It’s been a while since IDW’s ongoing Star Trek comic wrapped up a blockbuster run, and in the meantime the publisher has been delivering a plethora of other series set across the Trek timeline. But now that Star Trek is turning 60 this year, it’s time for the main book to boldly go once more… and a deliver a story that fans have been waiting for.
io9 can exclusively confirm that later this year, IDW will celebrate Star Trek‘s big anniversary with a relaunch of its main Trek title with a new creative team and storyline—as well as an accompanying sister series—that will follow the adventures of the USS Enterprise-G and its captain, Seven of Nine, after the events of Star Trek: Picard‘s final season and pick up on fan demand to see the 25th-century adventures of the latest addition to the venerable line of starships Enterprise.
Written by Christopher Cantwell, with art by Dennis Menheere and lettering by Jodie Troutman, the new Star Trek ongoing will see Seven lead the Enterprise on a top-secret mission to a hidden region of space, beyond the four charted quadrants of the Star Trek galaxy as we know it, to investigate a mysterious power that threatens to unravel the Federation.
© Dennis Menheere/IDW
“As we look back on 60 years of Star Trek, we celebrate a story universe that has actually always been about looking forward—a shared dream swirling within the daunting wonder and awe of the stars,” Cantwell said in a statement provided to io9. “I discovered Star Trek at the age of 10 and my life was never the same. The worlds, the people, the stories that wrestled with the work it takes to build community and consensus, to establish and hold sacred values like peace and harmony, the tenuousness of truce amid a galaxy of agendas and perspectives. That is the magic of Star Trek—the kaleidoscopic wonder of its complex themes and notions.”
“In building a brand new Star Trek adventure, we seek to do just that: create something brand new, something that looks entirely forward into the hope of the complete—and at times frightening—unknown, all as our ensemble of characters stands shoulder to shoulder, facing the expanse of an adventure never dared before,” Cantwell continued. “There is an abundance of incredible mythos that Star Trek has given us over six decades, but with this launch we seek to shed that past even as we embrace its best qualities.”
But the new mainline isn’t the only comic story we’re getting set in that familiar timeframe. Launching in October of this year, the main Star Trek series will be joined by Star Trek: Zero Point, written by someone very familiar to longtime io9 audiences: Hugo Award-winning novelist and site co-founder Charlie Jane Anders. Zero Point will be set during the time Seven of Nine has taken the Enterprise beyond the reaches of the known galaxy and will follow another familiar face: her partner Raffi Musiker, who has been tasked with leading a new crew aboard a starship tasked with a similarly risky endeavor: using a new predictive artificial intelligence built to (wearing a mysterious, but familiar face) be the vanguard defending the Federation from the threats of tomorrow before they even begin.
© IDW
“I’ve loved Star Trek for as long as I can remember—literally, some of my earliest memories are of wearing a homemade Starfleet uniform and waiting to get beamed up,” Anders added in a statement to io9. “I’m putting all my favorite Trek things into this comic: problem solving, ethical dilemmas, identity crises, and above all, chosen family.”
“At the same time, I’m determined to write a Trek comic that newbies can read with no homework required: there are no easter eggs, no callbacks to deep lore,” Anders concluded. “Anyone who loves Becky Chambers or Martha Wells ought to be able to pick up this comic and get a fun science fiction story about artificial consciousness and exoplanets. Also, I’m talking to tons of physicists to get the most accurate science I can into this comic. I’m having the time of my life.”
Those won’t be the only Trek comics coming this year, of course. Two new celebratory one-shots will also release in May and September. The first coming in May, Star Trek: Celebrations 2026, sees the return of IDW’s pride anthology, celebrating LGBTQIA+ characters from across the franchise with stories from queer creatives. You can check out a few of the variant covers featuring a few of those characters and couples below!
© Adelle Kincel/IDW © Noah Dao/IDW © Linnea Jalando-on/IDW
A few months later in September, timed around Trek‘s actual anniversary date, is a 50-page Star Trek 60th Anniversary Special, which will unite a plethora of Star Trek comics creatives—including Dana Gould, Ryan North & Derek Charm, David Walker, Megan Camerena, and more, with covers by Michael Cho, John Tyler Christopher, Chris Fenoglio, and others—to tell stories drawn from across the last 60 years of Star Trek storytelling.
We’ll bring you more on IDW’s plans for Star Trek‘s big year as and when we learn them.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
