Star Trek: Volume 2
Written by Mike Johnson
Art by Joe Corroney, Joe Phillips
Colors by John Rauch
Letters by Neil Uyetake
IDW Publishing
Release Date: July 11, 2012
Cover Price: $17.99 | $9.67

I’m only a casual Trekker. I stumbled into Star Trek fandom after discovering the Enterprise series starring Dr. Sam Beckett on television one night – that’s still my favorite Trek series. Now, about a decade later, I’ll occasionally catch a random Next Generation episode on Netflix, but that’s where my interest begins and ends. Although I’ve made a few noble attempts, I just can’t sit through a full Original Series episode. This probably makes me an outcast in Trekker circles. To my surprise, I really dug the 2009 theatrical reboot of Star Trek and learned to love Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and all the rest through that movie. So, I was pumped when IDW announced a comic book follow-up that would bridge the movie to its upcoming sequel.

The first four issues of Star Trek were something of a disappointment. The stories were self-contained, trite, and inconsequential to any Star Trek canon. Thankfully, this trend does not continue in Star Trek: Volume 2, which collects issues #5-#8.

Star Trek/Doctor Who: Assimilation 2 #1
Written by Scott & David Tipton with Tony Lee
Art by JK Woodward
Lettering by Shawn Lee & Robbie Robbins
Covers by JK Woodward, David Messina & Joe Corroney
IDW Publishing
Release Date: May 30, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

As the world’s first and foremost NON fan of Doctor Who, I went into Star Trek/Doctor Who: Assimilation 2 #1 expecting to like the Star Trek parts and hate the Doctor Who parts. Well, you learn something new every day, right? While I’m not going to go out and buy one of those weird R2-D2-like trashcan things from Doctor Who, I now have a different view of the franchise than I did before.

What I loved about this issue is that it starts off with NONSTOP action, something that’s not really the norm in the Star Trek universe, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun. This issue, the Star Trek part anyway, takes place in the Next Generation universe. Writers Scott & David Tipton, accompanied by Tony Lee, lay out a really interesting comic here. There’s two big A-List villains teaming up, but we’re not sure how or why – a nice mystery that will come into play later in the series, I’m sure. Then, we switch over to the Doctor Who half of the story. I found this surprisingly entertaining. Again, I know next to nothing about Doctor Who and I came away from this issue actually liking the character of The Doctor. Now THAT’S writing! If you can make a reader interested in a character that they had NO interest in, you’ve done your job and then some.

This May, the worlds of Doctor Who and Star Trek will collide in comic book form with an all-new series coming to IDW Publishing.

The 8-issue series, called Star Trek TNG/Doctor Who: Assimilation2, will see the two scifi powerhouse franchises together for the first time in comic book form when The Doctor teams up with Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Star Trek The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2 will be written by Scott and David Tipton (Star Trek: Infestation), with help from longtime Doctor Who writer Tony Lee, and will feature fully painted artwork by J.K. Woodward (Fallen Angel). The comic will see the villainous Borg and Cybermen joining forces against our heroes. Check out the full cover here below.

Star Trek #5
Written by Mike Johnson
Art by Joe Corroney
Colors by John Rauch
Letters by Neil Uyetake
Covers by Tim Bradstreet
Creative Consulting by Robert Orci
IDW Publishing
Release Date: January 18, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

IDW continues adapting the classic Star Trek television episodes into comic book form starring the cast of the 2009 Star Trek reboot movie. Star Trek #5 is based on the classic Star Trek television episode, “Operation: Annihilate” written by Oliver Crawford and Steve W. Carabatsos.

Writer Mike Johnson takes a GREAT many liberties with the story that this issue is based on, and so far, it’s working out great. After all, it would be pretty boring if the story was beat for beat the same as the television episode and just drawn in with the actors that played the characters in the 2009 film.