Star Trek Writer Explains What's Different About Their Replacement Captain Kirk, And It's Genius/Insane

One of the big sales pitches for the new IDW Star Trek series, Star Trek: The Last Starship, is that it is, in effect, Absolute Star Trek (or Ultimate Star Trek). This is a reference to the fact that the series, which is set hundreds of years after the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation, is like Absolute Batman or Ultimate Spider-Man, namely a comic book that is not tied to continuity that new fans can pick up without having to know anything about Star Trek. However, if you know ANYthing about Star Trek, then you know James T. Kirk, and sure enough, the series also involves the return of Kirk.

Since this series is set during a period where no one really knows much about, the writers of the series, Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, have the freedom to do a lot of new stuff with this book that is unlike any other Star Trek comic book on the market, and since Kirk has been brought back to life, they can do anything they want to HIM, as well. At New York Comic Con, CBR talked with Lanzing and Heather Antos, the editor of the series, and we learned what Lanzing believes makes this version of James Kirk "Absolute Kirk."

How is James Kirk the "Absolute Kirk"?

Lanzing referenced the "Absolute" aspect of the series, "Last Starship is designed to be a book for anybody who has never read a Star Trek, who does not know what this is, who needs to be convinced, who does not have a favorite character or a favorite starship. We wanted to create a place where the water was warm for them. The Burn, which is a deep cut of continuity, actually provides a very fan-friendly endpoint for them too. It is great for fans, with a lot of connectivity, but for a new person it is a new era, a new ship, a new captain, a new framework. It is a totally new period for the Federation, where everything is falling apart, and it gives them a way in that requires zero homework."

And then, when asked about the specific "Absolute" reference for James Kirk, Jackson Lanzing explained, "That is why we use the Absolute and Ultimate frameworks simultaneously. In many ways, this is absolute Kirk. He is not the Kirk you know. He has the memories of the old Kirk in the body of a new Kirk that is not the actual body and not the actual man. He is, in some ways, a synthetic recreation and in other ways a ghost. He gets to define what it means to be Kirk now, in his framework, in the same way that Absolute Batman or Ultimate Iron Man figure that out for themselves."

How is This James Kirk a "Man out of Time"?

When asked about how James Kirk is a "Man Out of Time," just like Captain America, Lanzing also explained why Kirk is so different than the version of Kirk that we saw in Star Trek: Generations, which was ALSO a "Man out of Time" Kirk.

Without spoiling too much, the distinction between this Kirk and the Kirk of Generations is that this Kirk remembers Generations. He remembers dying on Veridian III. His last experience is an ignoble death under a bridge.

James Kirk’s story reads like a man who should have died in a captain’s chair, and he did not. That ending should haunt him. It should give him uncomfortable and uncharacteristic self-doubt. We spend issue two understanding that before we throw him into action. If you know James Kirk, you know he is going into action. It is just a matter of when and how, and how many Klingons are going to pay for it.

Star Trek: The Last Starship #2 is out November 19th.

Source: CBR at NYCC