Seven Captains the Enterprise‑G as IDW Unveils a Full Fleet of New Star Trek Comics for the 60th Anniversary

Seven captains the Enterprise‑G as IDW unveils a full fleet of new Star Trek comics for the 60th anniversary, expanding the franchise with bold new stories across multiple series.

Now that’s more like it! IDW looks to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Star Trek with the introduction of multiple new Trek comic series.

The most shocking and exciting is simply titled Star Trek, following in the footsteps of the previous IDW volume that focused on the return of Captain Sisko. This new ongoing series will feature Captain Seven of Nine and the crew of the USS Enterprise-G (so, kind of Star Trek: Legacy).

Following the adventures of the newest Starship Enterprise seen in Star Trek: Picard, Seven and her crew—which we assume will include Picard’s son Jack and Geordi’s daughter Sidney—head out on new missions. The book is described by writer Christopher Cantwell as “boldly going where literally no one has gone before… not even Star Trek itself.” The first issue hits in September.

Another series, Star Trek: Zero Point, looks to explore a different part of the post-Picard 25th century. Captain Raffi Musiker leads another ship and crew who are described as using a powerful AI to prevent tomorrow’s disasters. The AI is said to “wear the face of a familiar ally that may know too much and understand too little about hope.” It’s not clear yet, but the book may be ongoing, similar to Star Trek: Defiant. This one arrives in October.

May will bring a new Star Trek one-shot comic starring LGBTQIA characters, titled Star Trek: Celebrations. Later this year, another one-shot special will celebrate Star Trek’s 60th anniversary in a 50-page comic, though details are limited.

The final new release is a mini-series called Lost Contact, starring the new officers and cadets from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. A training mission goes awry, leaving Caleb, Genesis, Jay-Den, Kyle, and Tarima on a planet, cut off from Captain Ake and the USS Athena, and forced to make first contact with an alien species. The first issue hits April 15—only a month after the season one finale streams. Hopefully, we’ll get more Starfleet Academy merchandise and tie-ins without waiting years for anything to appear.

Our Thoughts

• The Enterprise-G book with Seven sounds great, though the art seems a little too stylized for a Star Trek comic. The cover clearly shows Seven, Sidney, and Jack, but there’s also a Klingon. Could this be Alexander? A Vulcan and an Andorian also appear. Hopefully, it’s not the Andorian from the previous Star Trek comic.

• I’m also concerned about the uniforms. Why do we have to have new uniforms with every goddamn new comic? What was wrong with the ones from Picard season three? The designs from the previous comic and Defiant were godawful.

• The Raffi book sounds equally great. My first thought—could this AI be Data? The description doesn’t read that way. Could it be some other AI from Trek’s past? Kirk certainly faced off against his fair share. And Raffi Musiker as captain? Interesting.

• Though having some legacy representation is great, it quickly fizzles when we have books like the previous Star Trek volume and Defiant with mostly legacy characters. Why were Dr. Crusher, Data, B’Elanna, Scotty, and Spock all aboard the two hero ships? It didn’t make sense in-universe, especially when Nemesis established Crusher and Data were still aboard the Enterprise-E.

• Star Trek: Celebrations is the one I’m least looking forward to. These types of one-shots are no-point stories featuring characters from NuTrek who have some strained LGBTQ connection. I’m all for gay characters, but trying to shoehorn in Sulu and Chapel or IDW’s so-called “woke” creations into a book with all-boring characters misses the mark. But at least they got Seven and Raffi’s uniforms correct! Okay, I’ll shut up about the uniforms. In all seriousness, why not devote the space to a story that moves Adira forward post-Discovery, or even Stamets, or Seven and Raffi? Five-page stories with Kelvan-universe Sulu, Mariner, or SNW’s Chapel are nothing but filler. There were no pride flags on the Enterprise—because in Gene Roddenberry’s version of the future, it just wasn’t necessary.

• Similar to Celebrations, I expect the 60th anniversary book to also be mostly filler, but based on a few of the writers and artists, it could still be an interesting pickup.

• Though some of the writing in Starfleet Academy is just bad, I like the characters and hope to see more of them in books and comics. Kudos to IDW and Paramount for making this happen so quickly.
  

Despite a few concerns, I’m even more excited about this wave than when the Sisko and Worf comics launched. The recent Star Trek: Voyager — Homecoming mini-series has been very good, as has Star Trek: The Last Starship. What’s next? Worf and the last days of the Enterprise-E? TNG/DS9/VOY in TAS style? A DS9 “Picard Season 3”-type story? Post-Picard S3 Deanna Troi and Beverly Crusher team-up? Those are free to use, IDW!

Our updated fan art version of DC's Star Trek: The Next Generation #19:

and the original from 1989: