‘The Last Starship’ Picks Up on Two of the Biggest Missed Opportunities in Modern ‘Star Trek’

When IDW announced its latest Star Trek comic, The Last Starship , much of the focus was on the fact that the series would, somehow, resurrect Captain James T. Kirk for a story set in the 31st-century timeline introduced in Star Trek: Discovery . Now the series is here; the premise is much more than nostalgia for the original Trek captain but instead a fascinating way to explore not one but two different major plotlines developed in contemporary Star Trek ‘s streaming age—ideas that Star Trek largely abandoned on TV.

The first issue of The Last Starship —written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, with art by Adrian Bonilla and Heather Moore, and lettering by Clayton Cowles—is set in the first of those two missed opportunities: the immediate outbreak of “The Burn”