10 Comic Book Tie-Ins That Redeemed Bad Movies
1. Star Trek: Countdown
The 2009 Star Trek film was a shock to old school fans of Trek. A more action-oriented affair, in line with director J.J. Abrams' future outing for the Star Wars franchise, it was a massive hit with critics and audiences alike. It rewrote the timeline of all known Star Trek canon by simply starting out on a time travel story, and focused on these characters based off that “for want of a nail” cascade effect.
This comic is a prequel to that story, building on the weakest part of the film: the villain, Nero. Star Trek: Countdown is not a prequel to the 2009 movie in a conventional sense but rather acts as a prologue to the full story that creates the Kelvin Timeline.
The downfall of Nero is tragic and heartbreaking because he was the idealist, agreeing with the Federation and trying to get his fellow Romulans to listen to him about the upcoming celestial disaster. That failure to his people, and some other massive problems shifts him to the antagonist role and builds him to being on par with Khan. Seriously!
It’s the build-up and history that makes this redeem the massive failing of Star Trek 2009. There is also a large amount of extended cameos from the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew and we learn that parts of the time-traveling ship are Borg tech, adding a further depth to one of the film's most underdeveloped elements.