Over the past few weeks I’ve been taking a deep dive into the potential future of the Star Trek franchise. As fans across the world celebrate 60 years since Captain James T. Kirk first set out on his five year mission across the galaxy the franchise faces an uncertain future. Following our away mission into Trek on film and on the small screen, today we’re venturing in a medium which remains a creative strong point for the legendary franchise.
Many fans don’t realise that Star Trek began its life in comics all the way back in 1967. Meaning the comics are also six decades old in their own right. Beginning life at Gold Key, the license has shifted over the years spending time at both Marvel and DC Comics before ultimately landing at IDW Publishing in 2007.
My own journey with Trek comics began with 1989’s Star Trek: The Next Generation #53. Although I’d like to point out I picked it up several years later second-hand. Seeing my favourite Trek show brought to life, especially in the pages of the same publisher who brought my favourite superheroes to life, sparked a life-long addiction to Trek on the page. Whilst IDW has plans through 2026 and beyond, could Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. – the home of DC Comics – signal a switch in publisher in the future?
The Future is Now…
Guess what? We’re returning to talk of the 2400’s because that’s exactly where IDW is about to launch its new flag ship Star Trek comic book. Announced back in February and simply titled Star Trek, the series will follow Captain Seven-of-Nine and the crew of the U.S.S Enterprise-G following the events of Star Trek: Picard season 3. Hailing from Eisner-nominated writer Christopher Cantwell (Star Trek: Defiant) and Ringo-nominated artist Dennis Menheere (Hello Darkness), the book launches in September 2026 alongside the 60th anniversary itself.
Publishing alongside the flag ship title will be Star Trek: Zero Point, a series which focusses on events in Federation territory whilst the Enterprise-G is exploring wacky new worlds outside the confines of normal space. This series, from Hugo Award-winning writer Charlie Jane Anders (New Mutants) will centres of Raffi who has left the Enterprise and now commanding her own vessel in a battle against a “powerful artificial intelligence wearing the face of a familiar ally.”
What this boils down to is that IDW simply gets it. The balance between new storytelling and legacy characters has been outstanding to watch in recent years. The recent Star Trek run by Hive Mind – aka Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly – was truly original. Whilst series like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The Seeds of Salvation dove into direct adaptation from Trek’s small screen output. IDW has also continued to celebrate the diversity of Star Trek with its wonderful Star Trek: Celebrations annual release for Pride Month.
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The publisher continues to tease exciting announcements ahead as part of the 60th anniversary year and the possibilities are endless. Something I’ve personally been hoping to see for a while is an anthology book which features stories set in the continuities of the various Trek TV series. Rather than attempting to get an ongoing Lower Decks or Deep Space Nine series off the ground. Why not create a Star Trek: Anthologies (working title!) book that features two or three short stories each month set within different Trek shows. A TOS-era story could sit next to Voyager and Discovery with a similar theme as a through line.
It would allow IDW to bring the entire pantheon of Star Trek to life in comics without long term creative commitment to ongoing storytelling. Think what BOOM! Studios has been doing with Hello Darkness, where some stories are broken up into multiple chapters and others are one-and-done. Honestly it could be incredible. I hope you’re listening IDW.
But of course the regime change at Paramount and the implications of purchasing DC Comics could put a pin in IDW’s future plans…
The Future is… DC?
Now this is pure guess work on my part and I’d like to preface this by saying I think IDW has done incredible work with the license. I’d like to see Trek remain with IDW long term. But there’s the added wrinkle that Paramount – the owners of Star Trek – are deep into the process of acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery in its entirety and that means they will soon be the owners of DC Comics. Alongside Trek, Paramount owns the theatrical licensing for Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joe and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sonic already sits at DC for crossovers whilst Transformers and G.I. Joe are at Image Comics. TMNT and the main Sonic the Hedgehog series sits alongside Trek at IDW Publishing.
We have no reason to believe Paramount would move any of those licenses over. But it has to be something the studio considers when they essentially have an in-house publisher which could allow them creative control over their IP across multiple mediums. I’m sure there’s a whole set of legalities around contracts with each publisher that holds a license. But with David Ellison and Paramounts big wigs talking about wanting to align the Star Trek brand the idea of comics moving in house surely has to be on their mind.
What could a Star Trek under DC Comics look like? The publisher has prove time-and-time again as it approaches its 100th anniversary celebrations that it can handle a shared universe. The recent launch of the Absolute Universe of comics has shown its ability to bring creative talent to a genuinely exciting premise that can take decades-old characters and still present them as something fresh for new audiences. DC could easily replicate what IDW undertook with the Hive Mind-era of Trek comics. Its dedication to diversity, publishing its own DC Pride Anthology each year shows a similar commitment to LGBTQIA+ storytelling to IDW.
But where DC has lacked in recent years is in some of its IP storytelling outside of its own characters. Recent Scooby Doo and AEW (a wrestling tie-in for us non-fans) comics haven’t had the audience impact they perhaps deserve as the publisher focusses on higher profile books like Superman and Batman. To flood an already packed publisher with multiple new popular and incredibly high profile licenses could leave a franchise like Star Trek on the back burner which, considering the success IDW has had, would be disastrous.
For now, whilst the merger of Paramount and WB rattles through the courts, we’ll have to enjoy what lies ahead. But it certainly seems that just like on the big and small screen, Star Trek comic books could also find themselves at a crossroads following the 60th anniversary.
