Review of
William Shatner’s Tekworld Plague?, number
15,
written by Ron Goulart
Three out of five stars
Another installment in the Tekworld saga
I have read a
few of the novels in the Tekworld series where the basic scenario was created
by William Shatner, and ghost written by Ron Goulart. While they are reasonably
entertaining, I characterized them as “material you read to tuck your mind into
bed at night.” In other words, engaging enough to keep you interested, but not
so much that it has the power to turn you into an insomniac.
This comic is
derived from those Tekworld novels, where the powerful drug called “Tek,” it is
in the form of a mind-altering microchip, and is illegal but creating incredible
wealth. Jake Cardigan is a former police officer that was once framed for
dealing in Tek but was exonerated and is now working for a private
investigating agency called Cosmos. In this episode, people are becoming
incredibly sick from an unknown disease and there is the belief that the Tek
lords are involved.
Cardigan and his partner Gomez split up and each of
them becomes reluctantly entangled with a female sidekick. Cardigan’s situation
is complicated because the mother of his son is hospitalized with an extremely
serious case. His son blames him for the problems, even though Cardigan can
prove that he was not at fault.
The action is
involved and a bit formulaic. At first each of the partners tries to dissuade
their female sidekicks from being involved, but that attempt is half-hearted
and is easily seen to be a waste of effort. The reader knows very early which
piece of furniture each pair will soon be involved with.
The plot uses
the old standby of a secret government project that somehow either went awry or
was stolen for profit. That path has been used many times and not very well
here. This comic is lightly
entertaining, but there no real depth to the story. Yet, you read it because it
is strong enough to keep you to the end.
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