IDW to launch new a comic series on a younger Picard
Season three of Star Trek: Picard left audiences wanting to see more of the character, and IDW is filling that with a new comics series going to the very start of Jean-Luc Picard’s story.
First reported by the Star Trek website TrekMovie, the series will be titled Star Trek: Picard’s Academy, and will debut this fall.
Set in the Prime universe, the comic will take Picard back to school, and see him pass his exams to become the captain the audience knows and loves.
According to publisher IDW, the story will “unveil the past of one of Starfleet’s most celebrated officers: Captain Jean-Luc Picard!”
An official synopsis reads:
“Before becoming the Federation’s finest, Jean-Luc was an ordinary student at Starfleet Academy with sights on the stars. His path forward was charted: blow his classmates out of the water on the infamous Evasive Maneuvers exam and graduate early.
“But there’s a detail Cadet Picard hadn’t factored into his plan: the exam was a group project and he’d need to make friends with, ugh, people if he stood a chance at passing. Federation starships aren’t run by a party of one, after all.”
The author for series will be New York Times best-selling author Sam Maggs, who has previously wrote the 2016 Star Trek: Waypoint #2 about the series’ first-ever female “redshirt,” Yeoman Leslie Thompson.
Maggs has also written the book Star Wars Jed: Battle Scars and comic series Marvel Action: Captain Marvel.
She explained what audiences can expect from the new series: “We’re in the middle of the Star Trek renaissance, and as a life-long fan I’m both honored and overjoyed to be able to contribute to a universe that has meant so much to me for so long.
“Diving into the psyche of an Academy student under so much pressure—and with so many personal issues shadowing his past—has been such a delight with the help of the amazing teams at IDW and Paramount.
“And, come on: cool teen Picard with luscious hair? His weirdo group of kinda-friends? Starfleet Academy teen drama? Sign me up!!”
Maggs also hints the comic will fold in parts of what audiences have already seen from Picard’s past.
Ornella Greco will do the artwork for the comic and the colors by Charlie Kirchoff. Sweeney Boo provides the look for the cover of the first issue.
Star Trek: Picard’s Academy debuts in September.
