Yesterday, I ordered The Complete Comic collection (along with Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, NF: Treason, and Vanguard: Open Secrets) and I wanted to start with the best comics first. So which ones does everyone consider the best? I actually plan on reading at least most of the DC, Marvel (90s), and Wildstorm comics, so it's mostly a matter of what order I want to read them in, not which I'm going to read.
Marvel's Early Voyages. Best Star Trek comics ever. After that, most of Marvel's second run is pretty good, and there's some pretty good stuff by Wildstorm.
What Daddy Todd said. Although I would extend that through...oh about issue #36 or so. That takes you up to TVH and will nab you a cool sequel to WOLF IN THE FOLD and a couple of nifty tales penned by Diane Duane.
Oh yeah, good point! The first DC series kicked off with Mike Barr's excellent writing, and wrapped up with Peter David's stellar issues. In between, a number of writers contributed issues that were, in my opinion, generally good to great -- apart from Mike Carlin's 7 issues, which just didn't work for me. YMMV.
I love volume 1 of DC's Star Trek but there's nothing wrong with volume 2. The first dozen issues were pretty excellent. I didn't care for a lot of what came after. Peter David left shortly thereafter and Howie Weinstein's work was kind of hit and miss for the next couple of years.
I know how everyone feels when they've written this glorious and wonderful post and have it fall into the ether. That's the case with my discussion of Star Trek comics. Anyhow, where to begin? My all-time favorite Classic Trek story came out in hardcover and was written by Chris Clarement and Adam Kubert. Great story and great art. Also, IDW is producing many good titles these days. I do wish they'd get the rights to Deep Space Nine and Voyager at least. My favorite miniseries iis "Klingon: Blood Will Tell." This was advertised as "the view from the other side," and I figured it would just be a mirror of the Klingons in there. Nope, it seamlessly got all the Trek appearances together then had a battle royal in the shadow of Star Trek VI. If you like aliens, check out the Alien Spotlight. One was a John Byrne story on Romulans via Caligula. It did so well that they're doing another set, with the first issue on the Tribbles and a second one on the Klingons (which is as close as the turtleheads would like it). If you like Dorothy Fontana, she wrote "Star Trek: Year 1, Part 2." or something like that. If you wonder whatever happened to Arex and the female Romulan commander, you'll find out here with pencilling by (IMHO) the best artist in the Trekiverse, Gordon Purcell. For some reason, the TNG series hasn't thrilled me. I still don't know what happened at the end of their first series, and then the TNG Enterptise D goes searching for intelligence, and doesn't find any! But the latest Next Gen series does a "what if" story on what would have happened if Kirk had been killed before the big battle in Star Trek VI, which mostly puts NOP (Not Our Picard) on the front line of rebels agains the Klingons who have captured Earth. The final page of this series is worth the price of administration. Oh, and Wesley gets a craaaaaaaaaaaaazy hairstyle. Peter David brings his New Frontier to IDW with a series featuring the characters from his series of novels. John Byrne wrote new adventures for Gary Seven and his perky companion in what is not surprisingly called "Assignment Earth.' I'll wrap this up. John Byrne delivers a miniseries explaining the battles and prejudice enountered by "Number One" under Christopher Pike. There's also a great story that ties the first Enterprise mission with the crew's last clash, including why Kirk, Spock and McCoy went their separate ways before ST:TMP. There's also a cool Alien Spotlight series that focuses on Tribbles and then Klingon (though not in the same issue). Sorry if I ran two long. I was a comic reader for a decade before I beamed into the Enterprise. I hope you find some good stuff in there. IDW is also publishing compiled trade paperbacks. I concentrated on the modern stuff because it gets mighty quiet when there weren't Trek comics around, and that wasn't long ago.
The hardcover Trek comic by Chris Claremont was Debt of Honor, and it was illustrated by Adam Hughes and Karl Story, not Adam Kubert. It's called Star Trek Year Four: The Enterprise Experiment.
Fo'sho. When I was a kid, I didn't much care for the art because it didn't look exactly like the characters or the universe. But now I look at the art and enjoy the interpretation of Trek through the lens of Sutton and Villagran. They gave the 23rd century an almost pulpy sci-fi comic feel, imo.
While I appreciate the thought, I was actually just asking about the pre-IDW stuff that's on the DVD. I've actually been following the IDW stuff pretty closely, although sadly I've only been able to get a handfull of issues so far. And I even actually been able to finish any of the miniseries that I've started, mostly because it's a pain to try and get to the nearest comic shops. I'm think about starting to order some of the issues from Things From Another World though.
>>The hardcover Trek comic by Chris Claremont was Debt of Honor, and it was illustrated by Adam Hughes and Karl Story, not Adam Kubert.<< You're on the mark, Chris. Let this be omething of a lesson: when the computer punts you two times in 10 minutes, go to bed! >>It's called Star Trek Year Four: The Enterprise Experiment.<< Again, very true. I guess I was trying to keep the word count down since I wanted Lit readers to look over what I was trying to say. As far as focusing on the contemporary comics, I've seen analysis after analysis on analysis on Debt of Honor and older comics with very little of IDW Trek. IMHO, those folks are doing good to great Trek, and I don't mind tooting their horn when the opportunity presents itself. And that's the truth...
^Fine, but this particular thread is about the Complete Collection DVD which contains everything pre-IDW. So while a discussion of IDW's work is certainly worth having, it should be in a different thread.
Can I say again just how annoying it is the comic collection isn't available in the UK? Thank God for IDW releasing the Best of DS9, Peter David etc though.
the first DC series has some good stories the marvel Early Voyages & Academy from marvel is really good you should start with these
I got the DVD last night, so I went ahead and read the first issues of the DC's first TOS series, and Early Voyages, and both were great. Does anyone know if anything got lost during the scanning process? There was a page in Flesh of My Flesh (EV#1) where it looked like a panel on the top might have been missed. Oh, and I absolutely loved both issues. It was especially interesting going back the TOS series, and seeing what non-screen Trek was like back then. I think that was possibly the earliest non-screen story I've read.
Are you talking about the sixth page of the story, where the first panel has Mohindas warning Pike of "a massive energy build-up on the alien craft"? The bottom panel of that page is pure white with just a bit of text superimposed, to indicate the energy surge whiting out the scene (or the crew being rendered unconscious, or both). I can see how that might look like a page that was scanned wrong and missing its top portion.
No, it was where Pike and Number One were talking in the lounge when he was recruitig her. But now that I put the disc in to double check, I think it's just that the close up of them talking is overlapping the far shot of the lounge.