At least she doesn’t need a flashlight anymore.
Star Trek: Operation Assimilation
Marvel/Paramount Comics (December, 1996)
WRITER: Paul Jenkins
LAYOUTS: Steve Erwin
FINISHES: Terry Pallot
COLORIST: Moose Baumann
COVER ART: Hajime Soayama
LETTERER: Chris Eliopoulos
EDITOR: Mark Paniccia
A Romulan commander on a subpar ship runs into the Borg. Of course they lose and we see her turned into a Borg.
What they got right: There may not appear to be much to summarize but if you know the franchise you already know they’re going to lose. It’s kind of the Borg’s thing. Where this story succeeds is how it presents that defeat. Using second-person narration allows us to see her thoughts without thought balloons or captions that don’t make any sense because who is she telling this too? (A huge problem with the trend of first-person narration in comics.) We get an idea of what’s happening to her personally as she deals with an assignment she feels is beneath her, is unable to stop the Borg, and is slowly turned into a Borg herself. It’s the best way to express the story without being confusing and it’s only occasionally gruesome as the story requires.
What they got wrong: I don’t remember ever hearing of the Borg entering Romulan space. After Q sped up the Federation’s first meeting with the Borg they beelined it for the Alpha Quadrant and Earth. Was this some lost ship?
Recommendation: If you like the Borg (either before or after that Borg Queen nonsense was tossed in) this is a great story from the perspective of one of their victims. Worth picking up.
