The summer of 1989 saw the release of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier which was met with a tepid reaction at the box office. Later that year DC Comics relaunched their Star Trek title with a new #1 scripted by Peter David, which picked up shortly after the events of The Final Frontier. This second volume would eventually run 80 issues before it wrapped up in 1996 and interesting enough, they are not considered to be canon.
In Star Trek #1 we are introduced to new Enterprise crew members, most notably is Lieutenant M’yra an female humanoid with horns and a tail that desperately wants to have sex with Sulu. (Which I have discussed here before). Lt. M’yra is an invention for the comics and clearly of the late 80s mold, and could very well be a distant cousin of Blue Devil.
Of course we need an ominous threat for Captain James T. Kirk and his crew to face down, which comes in
the form of The Salla of the Nasgul. After rescuing a fugitive Nasgul named Argus from certain death, Kirk finds himself in the midst of a civil war. The Nasgul are a race of aliens that appear to come from the same family tree is Mongul (again great job DC) whose imperious leader has the ability to telepathically melt people’s faces off.
And now that Kirk has interfered, he is targeted by The Salla of the Nasgul. And if things couldn’t get any worse for Kirk, the Klingon Ambassador to the Federation has put a bounty on his head.
I have never waded any further into the Star Trek comics than this first issue despite my lifelong appreciation for all things Trek. I am going to be completely honest here by saying that I have absolutely no desire to explore this series any further.
As a franchise I tend to believe that Star Trek is not necessarily suited to the funny books. You can look to the success of Star Wars who has had a great run across two publishers (Marvel & Dark Horse). But in that example you have a space opera filled with Jedi Knights, Sith Lords, and Stormtroopers. The are leaps and bounds more exciting than political intrigue and space battles between capital warships.
If you find yourself with literally nothing better to do I’m sure you’ll be able to pick up more than a few Star Trek back issues in your local comic book shop’s dollar bins.
