IDW Star Trek Comics for January

From the new Previews solicitations:

STAR TREK #5
Mike Johnson (w) • Joe Corroney (a) • Tim Bradstreet, Corroney (c)
The voyages of the new crew of the Enterprise continue in this re-imagining of the classic episode OPERATION: ANNIHILATE! Captain Kirk comes face to face with the ghosts of his past when a rescue mission reunites him with the last person he expects to see: his brother! STAR TREK feature writer/producer Roberto Orci oversees this continuation of the story from the blockbuster 2009 movie!
*2 regular covers will be shipped in a 4-to-1 ratio (4 Tim Bradstreet, 1 Joe Corroney)
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

STAR TREK/LEGION OF SUPERHEROES #4 (OF 6)
Chris Roberson (w) • Jeffrey Moy & Philip Moy (a) • Phil Jimenez, Chris Sprouse (c)
Working together to find a way back to their respective timelines, the Starfleet officers and Legionnaires have split into two teams, with members of both groups on each team. One group travels back in time to the moment when their own histories were truncated and this new blended timeline came into being, while the other team travels to the heart of the Imperial Planets of Earth. So as one team finds themselves witnessing what happened in the deep past to change history, the other team discovers the far reaching effects of the aftermath in the present.
*2 regular covers will be shipped in a 4-to-1 ratio (4 Phil Jimenez, 1 Chris Sprouse)
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

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I'm starting to wonder if by "along with new threats and characters never seen before," IDW simply meant new threats and characters would be a part of their TV episode retellings, and not the occasional new adventure mixed in between the retellings like I (and I think many others) inferred.

Still, I'm very psyched about this take on "Operation: Annihilate"-- it sounds like Kirk's brother is going to be alive!

 

I was wondering if nuKirk would have a brother after he was edited out of the movie. Which begs the question - where was he when the Kirks were adventuring through deep space on the Kelvin?

 

Didn't the parasites only make it to Deneva in 2266? Maybe this version takes place on Theta Cygni XII.

 

You know what would be awesome? If Kirk's brother looked just like William Shatner, since Shatner played the corpse in "Operation: Annihilate."

 

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe the distress call is for a completely different threat and the parasites are still going to show up later? It would certainly explain why he's still alive.

 

Probably with friends or relatives on Earth. Either the drunkle/step-dad from the new movie, or the uncle with the horse ranch from "Generations."

 

Hmmm, so I wonder if this means they're only doing reimaginings of episodes then? If they were going to do new stories you'd think they would want to do one as one of the first few arcs.

 

well hopefully they'll get to original stories after they do the episode reimagine ones.
after all there onlly 69 episodes of the original series. and we can get a full five year mission this time around.

 

You know, they need to bring in Arex and Mress. With the movie's budget, we could finally see them on screen as well.

 

79, actually. (80 if you count "The Cage.") At two issues per story, that would be 158 issues. Of course, they could do the animated episodes too, which would bring in Arex & M'Ress like MatthiasRussel suggested, and since those were only a half hour they might be able to be done in one issue each. So that'd bring us up to 180 issues. At 12 issues a year, that means we'd finally see some original stories in 2026. Hopefully J.J. Abrams will have loosened up the reigns some by then.

 

Yeah, I never got why the various episode guides and such counted both parts as one episode. One story, sure; but it's definitely two episodes. It even aired on two separate weeks.

Which raises another question-- could "The Cage" have even happened to Captain Pike in this timeline? I'm not sure of the date that it took place, but it seems with Kirk now being in charge of the Enterprise during the time that Pike originally had been, it might end up happening to Kirk instead. And Spock now hasn't served with Pike for 11 years, so would he have the same loyalty to him to be willing to risk his life and career for him?

And most importantly-- how many issues of the new comic would it take them to tell the story?!?

 

"The Cage" is set before the alt-Entrerprise was completed. But, I guess it could have happened with Pike in command of another ship - the Yorktown, maybe.

 

I think they're going to try to do as many of these reimagined stories as possible before Star Trek XII. Who knows, they may be harder to do afterwards if the status quo is dramatically changed in the next movie...

 

Evidently it was counted as one episode in the original production numbers. The production numbers for "The Menagerie" are 6149-16A and 6149-16B, so officially both parts were counted as episode 16. I guess the numbering conventions in Hollywood were different at the time, or maybe it was a Desilu convention and Paramount used a different numbering system.

"The Cage" happened in 2254, which would be about a year before Abramsverse Kirk enrolled in the Academy -- at which point the Abramsverse Enterprise would've still been in the early stages of construction. So it's conceivable that Pike could've gone to Talos IV, but it would've had to be on a different ship.

Of course, these comics are playing pretty damn fast and loose with the timing of these retold stories, putting them in 2258 or so even though the Prime versions happened in 2265-7.

 

I never thought that movie-Pike was permanently confined to a wheelchair. I thought then, and still think now, that Pike was in a wheelchair because he'd just suffered from torture at Nero's hands and his legs weren't strong enough to support him at that point in time.

 

Not with those exact words, no. But by equating the two situations, it was certainly the impression you left.