While Paramount Skydance attempts to figure out what's next for Star Trek—on film and television—IDW expands its comic book offerings this summer with a new 5-issue limited series, Star Trek: Red Shirts - Ghost of the 21st Century.
Written by Gerry Duggan (Deadpool) with art by Scott Buoncristiano (Creepshow), the comic is part of Star Trek's 60th-anniversary celebrations.
"Red shirts" has become the moniker for the expendable security officers (and other crew members) who frequently died during away missions in the original Star Trek series. Now, this comic promises to uncover a criminal conspiracy that reveals the truth behind the role red shirts play in the Federation.
Here's the official description for Star Trek: Red Shirts - Ghost of the 21st Century:
Revenge is a dish best served on time delay. From Gerry Duggan (Deadpool, X-Men: Fall of the House of X) comes the next Red Shirts bloodbath. On the Federation’s farthest frontier, red shirts don’t just die—they’re used.
When conscripted security grunt Harry Deubert finds contraband hidden inside a fallen comrade’s body, he uncovers Section Null—a secret Starfleet directorate turning disposable red shirts into assets in a sprawling criminal conspiracy. Teaming with Lyna Taval, an Andorian officer with her own covert agenda, Deubert digs too deep...and becomes a target.
Someone inside Starfleet Security is selling out the Federation. And once Deubert and Taval learn what red shirts are really for, there’s no going back.
Described as a standalone series, this exploration of the red shirts concept promises to explore a new side of Star Trek by expanding on something that's essentially become a pop culture reference or trope in recent years.
"It's my pleasure to reunite both with Heather Antos from our Deadpool days, and with Scott Buoncristiano from our collaboration on The Dark Room series," Duggan said. "I've not been able to enlist in Starfleet until now, but I can promise this new volume of Red Shirts is going to leave a very big bruise on Star Trek."
"The Romulans have an insidious plot to destabilize the Federation and it's my privilege to help them and drop as many bodies as we can along the way. Set your phasers for fun, and see you in space."
Buoncristiano added, "I was over a month into a Star Trek rewatch when I was asked to do RED SHIRTS. It’s one thing to watch this universe, but it’s another to be able to draw and create within it. Collaborating with Gerry Duggan and the crew at IDW is a blast, and I can’t wait for readers to see what we do to these poor, doomed Red Shirts."
Check out Chris Shehan and Malachi Ward's covers for Star Trek: Red Shirts - Ghost of the 21st Century #1 below (via SFFGazette.com). The first issue arrives in comic book stores on July 22.