If you read only one Star Trek comic this year, make it Star Trek Annual 2024. As IDW’s Eisner-nominated line of Star Trek comics closes out their second year, big things remain on the horizon. The creative teams have strongly implied another major event is coming, on par with Day of Blood. While details remain mum at this point, Star Trek Annual 2024, may end up being a pivotal issue.
Star Trek Annual 2024 was written by the regular Star Trek team of Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly. They are joined for this issue by artist Rachael Stott. During the recently-concluded Tzenkethi story arc, chronicled in “Glass and Bone,” Data took leave of Starfleet. Data sees something that spooked him badly, and, realizing Starfleet would only hinder his search, leaves the organization he once called home.
In this issue, he returns, teaming up with his best friend Geordi La Forge as well as Chief Miles O’Brien to find Lore, whose plans threaten all reality.
IDW Stepped Up the Star Trek Comics Game in 2022
Star Trek Annual 2024 Is the Perfect Example of the Great Trek Comics IDW Publishes
The Star Trek comics license has been held by IDW since 2006, making them the publisher to have it the longest. In that time, IDW had produced quality Star Trek comics. However, in 2022, they raised the game significantly for future Trek comics, launching two new titles that, when read together, tell a grand and epic story with characters from nearly every incarnation of the franchise. Yet beyond being an Easter Egg-loaded fan service, IDW’s Star Trek titles tap into that sense of wonder and awe that makes Trek so popular.
All of Data’s quirks and idiosyncrasies are also on display in Star Trek Annual 2024, and indeed they help drive the story to its horrifying finish.
IDW’s relaunched Star Trek line has set itself apart from previous attempts by embracing the “wide-screen” style of storytelling that has become a hallmark of the comics’ scene, and that is on display in Star Trek Annual 2024. Not only does it mark the entrance of La Forge and O’Brien into the massive, overarching story the books are telling, but also offers a follow-up to one of Deep Space Nine’s most heart-breaking episodes. All of Data’s quirks and idiosyncrasies are also on display in Star Trek Annual 2024, and indeed they help drive the story to its horrifying finish.
What Lies Ahead for IDW’s Star Trek Line?
The Star Trek Creative Teams Have Hinted At Big Things to Come
In various interviews with ScreenRant and other publications, the Star Trek creative teams have hinted at another major event in 2025, and Star Trek Annual 2024 might well be the beginning of whatever is coming. Both Lore and Kahless, Day of Blood’s primary antagonists, are still at large, planning their revenge on Sisko and the Federation. Furthermore, the nefarious Section 31 has plans of their own, and hints of those begin to form as well in Star Trek Annual 2024. The best of IDW’s Star Trek line is yet to come, and Annual 2024 is where it all begins.