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.<ref>{ { cite news|title=Star Trek Returns With All-New Comics Voyages|date=December 2006|publisher=IDW Publishing|work=Spike: Asylum #4}}</ref> 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.
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.