For Star Trek, where ever the god-like being Q (played on TV by John de Lancie) goes, shenanigans are sure to follow. But Q is just one of many god-like beings that have been encountered by Starfleet crews over the years, so when they have a disagreement, they make their favorite Federation play things battle it out in their place!
In 2019, IDW publishing put together a six-issue major crossover event for Star Trek comics called The Q Conflict from Scott Tipton, David Tipton, and a wide variety of artists. The conflict alluded to in the title is actually a war that breaks out amongst some of the god-level aliens that have been encountered over the years: The Q Continuum from the Next Generation era, and the Metrons, the foppish young Trelane, and the Organians, all from The Original Series. When god-like beings fight amongst themselves, however, the result for the rest of the universe tends to be deadly supernovae and massive devastation, so Picard and the Enterprise show up to try to put a stop to it. All this does is provide the familiar Q with the idea for a tournament of champions who can battle it out in their place--and he pulls Voyager, the Defiant, and Kirk's Enterprise together to add a few new names to draft.
Naturally, these Starfleet heroes aren't particularly interested in killing each other, so some baseline rules have to be set: no death, no cheating, and no temporal manipulation. Each god-like alien chooses a team, a mix and match of characters from each of the four series who then proceed to compete at difficult tasks like recovering ancient Iconian technology or capture-the-flag style space battles. The comic is jam-packed with references and nods to classic episodes, featuring cameos from memorable creatures like the Jem Hadar, the insidious Borg, and even some fans would rather forget, like Armus. Despite the crews' best efforts, things naturally continue to spiral into chaos as even more god-like beings get involved.
While the idea of these godly aliens interacting is certainly an interesting one for fans, the real highlight of The Q Conflict is in its nature as a crossover. The drafting method that's used allows for combinations of characters that have never been seen before, like Kirk and the Klingon Worf or Spock, Picard, and Seven of Nine. It also gives both the characters and their ships a chance to go up against threats that weren't an issue in their native times, like Kirk's Enterprise valiantly struggling against the Borg's cubes and their superior technology. The books revel in continuity, demonstrating authors Scott and David Tipton's encyclopedic knowledge of the series and challenging fans to match.
With Q set to appear in the second season of Star Trek: Picard, the character's first live-action TV appearance since Star Trek Voyager in 2001 over 20 years ago, fans may want to check out the collected omnibus of The Q Conflict for a refresher on just how chaotic and dangerous the nigh-omnipotent being can be.