few reference images. Although video of Star Fleet would become available in the 80s, there’s no way Mike Noble saw much of it. He most likely drew these craft from still images. Any minor inaccuracies would of course be forgivable– I think this is an excellent representation of the Imperial fighters from an unusual angle!

I believe this aft cannon is being introduced for the first time here!

Shiro detonates his own fuel to fake a crash! It’s a tactic that goes back at least as far as Sun Tzu but seems pretty advanced for a Star Fleet cadet who is easily tricked by Makara’s holograms…

This looks a little like Braincom has been squished.

Hercules, too, can play possum!

This panel reminds me for some reason of the crash of Luke Skywalker on Dagobah.

Bit alarmist to think the Alliance could so easily destroy X Bomber just by blowing up the asteroid they hide behind.

Dr. Benn is fretting while Lee is the voice of reason. Anyone else think those speech balloons should be reversed?

PPA and Kirara, by contrast, seem perfectly in character here.

It is very nice to have a look at how things are going for our other characters, though! For Lamia, it is all about Shiro. Hopefully we will get a bit more of the love triangle involving Hercules that developed during the TV series!

Sheer bravery and a surprising, newfound cleverness!

Crashed Mainbody joining the ranks of great spaceship crash imagery. See lots more at https://70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/overgrown-ruins/

If my life was a comic book, I’d like to caption most panels with “Indeed…”

Termoids spinoff when? I’d watch a whole series about runaway termoids.

You can find this panel in the dictionary under “counting chickens before they hatch.”

I have a pro tip for you. If you ever have to check to make sure someone is dead, make sure you actually check that they are dead. Pulse. Breathing. Anything more than just a passing glance.

Leaving Hercules to fend for himself against those two, Shiro is sneaking up on the pilot of the lone fighter that landed to investigate the crash site. To be honest, it would make more sense for the Alliance to just blast the downed spaceship and the asteroid to smithereens. Even at this early point in the timeline, Orion should have known that in order for Dai-X to launch X Bomber must be around somewhere.

However, I’m most definitely not complaining as this has been our most action packed installment yet and this actually counts as a real cliffhanger, with our heroes in something that resembles real jeopardy. Are they actually in any danger of losing a fight with these termoids? Well, I have my doubts. But I’m having fun reading these! If you are too, please drop me a line and say hello!

The action continues next week!