You know, when it comes to the movies, Lt. Saavik is one of my favorite characters and I was always kind of disappointed that they left her on Vulcan at the beginning of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Don’t get me wrong–I understand the need for that film to have a total “original crew” adventure and the potential for her to be a Cousin Oliver certainly would have been there (especially if David Marcus had survived the third movie), but she’s one of the best original characters to come out of this era. Thankfully, she gets the spotlight in this DC series at times and I know we’ll have a number of issues with her between now and when the fourth movie adaptation comes around near issue #34 or so.

I come in with that intro because out of all of these pre-The Search for Spock issues, the ones I was most interested in reading were #7 and #8, because seeing “The Origin of Saavik!” on the top of issue #7’s cover intrigued me since I was thirteen and would rifle through the bins at Amazing Comics. The only reason I can tell you as to why I never picked it up then is that there was more than likely an issue of The New Teen Titans or Detective Comics that I felt was more important to add to my collection at the time. So, I kind of rushed through issues #5-6 to get to 7 and that’s why I am not going to say much about them except that they were a good read.

Now, issues #7-8 were great. The premise is that Saavik is going through pon far, which we will see Genesis-Spock go through in the next Trek comic I’m going to review (the adaptation of TSFS), and this activates the Romulan blood in her big time, causing her to hallucinate and attack the Enterprise. This ultimately leads to a reunion with her betrothed Vulcan who is working (albeit somewhat unwillingly) with a group of Romulans.

For a two-parter about a relatively new character that is, in part, a retread of “Amok Time,” it’s some great comics and Barr makes this expansion of the Trek universe worth the price of admission, and continues to prove, within this first “year” or “phase” of the title (I’d like to consider the adaptation of The Search for Spock as the first “annual” for the series because it significantly affects the continuity) that this is the only place we’ll be able to get more Trek between movies. Eight issues have almost completely redeemed the Marvel series and now with the next movie and then set of issues coming up, I think we’re in for a bit of a treat.