STAR TREK: 60TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL REVIEW — SIX DECADES, TEN TEAMS, ONE MASSIVE TREK CELEBRATION!

Sixty years of Star Trek is a whole lot of captains, questionable admirals, busted transporters, Klingon drama, cosmic weirdness, and people learning very important lessons five minutes after somebody ignored the obvious warning sign. IDW’s Star Trek: 60th Anniversary Special could have played this celebration safe, rolled out a few familiar faces, polished the delta shield, and called it a day. Instead, this oversized anthology lets ten different creative teams bounce around the franchise, and the result feels less like a museum tour and more like somebody handed a bunch of Trek-loving creators the keys and told them to take the ship around the block.

That variety is the book’s biggest strength. David Gerrold opens with “Escape from the Planet of Mudd,” and immediately you know this special is not trying to maintain one serious anniversary voice for sixty-plus pages. The story has the kind of mischievous old-school Trek rhythm where a ridiculous problem is treated with total sincerity, and JP Buzio’s art leans into the comedy without making the characters look like parody versions of themselves. From there the issue keeps switching gears. Dana Gould and Megan Levens go more character-comedy with “The Engineer’s Dilemma,” while Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos give “Sulu” a moodier, more intimate texture that feels almost like somebody dimmed the bridge lights and told the story to breathe.

That constant change in visual language could have made the whole book feel like a convention program with random pages stapled together, but the anniversary format actually makes the inconsistency part of the fun. Derek Charm’s work on Ryan North’s “The Sesquipedalian Gambit” is bright, clean, funny, and built for timing, while Michael and Laura Allred make “The Search for Season Six” look like Trek got caught in one of those glorious pop-art transporter accidents where everything somehow comes out cooler. Chris Fenoglio’s “The Search for Archer” has a lighter, animated bounce, and the later stories push into stranger and darker territory without losing the sense that this is still one giant love letter to the franchise.

The writing works best when the creators use Trek as a playground instead of treating sixty years of continuity like homework. Ryan North understands how to make a ridiculous idea feel completely at home inside Starfleet logic. Mike McMahan naturally brings that meta-awareness fans expect, but he still remembers the joke has to serve the characters. Christopher Cantwell’s “Manifest Destiny” closes with heavier dramatic weight, giving the special a little shadow after so much celebration. Not every story lands with the same force, and that is almost unavoidable in an anthology this stacked. A couple pieces feel more like clever anniversary sketches than stories you will be thinking about next week, while others could have used another page or two to stick the landing.

Still, the batting average is high, and I love that the book understands Trek fandom is not one thing. Some people came here through Kirk and Spock. Some through The Next Generation. Some through Lower Decks, Picard, Strange New Worlds, animation, or one random episode they caught at two in the morning and never forgot. This special does not spend its time arguing which corner matters most. It lets the eras rub shoulders, then keeps moving.

The lettering teams deserve extra credit because anthology books can become visual traffic jams when every story has a different density and tone. Clayton Cowles, Jeff Eckleberry, and Jodie Troutman keep wildly different page designs readable while still allowing each segment to maintain its own personality. That is especially important in the more comedic entries, where a balloon landing half a beat too early can murder the joke faster than a red shirt walking into a cave.

As an anniversary comic, this does what I want. It remembers the history without embalming it. It has nostalgia, sure, but the nostalgia comes through creators actually making comics instead of characters standing around reciting franchise accomplishments. Some stories are stronger than others, but there is enough personality, visual variety, and genuine affection here to keep the whole package moving. If you have been riding with Trek for decades, there are plenty of little moments to catch. If you are newer to the franchise, you are basically getting a sampler platter of why this universe has survived long enough to need a 60th anniversary special in the first place.

CRUSADERS SCORE:
4.5/5

“Escape from the Planet of Mudd” by David Gerrold, JP Buzio, Christine Franzen, and Clayton Cowles
“The Engineer’s Dilemma” by Dana Gould, Megan Levens, Charlie Kirchoff, and Jeff Eckleberry
“Sulu” by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos, and Jodie Troutman
“The Sesquipedalian Gambit” by Ryan North, Derek Charm, and Clayton Cowles
“A Bright New Future” by Dave Baker, Nicole Goux, and Jodie Troutman
“The Peaceful Klingon” by David Walker, the Escorza Brothers, and Jeff Eckleberry
“The Search for Season Six” by Mike McMahan, Michael Allred, Laura Allred, and Clayton Cowles
“Where the Map Runs Out” by Meghan Camarena, Mari Rolin, JP Jordan, and Jeff Eckleberry
“The Search for Archer” by Chris Fenoglio and Jeff Eckleberry
“Manifest Destiny” by Christopher Cantwell, Isaac Sanchez Gonzalez, Igor Monti, and Jodie Troutman
Senior Group Editor: Heather Antos
Associate Editor: Cassandra Jones
Publisher: IDW Publishing