Much like their (rightly) acclaimed Judge Dredd comics, IDW's handling of the Star Trek license has managed to exceed reader expectations with high production values and an uncanny ability to tell engaging comics stories within the limitations of a tie-in book. Over the last three years, IDW has shifted the comics focus to tell stories from within the world of J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot team's cinematic Star Trek reboot. With the new status quo firmly established, writer Mike Johnson and a team of artists are going to be taking the Enterprise and her crew into all-new directions, starting with a gender-flipped parallel universe. The two-part "Parallel Lives" debuted last week with Star Trek #29 and gives new readers a chance to take a tour with the finest crew in the fleet while seeing them in an all-new light.
We talked to Johnson and artist Yasmin Liang for more information about their two-part Trek adventure, and got an inside look at the ins-and-outs of how they approach working on a license with such heavy fan expectations.