The only way I could think was to discuss my favorite ten Star Trek comic books. Yes they’re from DC, but I just don’t have the time or interest to read every single Star Trek comic book ever made.
Here are my ten favorites:
Mirror Universe Saga
Ok this one needs some explaining. When the series began it was set after Wrath of Khan. Which was fine, until Star Trek III came along. DC tied it’s contuniy to that of the movie and this story arc is basically all about how the crew went on after the events of Star Trek III. So we have Spock being healed, Kirk getting the Excelsior, and other things that had to be retconned when the next movies came around. Of course this is a return of the mirror universe characters and isn’t half bad. These stories were written by Mike W.Barr who is one of my favorite writers out there. I love his stuff in Batman, Camelot 3000 and yes his Star Trek run. In order to tell new stories this run had new characters, which makes sense it’s hard to do anything new with characters we’ve known for 25 years! You could argue the pro’s and con’s of this, but these new characters were a nice way to keep things fresh.
Star Trek Annual #1
The story of the first mission of the Enterprise under James Kirk! It’s an interesting idea, though to be fair the novel Enterprise is probably better, and while some of the stuff is silly it does what it’s supposed to. I think this was one of the first Star Trek comics I was exposed to, and it kept me reading. It’s pretty clear Barr tried really hard to have this be a believable “origin” story.
Star Trek Annual #2
So the first annual had the first mission, it only makes sense the second annual should the final mission. This issue tells the story of the end of the original five year mission, and is much better than the first. I especially like the hints of things to come in TMP, a nice attempt to blend the original series continuity into to the movie era.
Star Trek #35
After the events of Star Trek IV, the comic’s took off in a new direction. And this is where I finally jumped on board, and this was the run that I loved. Heck I even got my mother reading a few of these issues. This issue is cool because it is tightly focused on out characters, as they discuss their feelings (via thought balloon) about being back in action after all that has happened. This was written by Len Wein who really got the characters, in fact he wrote another one I’ll discuss at the end. Michael Carlin took over the run and did some good stuff including a three part follow up to “The Apple” that I thought was fantastic, but really it was when Peter David took over that I was really hooked. His run includes my favorite storyline…
Who Killed Captain Kirk?
I talked about Peter David in my article on novels, I loved Imazdi, and his comics were excellent. This was actually an arc in the final run of the first DC run. Written by Peter David, it’s a pretty good story. He knew how to keep the characters in character, and yet let them have fun. Ok, sometimes he let them have to much fin like in he idiotic “Bachelor Party” issue. In fact this trade leaves out that issue, even though events in it begin the arc! The story is full of references to the old series and good moments, and is even a decent mystery story with a twist in the end which makes sense. I still have this one and it’s worth a read.
Trial of James Kirk
So for whatever reason, DC cancelled the Star Trek comic and then a few months later picked it up again, still with David writing. These issues were different though, it was if David was trying to hard to be true to the characters. There wasn’t as much fun to these and in fact the made up characters we had before all disappeared. I guess that’s ok but those characters were there for a reason, there’s only so much you can do outside the box with the main characters. Anyway, this was a three part story which ended the opening arc and was really good. Even if I did end up dropping the title soon after. There was another storyline from this era called “Tests of Courage” which I don’t remember though I did have the trade.
Star Trek TNG Annual #1
So what about The Next Generation? To be fair most of the Next Generation issues are, well, stupid! The first six issues were based off ideas that were abandoned before the series actually premiered. So there is a lot of goofiness in there. The second series was better, but I never really read it. I did get a trade called The Best of Star Trek TNG and he one story that stood out for me was from Annual #1. It was called “The Gift” and was a Q story…written by John De Lancie! Yeah that’s pretty cool, and by the way Walter Koenig wrote a comic also.
Star Trek TNG Special #1
So what’s so special about this issue? To be honest I am not sure, except that the cover is pretty damn amazing. I did read Next Gen comics but whatever else I read I simply don’t remember. I know they did another Borg arc only crossing it with parallel reality where Picard stayed Locutus, another where Riker, Data and LaForge are presumed dead…and there were others that I sort of remember a little. I almost feel bad I didn’t read more of these.
The Modala Imperative
If you remember my article on novel you may remember the name Michael Jan Friedman popped up more than once. He also did this which is a sort of crossover between the old crew and the new. The first four issues take place during Kirk’s five year mission. Then the next four issues take place during the TNG era, using Spock and McCoy to bridge the two stories. It’s a pretty damn good read and Friedman did a great job leaving mysteries behind in the first part that are resolved in the second. They’re to separate stories which compliment each other beautifully.
Star Trek #33
This comic comes from the first run and I saved it for last because, well, I loved it. Even if it is full of problems, but is still damn good. As a celebration of the 25th anniversary of Trek, we get this story about the TV era crew meeting the movie era crew. How this came about makes sense (it ties into “Tomorrow is Yesterday), but there are problems within the artwork. Having the same character must have been confusing, or they were just rushed, because there are lots of gaffs in who is speaking and such. Still, not a bad idea and done pretty well. We get the character interactions you would expect between not only old and new for themselves but others too, and I read this a bunch of times. I think this is where I started reading, but who remembers.
Two honorable mentions:
I did read at least two of the movie adaptations, and they were pretty good. I give DC Comics credit for trying their series back into the movies rather than ignoring them. Granted you could argue the movies invalidate those stories, but DC did such a good job trying to tie them in that it all worked. How ere these as adaptations? Eh, see the AT4W episodes about them there isn’t much more I can add.
DC Comics always tried to keep it’s continuity in order, and in the 80’s they released a directory of sorts called “Who’s Who in the DC Universe” which catalogued every important character and team, heroes and villains. Since Star Trek was outside the normal continuity, they got their own special treatment. Who’s Who in Star Trek should really be called “Who’s Who in DC Comic’s Star Trek” but I guess the implication is the same. These were interesting and they did include stuff from the series and movies not just their own canon.
As I said this was just a drop in the bucket for Star Trek comics, and if I missed out on something you think is worth mentioning comment and let me know.
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