Gold Key’s STAR TREK vs. Marvel’s STAR TREK vs. DC’s STAR TREK
COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH: 1966 WEEK collides with STAR TREK’s 60th Anniversary… — Welcome to 1966 WEEK — a 60th anniversary celebration of an extraordinary, landmark year in popular culture. For seven days, we’re bringing you a whole host of features on everything from Star Trek, to Batman, to the Beatles, to the Monkees, and much, much more. (Just check out Walt Grogan’s latest fab banner, above!) Click here for more of the far out fun! — Dan — By FRED VAN LENTE Welcome back, Panel Pugilists, for a first-ever three-way COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH battle in honor of the 60th anniversary of Star Trek, which debuted in the U.S. via NBC on September 8, 1966. My personal history with Star Trek is a sporadic one. I watched TOS as a kid, even though my dad hated it: A naval history nut, he couldn’t get over the fact the captain aways went along with the lower ranks on landing missions, which he found ridiculous (we all have our pet bugaboos). I missed Next Generation completely, but when I came home from work at the mall the summer I spent in Syracuse, N.Y., in between college semesters, the only thing watchable on TV was Deep Space Nine, a show I fell in love with. During the pandemic lockdown I did a complete DSN rewatch, which was followed by a TOS rewatch, and since then, in my 50s, I’ve become a fairly hardcore Trekkie. Better late than never, I guess. Mostly I’ve consumed my Star Trek on TV, as God intended, with the occasional movie thrown in, and have never actually read a Trek comic before (or read a Trek novel, or played a Trek video game, though the TTRPG from Modiphius is quite good) so this is my first perusal of the ’60s-’80s Gold Key, Marvel and DC series. In honor of Enterprise’s five-year mission, I’ll give each title five issues to wow me before I decide which is best. As an extra bonus, I’ll pepper the match with photos of me at the mind-blowing recreation of the TOS sets found at the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, New York, which I had the extreme pleasure of visiting this summer. In addition to the sets itself, which you need to see to believe, the Tour has an...
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