Marvel's Star Trek Comics (1980-82)

[BillJ]

Admiral James Kirk wrote:

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Christopher do you really prefer Jo Duffy to David Michelinie? I mean isn't that like comparing grape juice to a bottle of Dom? Sure grape juice is nice but Dom Pérignon is Dom Pérignon! I can't imagine preferring the creator of Lahsbees and Huks to the creator of Shira Brie and the Tarkin.

I just think Christopher has his '>' going the wrong way.

[Steve67]

Christopher wrote:

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^I felt each of the regular writers of Marvel's Star Wars comic was an improvement on the previous one. Roy Thomas < Archie Goodwin < David Michelinie < Jo Duffy. Not that I had a problem with Goodwin's writing, I just found his successors' work even more satisfying.

I'm a lifelong fan of Michelinie's and thought his work with Walt Simonson and Tom Palmer was among the book's finest moments. Issues #51-52 come to mind...regardless of the Death Star connection. I loved Goodwin's "Wheel" saga and that distinctive Carmine Infantino/Gene Day artwork.

[Christopher]

I've been immersing myself in TMP-era stuff lately, partly as research for the TMP-era portions of Forgotten History and partly for fun, and I just finished a read-through of the Marvel series (not counting the TMP adaptation). I remembered our discussion of the TOS elements that got slipped past the radar, and decided to make a list of the ones I found. There's actually a remarkable number of TOS/TAS concepts and even characters that were used or alluded to in these 15 issues, despite the "ban" on their inclusion -- especially in the issues written by Martin Pasko. Here's the list (which might not be entirely comprehensive):

• Issue #4 & 6: Admiral Fitzpatrick (from "The Trouble With Tribbles")
• #5: Klingon mind-sifter
• #6: Ensign Kirk's service on the Republic (though the story contradicts what "Obsession" established about the Farragut being Kirk's first deep-space assignment); pilot-era uniforms
• #8: Mr. Kyle
• #8 & 13: Klingon stasis weapon (from "More Tribbles, More Troubles") -- only referenced in #8 but actually used in #13
• #8, 10, 17: the Prime Directive
• #9: A TOS-style USS Endeavor; pilot-era uniforms; "transtater" [sic] as basis of Starfleet tech
• #11: Mr. DeSalle; Berthold rays and a reference to Omicron Ceti; mentions of Carolyn Palamas and Mira Romaine
• #12: Galactic barrier and references to the Valiant and Enterprise encountering it; discussion of Kirk/Rand romantic tension; a Class J cargo ship; "Jeffries tube" [sic]; Elba II referenced
• #13: Joanna McCoy, and a reference to her time as a nurse on Cerberus ("The Survivor"); the Organian Peace Treaty; pergium; "pon far" [sic] and its 7-year cycle; engines in "red zone proximity" with four hours to blow ("The Savage Curtain"); choriocytosis and strobolin ("The Pirates of Orion")
• #14: "Class M" planet; Hodgkins' Law of Parallel Planetary Development
• #14, 15: cordrazine
• #14, 16: neutronium
• #15: cloaking device; Antosians and their metamorphic abilities ("Whom Gods Destroy"); Argan sur-snake ("The Ambergris Element"); the Vulcan inner eyelid ("Operation: Annihilate"); alternative terms for mind-meld such as "mind-touch" and "mind-fusion"
• #16: Matter transmuters reminiscent of those from "Catspaw"
• #17: tritanium

So that's three canonical non-TMP characters who slipped past the radar and actually appeared in the comic: Admiral Fitzpatrick, Mr. Kyle, and Mr. DeSalle. Four if you count Joanna McCoy, whose existence was established onscreen in TAS: "The Survivor."

[Therin of Andor]

Christopher wrote:

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• #15: Argan sur-snake ("The Ambergris Element")

Ah cool! One to add to my Toon Trek pages. Thanks!

[Christopher]

^Only one? So you already have the references to the Klingon stasis weapon, Joanna and Cerberus, and choriocytosis and strobolin?

[Therin of Andor]

Christopher wrote:

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^Only one? So you already have the references to the Klingon stasis weapon, Joanna and Cerberus, and choriocytosis and strobolin?

I think so. I have a major update coming at some point. There was so much Joanna McCoy stuff, I think I didn't end up making her a TAS-first reference in the list, because she did exist before TAS, just not canonically. I may end up putting her in.

[Christopher]

^Well, the idea of Joanna existed before TAS, in a 16-page story outline by D. C. Fontana, but as far as I know, "The Survivor" is the first time Joanna is referenced in an actual, completed and released (and arguably canonical) work of professional fiction. Even the Gold Key comics that give McCoy a daughter named Barbara were published after TAS ended, as was Joe Haldeman's Bantam novel Planet of Judgment (which referenced Joanna as McCoy's daughter but used "Honey" as his wife's apparently legal name).

[Therin of Andor]

"Hi Honey, I'm home."

As useful a name as Lovey Howell.

[JD]

Christopher wrote:

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I've been immersing myself in TMP-era stuff lately, partly as research for the TMP-era portions of Forgotten History and partly for fun, and I just finished a read-through of the Marvel series (not counting the TMP adaptation).

Have you read Marvel's Untold Voyages series, from their '90s Trek comics? I've been thinking about checking that out one I finish the DC TNG arc I'm reading.

[Therin of Andor]

JD wrote:

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Have you read Marvel's Untold Voyages series, from their '90s Trek comics? I've been thinking about checking that out one I finish the DC TNG arc I'm reading.

Highly recommended.

[Christopher]

One other non-TMP source that was referenced in the '80s Marvel series was the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology. Issue 6 shows the Republic as a class of ship from the SFC (Baton Rouge class), and issue 9 gives dates that establish the story as taking place in 2214, which is close to the SFC timeline, though a few years early (according to Memory Beta, the SFC apparently put TMP in 2217).

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

JD wrote:

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Have you read Marvel's Untold Voyages series, from their '90s Trek comics? I've been thinking about checking that out one I finish the DC TNG arc I'm reading.

Don't forget the post-TMP comics (not included in the comic collection DVD), which can be found here.

[Greg Cox]

ryan123450 wrote:

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I read these on the Comics DVD and was struck by how many rediculous stories there were. Dracula, Gnomes, Ghosts, etc. I know they were working under limitations, but seriously? There were a few hard scifi stories as I recall that were far better than the majroity in terms of story quality.

As I recall, the issue with the Dracula cameo was done by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, who were also doing Marvel's TOMB OF DRACULA series at the time, so that was probably a bit of an in-joke. (It was only one or two panels, right?)

Or maybe they just had Dracula on the brain . . . .

[Christopher]

Marv Wolfman wrote, yes, but Dave Cockrum and Klaus Janson illustrated the issue. It was two pages' worth of material, and it included Spock saying that "Dracula was an Earth legend who supposedly survived 500 years until slain by a man named Quincy Harker. There were reports of his return, but they proved to be unfounded!" Since there's no "Quincy Harker" in Stoker's Dracula, I'm assuming that's a Marvel character.

Although "Dracula" and the other supernatural visitations were actually mental projections which a Klingon device drew from the mind of a horror-film archivist, as part of a convoluted plot to capture the Enterprise so they could study its new engines. Interesting that both of Marvel's post-TMP comic series, this one and Untold Voyages, opened with stories about the Klingons trying to capture the refitted Enterprise. But the latter one didn't involve anything as, err, creative as what Marv Wolfman came up with. Capture the ship by attacking it from inside with solid mental projections of old movie monsters? Why, that's a much more straightforward and effective scheme than just surrounding it and shooting at it!

[Cadet49]

Christopher wrote:

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Sure, it's not like Star Trek would ever have done an episode about a haunted house, or Jack the Ripper, or Alice and the White Rabbit...

...or a recreation of the Old West, meeting a Greek God, Romans in Space ...
Seriously, those bizarre, Twilight Zone-ish episodes that made the classic Trek so great ... you never knew what to expect "out there"!

I just recently read those 80s Marvel comics, and thought many of them were great - really keeping with the tone of TOS.