Star Trek: The Next Generation: Hive (2013)
Authors: Brannon Braga (story) / Terry Matalas + Travis Fickett (script) | Artist: Joe Corroney | Page Count: 104
"The last world of the old Federation fell over a century ago. Resistance was futile."
That's quite the cover art: the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E, Borg cubes, Borg spheres, Borg drones, the Borg Queen, Seven of Nine, Locutus of Borg and Captain Picard arranged like a first year art student's scrap book. Something tells me it might be a Borg story.
It also suggests that what's inside is either very exciting or a desperate 'all eggs in one basket' bullshit ploy.
With expectations set for the latter, I discovered that it's really neither. It's standard non-cannon comic book nonsense that's set sometime after the end of TNG's Nemesis (2002) film and the Voyager TV series.
Jean-Luc Picard is still captain of the Federation's flagship, but he has a new number one because Riker is off being beardy and smug on the Luna-class USS Titan.
Starfleet gets nervous when a large number of Borg ships appear on the edge of Federation space. Picard is the obvious choice to investigate, given his history with the threat, but he's also a security risk because his prior connection to the aggressors has never fully been expunged from his psyche. Sometimes when the Borg Queen speaks, Picard hears her in his mind.
The story is an 'enemy of my enemy' scenario, split across two time periods: the present (i.e. the 24th Century - Stardate 59844.9) and 500 years in the future. It's okay, I've read worse, but unless you're a huge fan of Trek comics, then it's not something you probably can't live without - and I say that as a fan of both the comics medium and TNG. It's simply not essential reading.
What I liked most about it were some of artist Joe Corroney's backgrounds on board the Borg vessels; they were simplistic green on black but stylised enough to stand out and add a level of interest to what could've been an otherwise busy and overcrowded feature within the frame.
-Some of Corroney's panels also have a nice sense of scale.-
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