Comic-Con: Original and New ‘Star Trek’ Timelines Collide in New Comic Book Storyline

July 22, 2016

3:36pm PT
by

Graeme McMillan

Comic-Con: Original and New 'Star Trek' Timelines Collide in New Comic Book Storyline

The original and current crews of the Starship Enterprise will swap ships in the two-part story.

The meeting that Star Trek fans have waited years for is about to happen, as the original crew of the Starship Enterprise meets the crew of the J.J. Abrams-reboot timeline's Enterprise… kind of.

As part of Friday's Star Trek Comics panel at San Diego Comic-Con, IDW Publishing editor Sarah Gaydos and writer Mike Johnson talked about the two-issue storyline closing out the current Star Trek monthly comic book, in which the Enterprises of the two different timelines encounter the same irregularity in space, leading to the crews accidentally crossing over into each other's realities as they swap bodies with their counterparts.

The crossover between the original timeline and what's become known as the Kelvin timeline — the name, which comes from the ship piloted by James Kirk's father in the 2009 reboot movie, was revealed last month — may not satisfy all fans, with Johnson quick to point out that the two crews never occupy the same physical space at any point during the storyline, but Gaydos points out that it does to a core tenet of Star Trek. "Problems are solved with science, and problems are solved with teamwork," she explained. "This is a story that emphasizes that."

The storyline concludes the 60-issue run of the current Trek comic book, but IDW will relaunch the series in October with Star Trek: Boldly Go, a series that will pick up on the status quo of the Enterprise crew following Star Trek Beyond, released in theaters today. The new series will also include original characters introduced in IDW's recent Starfleet Academy mini-series, Johnson said.

That wasn't the only new Trek comic announced during the panel, which also detailed the 50-year comic book history of the franchise as it hits the half-century mark; Gaydos and Johnson also revealed that the publisher will be teaming with DC Entertainment for a second Star Trek/Green Lantern crossover series, following up on last year's The Spectrum War storyline.

Details about that project remain under wraps beyond Johnson's involvement as writer and Angel Hernandez returning as artist, although Johnson joked that, despite what the on-screen graphic suggested, "the title's not going to be 'Volume 2'."

Star Trek No. 59, launching the "Altered Encounters" storyline, is available now in comic book stores and digitally.