Star Trek is a comic book series by IDW Publishing, based on the Star Trek science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. Since 2007, IDW Publishing has released three Star Trek ongoing series along with many limited series, crossover series and annuals.
Publication history
2006–2010 On November 9, 2006, IDW Publishing announced that they had secured the publishing rights to Star Trek from CBS Consumer Products.
IDW's first title, Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between, is a six-issue limited series launched January 2007. The Space Between is written by David Tischman and drawn by Casey Maloney. This storyline was collected in trade paperback form in September 2007.
The second series Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell, launched in April, focusing on the Klingons' point of view on various episodes from the original series - the first four issues based around "Errand of Mercy", "The Trouble with Tribbles", "A Private Little War" and "Day of the Dove", respectively, and features a framing story based around the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
A third series started in July 2007, called Star Trek: Year Four, continuing the five-year mission of Kirk's Enterprise after the end of Star Trek: The Original Series. A fourth series, Alien Spotlight launched in September 2007, focusing on various alien races.
2008 saw the publication of the "Mirror Images" series, which tell the stories of Mirror Universe Kirk's overthrow of Captain Christopher Pike, and of the alternates of the Enterprise-D crew. In the same year they published Star Trek: Assignment: Earth, a mini-series that features the adventures of Gary Seven from the Star Trek TOS episode Assignment: Earth.
In 2009, IDW began to publish their first Star Trek: Deep Space Nine comic, the four-part Fool's Gold.
Also, in 2009, IDW published a prequel to the 2009 reboot/prequel film Star Trek, entitled Star Trek: Countdown.
In 2009, IDW published Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, written by Andy Schmidt and based on the second Star Trek movie, and the only movie that has never been in comic form from the Original Crew.NYCC '09 - IDW - Dr Who Monthly and More, Newsarama, February 7, 2009
Other recent series include Star Trek: Crew, Star Trek: Romulans, Pawns of War and Star Trek: Doctor McCoy, Frontier Doctor.
2011–2021
2009 film continuity In September 2011, IDW began publishing a new ongoing Star Trek series, set in the continuity of the 2009 Star Trek film. This series ran for 60 issues and concluded in 2016.
In January 2013, IDW began publishing Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness, a prequel to the film Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). Later that year, in October, they began publishing Star Trek: Khan, another tie-in, focusing on the film's antagonist Khan Noonien Singh.
A new ongoing, titled Star Trek: Boldly Go, was launched in 2016 and continues with the status quo established by the film Star Trek Beyond (2016). The series explored new situations such as "Kirk, McCoy, Sulu, and Chekov [transferring] over to the USS Endeavor, while Spock and Uhura settled on New Vulcan. Meanwhile, Scotty became an instructor at Starfleet Academy, with Jaylah as a student". The Borg were a reoccurring villain in the series and the last arc dealt with "multiversal chaos" which brought "together the Enterprise crews from several different realities". The series ran for 18 issues and concluded in 2018.
Original continuity In September 2012, IDW began a four-issue miniseries "Star Trek: The Next Generation - HIVE" about the return of Locutus of Borg.
In 2014, IDW worked with Harlan Ellison to publish a graphic novel based on his original screenplay for "The City on the Edge of Forever".
To coincide with the launch of Star Trek: Discovery, IDW published a 4-issue prequel series in 2018 entitled "The Light of Kahless," chronicling T'Kuvma's backstory and rise to Klingon warrior. Star Trek: Discovery Annual #1 recounted the first meeting between Lt. Paul Stamets and Dr. Culber – the first openly gay couple on Star Trek.
A new ongoing, titled Star Trek: Year Five, was launched in 2019 and continues the story of the Kirk's Enterprise from Star Trek: Year Four. The Hollywood Reporter commented that "the series will be written by a rotating team of talent, with a writer’s room made up of Brandon Easton, Jody Houser, Jim McCann and the team of Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing". The series concluded with issue #25 in 2021. Jared Mason Murray, for Screen Rant, highlighted that the creative team "have rendered what feels like the most accurate spiritual continuation of the beloved sci-fi television show. [...] Star Trek: Year Five is a worthy entry into the Star Trek mythos and will finally make sense of years of continuity confusion". Jamie Lovett, for ComicBook.com, highlighted the "near-anthology" and episodic format of series with a rotating creative team with change as the "overarching theme". Lovett wrote that "the writing has focused on showing how the characters from The Original Series became the changed character who returned for the Star Trek movies. [...] Star Trek: Year Five is a remarkable achievement for a licensed comic. Often, these titles have little new or exciting to offer fans of their source material and even less for those who aren't familiar, ultimately feeling redundant or vestigial. Star Trek: Year Five is neither. It set out on a mission to tell an essential missing chapter in the lives of these characters, and it succeeded".
Mirror Universe From 2017 to 2018, IDW published three limited series set in the Mirror Universe: Mirror Broken (2017), Through the Mirror (2018), and Terra Incognita (2018). These series focused on Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the ISS Enterprise. Mirror Broken was included on Screen Rant's 2022 "The 10 Best Star Trek Comics" list — the article states "one of the strengths of the miniseries is its ability to impart a lot of information in a digestible and fun-to-read manner. [...] Though the story isn't as fleshed out as other miniseries, it is still a fascinating glimpse into the mirror universe".
A new limited series, entitled Mirror War, was first published in 2021. It is a thirteen part continuation of the 2017–2018 Mirror Universe saga. It follows Picard's ongoing galactic conquest which draws the attention of the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. It will also have several issues which follow individual members of the ISS Enterprise crew.
2022–present Along with the continued publication of Mirror War (2021), IDW published two anthologies in 2022 — the relaunched Alien Spotlight series and Adventures in the 32nd Century (a Star Trek: Discovery tie-in) series. IDW also released The Mirror Universe Saga trade paperback, a reprint of a 1980s DC Comics run set in the Mirror Universe.
Star Trek, the flagship comic by Jackson Lanzing, Kelly, Marcus To, Loughridge and Clayton Cowles, is set in the period between Voyager and Nemesis. It has a roster of characters from several series, led by Benjamin Sisko. To reuse the character after the events of the Deep Space 9 finale, it was retconned that the prophets released him back into the physical world. The comic was followed by the spin-off comic Star Trek: Defiant, where Worf leaves Sisko's crew and creates his own one. It is also a roster of characters from many series, including an aged Spock from the original series. Both series made IDW's first comic-book crossover of the Star Trek franchise, Day of Blood. A spin-off miniseries titled Sons of Star Trek explored an alternate timeline where Jake Sisko and Alexander Rozhenko joined Starfleet.
Unrelated to the plots of the aforementioned comics, Star Trek: Holo-Ween (released near Halloween 2023) is set in TNG era and shows a holodeck malfunction that creates monsters. Star Trek: Picard's Academy narrates the stories of a young Jean-Luc Picard back when he was a student, in stark contrast with the recent live-action series Star Trek: Picard that depicted an aged version of the character. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The Scorpius Run is a comic set in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Crossovers In 2012, IDW published a six-issue limited series crossover featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes from DC Comics. This was followed soon after by the first-ever licensed crossover between the Star Trek franchise and Doctor Who. It was an eight-issue limited series titled Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation². These were the first of numerous crossover storylines featuring Star Trek characters interacting with characters from various franchises.
In June 2018, it was announced that there will be a Star Trek and Transformers crossover released in September titled Star Trek vs. Transformers.
Collected editions The various series have been collected in trade paperbacks. Ongoing series
Star Trek (2011–2016) Flagship series that ran for sixty issues, from 2011 to 2016. The series was marketed as Star Trek: Ongoing to differentiate it from other series. Issue(s)DateCollectionDateISBN1Where No Man Has Gone Before, Part 1Star Trek, Vol. 12Where No Man Has Gone Before, Part 23The Galileo Seven, Part 14The Galileo Seven, Part 25Operation: Annihilate, Part 1Star Trek, Vol. 26Operation: Annihilate, Part 27Vulcan's Vengeance, Part 18Vulcan's Vengeance, Part 29The Return of the Archons, Part 1Star Trek, Vol. 310The Return of the Archons, Part 211The Truth About Tribbles, Part 112The Truth About Tribbles, Part 213Star Trek, Issue 13Star Trek, Vol. 414Star Trek, Issue 1415Mirror, Part 116Mirror, Part 217Star Trek, Issue 17Star Trek, Vol. 518Star Trek, Issue 1819Star Trek, Issue 1920Star Trek, Issue 2021After Darkness, Part 1Star Trek, Vol. 6After Darkness22After Darkness, Part 223After Darkness, Part 324Star Trek, Issue 2625The Khitomer Conflict, Part 1Star Trek, Vol. 7The Khitomer Conflict26The Khitomer Conflict, Part 227The Khitomer Conflict, Part 328The Khitomer Conflict, Part 429Parallel Lives, Part 1Star Trek, Vol. 830Parallel Lives, Part 231I, Enterprise!, Part 132I, Enterprise!, Part 233Lost Apollo, Part 134Lost Apollo, Part 235The Q Gambit, Part 1Star Trek, Vol. 9The Q Gambit36The Q Gambit, Part 237The Q Gambit, Part 338The Q Gambit, Part 439The Q Gambit, Part 540The Q Gambit, Part 641Behemoth, Part 1Star Trek, Vol. 1042Behemoth, Part 243Eurydice, Part 144Eurydice, Part 245Eurydice, Part 346The Tholian Webs, Part 1Star Trek, Vol. 1147The Tholian Webs, Part 248Deity, Part 149Deity, Part 250Live Evil, Part 1Star Trek, Vol. 1251Live Evil, Part 252Live Evil, Part 353Reunion, Part 154Reunion, Part 255Legacy of Spock, Part 1Star Trek, Vol. 1356Legacy of Spock, Part 257Legacy of Spock, Part 358Legacy of Spock, Part 459Connection, Part 160Connection, Part 2
Boldly Go (2016–2018) Star Trek: Boldly Go series depicts events between the conclusion of Star Trek Beyond (2016) and the launch of the newly built . DateCollectionDateISBN1Boldly Go, Vol. 1234567Boldly Go, Vol. 28910111213Boldly Go, Vol. 31415161718
Star Trek: Year Five (2019–2021) Continues the story of Kirk's Enterprise from the mini-series Star Trek: Year Four (2007).