Had a discussion about this recently. I love Star Trek, and I love comics, but I don’t really get into Star Trek comics. A few friends of mine have stated this as well. It’s something about the live action *possibly* being the only “valid” version in my head for some reason. I guess Trek being originally crafted for tv established some guidelines that don’t translate well into comics– for me anyway. Your mileage may very.
Comics are such a visual medium, I’m not sure why I’m not as taken with them in the case of adaptations from live action. Maybe I just wasn’t drawn to the art or the stories. I have gotten a few of them over the years but I barely scratched the surface. Thankfully for Trek in general, I *think* the comics have been popular enough over the decades. There have been a lot of them.
I don’t know, something about the live action version seems to be prohibiting me from getting the comics. As in…they did the live action so well, the comics are somewhat unnecessary.
But once in a while, the comics gave me something that wasn’t available in live action. There was a Trek comic series several years ago that I did dive into for a while. I believe it was called the Early Voyages, and starred Captain Pike and his original crew on the Enterprise. I gravitated toward this as I was always interested in the doomed Captain Pike*. That comic provided me with something that none of the tv series did, so that’s telling. Of course now Captain Pike and that crew are getting their own show on CBS all access, which I’ll eventually have to check out. I guess that’s the key — the comics are perfect for presenting something new and unseen in the live action universe. These limitations are of a visual nature though, as I’ve read tons of the Trek novels over the years.
All these rules and limitations apply for Doctor Who as well. Up until the last few years, DW has always been of such a caliber on tv that I’ve never needed or wanted to get into the comics version. I’ve seen bits and pieces of the current comics featuring the 13th Doctor and it’s very possible that the comics are producing better stories than the current showrunner, but admittedly, it’s a low bar.
One might say “Hold on….Rick, you adapted a giant, 168 page color graphic novel of a 12 part Doctor Who story back in 2012!” Yes, and the reason was two fold. One, most of the episodes of that story are among the missing and I felt it should have *some* visual representation. Two, it was my love letter to the show on it’s 50th anniversary.
I think about some other comic adaptations and it’s the same thing. Never been interested enough in a Simpsons comic to ever pick up an issue and they’ve been putting out a comic on the series for almost as long as the series itself has been around.
I guess maybe it’s just a matter of already having excellent live action Doctor Who and Star Trek in the past, I don’t need supplemental two dimensional images to enjoy. If I want to revisit Deep Space Nine, I’ve got seven full seasons to enjoy.
I guess another perspective is the reverse– comic book superheroes going to the big screen and tv. When done right, the characters are not only given that extra dimension but are often elevated far beyond what even the best comics provide.
I think that the best thing that can be said about the comics adaptations of live action shows is that as long as the quality is there, they’re keeping the brand alive and moving, even without that 3rd dimension.
Because the thing IS.
*The tale of Captain Pike is a sad one. He was a revered Captain of the Enterprise for many years. It was after handing over the Enterprise to James Kirk and being promoted to Fleet Captain that during a training exercise on the USS Republic, he was seriously injured while saving cadets. His tragic story has always piqued many people’s interest. The second season of Star Trek: Discovery sets up Pike for his spin off show, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
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