Wednesday Comics: Best of Trek

 Yesterday was the anniversary of the airing of the first episode of Star Trek back in 1966. It seems like a good time to talk about some Star Trek comics.

The earliest Star Trek comics were from Gold Key. They are pretty goofy for the most part, and the characters don't resemble their tv counterparts at all, but it's always interesting to see tie-in media from an age when there was very little of that media out there. These all have been collect in archives from IDW.

The Marvel Comics series of 1980-1982 is better than the Gold Key series, though it mostly fails to feel particularly Star Trekian. When it does, the episodes that inspired it are pretty obvious. It probably didn't help that Marvel was prohibited from using anything that wasn't in the first movie. IDW has collected much of the early Marvel stuff in an omnibus (now out of print).

DC had the Star Trek license for quite a while. Their output was on par with the best of the Marvel issues on average and better at times. Much of this has not been reprinted in a while (though there are Best of Peter David archives and other themed archives). A graphic novel by Chris Claremont and Adam Hughes Debt of Honor has been reprinted in a facsimile edition.

Revisiting the Wild Wild West

 

Just a reminder that my and Jim "Flashback Universe" Shelley's rewatch and commentary on the 60s TV show Wild Wild West continues over on Jim's blog. 

Wednesday Comics: New Old Stuff on Comixology

 Browsing the new comics listing on Comixology yesterday, I saw a few things I'd recommend from back in my comics reading youth.

Blackhawk (1988) #1

This prestige format series by Howard Chaykin was subtitled "Blood and Iron" for the trade, and now nice hardcover collection. It grounded these venerable Quality Comics characters in the the complicated historical era of World War II. Where the square-jawed nonentity of the Golden Age is reimagined as Janos Prohaska, a Polish former Communist. Only the first issue is out now (though the collection is), but it's only 1.99, so it's not that expensive to see if you like it.

Solo Avengers (1987) #7

I had a subscription to this title (it later changed it's name to Avengers Spotlight so it would be alphabetically near the other Avengers titles) for a short time for some reason back in the day. I don't remember anything about this particular issue, and I'm sure it's pretty forgettable. But I'm also sure they don't make them like this anymore and it's got art by Jackson Guice and Mark Bright. So if like me you dig comics that era, there are worse things to drop $1.99 on.

Star Trek Ranger: The Impossible Murder

Player Characters: The Crew of the USS Ranger, Federation scout ship:
Aaron as Lt., j.g. Cayson Randolph, Operations Officer
Andrea as Capt. Ada Greer
Dennis as Lt. Osvaldo Marquez, Medical Officer
Paul as Cmdr. D.K. Mohan, Chief Helmsman

Synposis: The Ranger is tasked with transporting the Yannidian Ambassador to Deep Space Station K-7 to negotiate a historic treaty, but the crew finds themselves investigating a murder when the ambassador transports up murdered.

Commentary: This adventure was adapted from a 1980 story in the Marvel Star Trek comic written by Mike Barr. The player's did a great job of investigation in the early part of the adventure and rapidly came up with the likely "how" of the murder, and some ideas as to why. Things slowed down a bit in uncovering the nefarious forces behind the plot, which was probably due to me not providing enough ways to get to the solution to that final puzzle. Mysteries are always a bit a tricky, and that's not less so with Star Trek Adventures than other systems.

Deep Space Station K-7  is of course the place where the Federation first encountered the tribble.

D&D Setting + TSR Game Mashups

 Here's an idea: Take a D&D (mostly 2e) setting and combine it with a non-D&D rpg also published by TSR. Here are a few:

Spelljammer XXVc (Spelljammer + Buck Rogers XXVc)

Buck Rogers is thrown into suspended animation and awakens in a world where magic is ascendant, and Earth is an occupied territory. This winds up being a bit like Shadowrun with rockets (XXVc already had a hint of cyberpunk to it), but the difference is genetic engineering and other high-tech feats would actually be accomplished via magic.

Another Spelljammer combo: Add the Buck Rogers Adventure Game for a pulpier approach.

All Alone in the Night (Ravenloft + Metamorphosis Alpha)

When the generation ship Warden left earth, the monsters went with it, and Dracula takes his real estate schemes to the stars! Like The Starlost, you would need isolated habitats, but here they would be ruled by various horrors. Vampire Hunter D could also be an influence here. 

Another Ravenloft option: Mix in Gangbusters with the monsters as mob bosses.

Wednesday Comics: Protector

The post-apocalyptic science fiction comic Protector recently concluded at Image. I've been told it's going to be renamed First Knife for the trade. I plugged this series by writers Simon Roy, Daniel Bensen and artist Artyom Trakhanov, previously. I thought it was worth mentioning again because the first issue is now available to read online for free on the Image Comics website.

Star Trek Endeavour: The Savage Syndrome (Part 2)

Episode 1.5: "SAVAGE SYNDROME"

Player Characters: 

The Crew of the USS Endeavour, NCC-1895, Constitution Class Starship (refit):
Andrea as Lt. Ona Greer, Ops Officer
Bob as Capt. Robert Locke
Gina as Cmdr. Isabella Hale, Helm Chief
Jason as Lt. Francisco Otomo, Chief Security Officer

Eric As Lt.Cmdr. Tavek, Science Officer
Tug as Dr. Azala Vex, Trill Chief Medical Officer

Synposis: After traveling to the research station on L-373-IV, the crew of Endeavour races against time to repair their shuttle craft and recover specimens that may hold a cure for a devastating neurologic illness, before an ion storm arrives--or the de-evolved former science team kills them.

Commentary: As mentioned in the first post, this adventure is a modified version of the introductory adventure "The Rescue At Xerxes IV," with an episode name borrowed from a story synopsis submitted for the aborted Star Trek Phase II series with a similar conceit.

The science team (as in the published adventure), felt they had discovered a possible treatment, maybe a cure, for Irumodic Syndrome. With time against them, the Endeavour crew were unsuccessful in getting all the samples they needed. The last one eluded their grasp. Still, they hoped some of it was a step ahead of none. 

Tavek, the Vulcan science officer debuting this adventure, wanted to find a cure for the atavism effecting the science team, and indeed all animal life on the planet. He at least succeeded in determining the cause was some ancient, biotechnological entity, activated by the ion storm. Who or what left it behind is a mystery.

Biotechnology (by that name) is perhaps not the go to explanation of Original Series mimicking Trek, but it made more sense to be than the "weird energy" explanation.