Seen fleetingly throughout the recent Star Trek movies, the Starfleet Academy will take the spotlight this October for a miniseries at IDW from Mike Johnson, Ryan Parrot, and Derek Charm. Set partly during Spock, Uhura and Kirk's time in the academy, the series is set to focus not just on the well-known characters, but introduce a new group of cadets as well.

The miniseries will reportedly split its time between the 'past' antics of Kirk and co; and the 'current' line-up of students. As you can see in the cover above, it's a completely new set of characters here, and IDW has managed to avoid the "a bunch of white people and some aliens" trap that was waiting for them, so that's a promising start. Opening up the series for new audiences was a priority for the team; IDW says it's " designed to be an entry point for diverse groups of readers."

The weird school concept has a long history in comics, with the X-Men leading the way, and comics from Gotham Academy to Five Weapons jumping in with glee. This is not the first time Starfleet Academy has been explored in comics, and viewers also saw glimpses of the academy in the movie reboot --- Kirk spent his whole time breaking all the rules and making out, while Spock walked about being logical --- but this remains a corner of the Star Trek universe with plenty of scope for exploration.

 

Tony Shasteen
Tony Shasteen
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Johnson has been writing Star Trek for quite a while at IDW, and this year he'll be hitting issue #50 of the current series. That issue will adapt the "Mirror/Mirror" storyline for this alternate continuity and younger crew. You know; the only the one where they accidentally teleport into a different universe where Spock is evil and has a goatee! Tony Shasteen will provide the art for the issue, which goes on sale in October.

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