The Truth about Tribbles Review

While this story is loosely based on an original episode, it’s certainly the biggest departure from ​TOS​ content we’ve seen thus far (Making Gerrold’s comment even more surprising). An argument could be made to place these issues in the same category as the ​Vulcan’s Vengeance​ arc that was a completely original story for this comic series with more basis in the film universe than​ TOS.​ If you saw the 2009 Star Trek, and you were paying close attention, you might have noticed a Tribble hanging out in a cage when Kirk and Spock Prime first meet Scotty. It was a nice touch to the film, and it also serves as the flashback starting point for this story arc. At the start we have Scotty and Chekov sending that same Tribble across space to Scotty’s nephew at Starfleet Academy on earth before being called to a red-alert when the Enterprise encounters Klingons. Instead of chasing after them, Spock wisely counsels Kirk to stay and investigate what the Klingons were so anxious to get away from on a nearby planet. On the planet they find evidence that the Klingons were hoping to destroy these creatures, which will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the original episodes. At least Abrams-verse Klingons (despite appearing in name only) still hate the soft fuzzy Tribbles. Some things are better left as they were! Meanwhile on earth Scotty’s Tribble has reproduced all over Starfleet Academy, and shortly after that we find they’ve also began infesting the U.S.S. Enterprise’s Engineering.

Series writer Mike Johnson is joined by artist Claudia Balboni. She brings a slightly cartoonier style to the book than the previous artists which I didn’t mind. What did bother me was her occasional use of faux lens-flare. It wasn’t necessary in the film and it’s not needed in the comics. All in all ​The Truth about Tribbles​ was a lot of fun. It wasn’t exactly earth-shattering, but it was an enjoyable read. After the ​Archons​ I think this series needed a little light-hearted action.