Stranger Worlds: DC and IDW's Continuing Mission with Star Trek and Green Lantern

DC Comics and IDW Publishing have had their share of property marriages in the past. I was particularly fond of the Star Trek / Legion of Super-Heroes crossover, as it seemed a natural given that both teams were future-oriented, making it easier to breach dimensions and meet.

It's a little trickier with the pairing of Star Trek and the Green Lantern Corps, but writer Mike Johnson is making it work.

STRANGER WORLDS continues the story begun with THE SPECTRUM WAR, which found Hal Jordan and a handful of other ring-bearers (not all of them green) lose the fight against Nekron and get ejected from their reality just before it collapsed entirely to destruction. They emerged in the STAR TREK universe, which means they didn't just swap realities, but they time-traveled into the future. However, without a power battery, all the ring bearers soon find their energy waning, and there's no way to recharge their rings.

Or is there?

Having found the remains of a Manhunter android, Hal is convinced that this reality must also have a planet Oa at the center of the universe, with Guardians. They just seem to be a little slower in their development in this universe, as they are still relying on Manhunters and have apparently not assigned one to space sector 2814, else the Federation would surely have known about them. However, they do indeed exist, and if they exist then there might be a way to fully recharge their rings and continue being Lanterns.

Chapter 5 of the story deals with Sinestro, being a step ahead of Hal Jordan and Captain Kirk, using the last of his power and that of Larfleeze's orange ring to open a warp hole to Oa, where he finds the Guardians still developing their power battery and imprisoning the yellow entity of Parallax into it. However Sinestro is not the only threat, as the Red Lantern known as Atrocitus has met his match at the hands of Khan Noonien Singh and his fellow Augments -- and Atrocitus's red ring chooses Khan as its new bearer! With two lethal threats at full power, the Guardians have no choice but to let their new green power ring find itself a worthy bearer.

And you can probably guess who it selects.

The STAR TREK / GREEN LANTERN world has a lot of gems that can be mined from it if the publishers keep it going. One can imagine what happens if Harry Mudd gets his hands on the orange ring (orange being the emotional color of greed in the power ring spectrum), or if the Borg should assimilate the Manhunter technology.

So lay in a course for your nearest comic book shop and give this science-fiction crossover a try. Here's hoping the property can find new life and continue to boldly go.