A new Star Trek comic is coming courtesy of IDW Publishing, featuring a fan-favorite lineup of characters and a brand-new ship, the starship Theseus, which was just unveiled by artist Ramon Rosanas. Star Trek is going through a bit of a renaissance with several new shows, loads of new content, and fresh new ideas. IDW's upcoming Star Trek comic from the creative team of Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, and Rosanas promises to be no different.
The ongoing series will star Deep Space Nine’s Benjamin Sisko, newly returned from his time among the prophets in the Bajoran wormhole. Upon the discovery that something in the universe is killing gods, Sisko and a crew of new and familiar faces head off to discover what is going on and stop it. To accomplish this task Sisko is given command of the appropriately named USS Theseus. In Greek myth, Theseus was a hero imbued with godly powers sent to slay monsters and accomplish great deeds, much like Sisko and his crew.
In a post to his Twitter account, Ramon Rosanas shared his design for the Theseus. Pictured departing spacedock, the newest Starfleet ship is one that fans have never seen before. An obviously smaller ship with a squared-off-style reminiscent of the USS Excelsior and other older style ships, it nonetheless cuts an impressive figure as it glides through space. Unlike any other ship before, the Theseus’s warp nacelles are attached to the saucer section as opposed to the slender body, as is the case with most Starfleet ships. What also sets this new vessel apart from any ship fans have seen before is its name.
New Star Trek Series Raises Philosophical Questions About the Franchise
As confirmed by Jackson Lanzing via a reply on Twitter, the name Theseus was specifically picked by the creative team as a nod to the famous philosophical thought experiment, “The Ship of Theseus.” First introduced by the Greek historian, Plutarch, —and later explained in Wandavision by synthezoid, Vision— the concept asks the listener to consider the nature of identity. In the parable, the famous ship of Theseus is slowly rotting and planks are replaced over time with new ones. However, when the last plank is replaced the question becomes: Is it still the same ship as the one famously used by the Greek hero Theseus or is it just a different ship that looks the same? All of its component parts are new, but the ship still resembles and is acknowledged by the greater population to be the same ship. That same thought experiment could be applied to humans, as bodies grow and replace cells, but it could also be applied Star Trek itself.
As a franchise Star Trek has come a long way from its original roots. Creator Gene Roddenberry was notoriously strict about the things that could and couldn’t be shown in his utopian vision of the future. After his death the franchise grew and changed. Spin-offs like Deep Space Nine pushed the boundaries of that vision, and new movies, comics, and series moved the franchise into the realms of growing diversity in both stories and characters. In a way the old planks of Star Trek have been removed and replaced with new ones, and yet Star Trek still remains. Many fans will debate if the franchise is the same one that began in the technicolor world of the 1960s or if it has become a completely different ship of Theseus altogether.
Benjamin Sisko has assembled a crew of Starfleet officers, both old and new, and the creative team for Star Trek from IDW Publishing has promised that the comic will be an Avengers-style crossover series where anything is possible. So maybe aboard this ship of Theseus, Star Trek fans will get a chance to see some of those old planks made new again.
Star Trek #1 will arrive in comic book stores and online retailers this October.
Source: Ramon Rosanas, Jackson Lanzing