Who Killed Captain Kirk?

Star Trek Classics #5

by Peter David, Tom Sutton (Illustrations)

The "U.S.S. Enterprise" TM has encountered many strange beings and situations but none has chilled them to the bone more than death. Someone aboard the starship has killed Captain Kirk -- or so it seems. While the Captain recovers, it falls to his loyal crew to uncover the facts behind the case and learn whether one of their own is a cold-blooded killer
The investigation is hampered by the unwanted arrival of the Klingons and an ill telepath who sends the entire crew on a journey through Dante's inferno. And then, just when everything is starting to calm down, Finnegan, Kirk's nemesis from his Academy days, arrives to take charge of the mystery.
Murder, mayhem, a wedding, and loads or action mark this graphic collection of stories featuring the "Star Trek" &reg debut of acclaimed author Peter David.

Genres: Star Trek, Comics, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Space, Graphic Novels Comics

176 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1993

About the author

aka David Peters

Peter Allen David, often abbreviated PAD, was an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films, and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, SpyBoy, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel, and X-Factor.
His Star Trek work included comic books and novels such as the New Frontier book series. His other novels included film adaptations, media tie-ins, and original works, such as the Apropos of Nothing and Knight Life series. His television work includes series such as Babylon 5, Young Justice, Ben 10: Alien Force and Nickelodeon's Space Cases, which he co-created with Bill Mumy.
David often jokingly described his occupation as "Writer of Stuff", and he was noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its mingling of real-world issues with humor and references to popular culture, as well as elements of metafiction and self-reference.
David earned multiple awards for his work, including a 1992 Eisner Award, a 1993 Wizard Fan Award, a 1996 Haxtur Award, a 2007 Julie Award and a 2011 GLAAD Media Award.

Reviews

[SamB · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty fun, all in all, though the title is a real misnomer (nobody kills Captain Kirk, and there's not even any pretence that he's dead). And the DC Comics of the era contained several minor characters whose storylines were serialised - it meant I was encountering characters with whom I was totally unfamiliar, which made it a bit of a struggle to get into the book, and to fully engage with it.

[Dann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mediocre hodgepodge of Star Trek comics, Star Trek: Who Killed Captain Kirk? is a lackluster and meandering series of adventures. Despite what the title suggests, this reprinting of 8 DC comics (issues 48-55) contains three separate story arcs, only the last of which deals with an attack on Captain Kirk. The first follow the Enterprise as it searches for a rogue Federation starship that attacked a Klingon outpost, and the second features the wedding festivities aboard ship for ensigns Konom and Nancy (two fan favorite secondary characters). The writing is all over the place and lacks a consistent tone. Also, the artwork isn’t that good and includes some rather strange character designs. While it’s mildly entertaining at times, Star Trek: Who Killed Captain Kirk? is a chaotic and barely coherent graphic novel.

[Carol Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to really like this it hit several of my sweet spots. It was TOS and written by Peter David. My first issue was two the of main female characters looked like they had come out of a 1960s romance comic. Some of the story I liked a lot the use old familiar faces was a great touch. There was things that bothered me like the klingon crew member who married another officer. The reason this bugged me so much was the Worf was the first klingon to serve in Starfleet as a Trekkie this break from established canon kept pulling me out of the story.

I did like the setting which is in the TOS movie time frame we need more stories from this time period. I have now read two of the Classics this one and one about Voyager. The Voyager one was a hit this not so much it will be interesting to see how the others are.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title indicates the story is going to be interesting. There's a report of a Federation starship attacking a peaceful Klingon colony so the Enterprise goes to find out what happened. There's a crew member named Bearclaw who has an abominable personality, so bad that Kirk ends up calling him a bigot.

On the colony then find a survivor, a small, white Klingon who seems to be young and friendly. They bring him back to the Enterprise. It's obvious how he was treated on the colony since the name he was given is moron.

Another interesting thing is that M'Ress, from the animated series, is a member of the crew and she seems attracted to Sulu.

Someone makes an attack on Kirk and Bearclaw is the one to get blamed. Things aren't quite as simple as that, though. So, Kirk's murderer, Bearclaw or someone else, will have to be determined and at the same time the Enterprise is going to have to find the beings that attacked the colony and deal with them.

[Taaya · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was SO bad.

I mean ... the Native American is racist. Then there's sexual harrassment that isn't called out. The artwork won't allow readers to recognize who is who (except for the non-human personnel), especially not on an e-reader, and the stories are weird beyond the funny-epic TAS level. Also, while this is right now being sold as a standalone, it seems you need a LOT of background information from other works that are not part of the Star Trek Classics comic series, so even as someone who knows ALL the shows and movies and quite a few comics and novels, I have no idea who half of the people are and what events are hinted on constantly. No fun.

[Jefferson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume collects the final issues of DC's first Star Trek series, originally published in the mid-1980s. The stories are entertaining enough, but the writers were forced to keep the main characters consistent with their on-screen versions, so very little character development was possible. To mitigate this, several new characters were created, whose arcs come to a conclusion here. Unfortunately, since this series hasn't been reprinted in sequence and none of the previous issues are currently available (short of tracking down back issues), we don't really know these characters, so their payoffs aren't particularly interesting.

[Fred · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good story, albeit with some questionable presentation, like why call a book "Who Killed Captain Kirk?" when at no point does Kirk die? Why miss the ENTIRE FIRST EPISODE of the story arc from this collection? Why write a blurb for the back cover that completely misrepresents the story, including pretending events that happen prior to the attempt on Kirk's life happen after? Absolutely baffling.

[Jdetrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's surprising how much better the Star Trek comic becomes when Peter David comes aboard. It's not that it was bad before, but David makes the characters come to life, with dialogue that has a wit and snap to it.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, this was a really boring set of stories. Did we really have to rehash Dante's Inferno as a multi-issue story? I think not.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter David was probably the best Star Trek comics writer ever. He proved especially strong at adding new characters and blending them into the familiar. Tight plotting, too.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's weird about these issues is that they came out a year before Star Trek V: The Final Frontier came out, yet they take place after according to the stardates. It's also weird that it chronologically takes place after Peter David's "The Trial of James T. Kirk," which had yet to be written. I really appreciated the inclusion of Arex and M'ress from The Animated Series. And people who've read The Divine Comedy might appreciate this a bit more. Admittedly, though, the issues could've been more coherent.

[Greg Rozier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read these as the original comics were released in 1988