Star Trek / X Men

Star Trek / X Men
Marvel Comics, December 1996

Crossovers were a big thing for the comics of the 1990s, but I confess I was unaware of this one until I read about it in the pages of American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1990s.

The book was intended as a launch vehicle for a line of 'Paramount' comics from Marvel that relied heavily on the Star Trek franchise (the line was discontinued in 1998).

Star Trek / X Men was written by Scott Lobdell and illustrated by four different artists, five inkers, another five 'ink assists' personnel, four colorists, and one letterer. 

Even with all this talent, the reality is that almost half of this comic's 64 pages are taken up with advertisements and pinups.

I won't give away any spoilers, save to say that the 'Star Trek' backstory is provided by the 1966 episode 'Where No Man Has Gone Before'. The X-Men backstory has something to do with one of those oberblown, overwritten storylines involving the Shi'ar Empire. For this storyline, there a rift in spacetime that allows two different universes to intrude on one another, and - of course - the rift brings with it a Threat to All Existence.

However weighty the major premise, Lobdell's script doesn't try to take itself too seriously (fortunately). There are plenty of little in-jokes and allusions that will be readily acknowledged by fans of the TV show. The artwork is of good quality, although it's very 'Nineties' in its derivation from the illustrative styles of the stalwarts of that decade such as Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee.

Summing up, Star Trek / X Men does what it was intended to do, which is to garner fanboy enthusiasm for the planned Paramount Comics imprint. But looking through the second half of the book and seeing all the planned titles (Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Star Trek: Unlimited, Star Trek: Early Voyages, and the one-shot Star Trek: Mirror Mirror, is to realize that shortly before it went bankrupt, Marvel Comics had no inkling of how oversaturated the comic book market was, and how profoundly that market had been altered since the heady days of the early 90s.