886. Who's Who in Star Trek 1PUBLICATION: Who's Who in Star Trek #1, DC Comics, March 1987
CREATORS: Allan Asherman (writer), Various (artists)
STARDATE: TOS to ST IV, including the Animated Series and the first DC comics series up to that point (circa issue #36).
TOPIC: 48 pages of entries from Andorians to McCoy, Leonard H. in DC's 1980s Who's Who style. Each entry includes a full color pin-up by a variety of artists and text on the history of their relevant character, species or ship. Space is given according to importance, usually one page, though important entries may get two (USS Enterprise, McCoy) or even three (Kirk, Klingons). A half-page is possible, and a short appendix gives a small paragraph to everything else.
CONTINUITY: Information seems to have been culled from every possible source available, including novels and production notes, though not the Gold Key or Marvel series. New background information is given on the characters developped on the comics series, including Arex who is technically from the Animated Series. It also includes new information about "what happened later", such as Bailey spending a year on Balok's world before becoming an interviewer on Babel.
DIVERGENCES: Who's Who explains the discrepancy between swarthy Klingons and ridged Klingons as their being different species. Unfortunately, the reappearance of Koloth as a ridge Klingon in the comics series puts the lie to this, even if televised events hadn't told a different story.
PANEL OF THE DAY - I really like Denys Cowan's Gorn
REVIEW: I really do love DC's Who's Who series, and it's great they thought of doing a couple of volumes of Star Trek, though perhaps these come a little too early (only about halfway through the first series). Certainly not as much variety in artists as the actual Who's Who - with Denys Cowan, Ken Penders, Joe Brozowski and Ron Frenz drawing the bulk of the entries - there are still some nice surprises. John Byrne does a few entries, George Perez on Apollo seems perfect, I'm glad Gray Morrow got to do the character he is most associated with, McCoy. And how about that Howard Chaykin cover, eh? The text is more entertaining than most issues of Who's Who, with plenty of quotes from the television and even comics stories (to cover the slimmer information available), also throwing things like "interviews" after the fact. For example, David Bailey "remembers" his role in The Corbomite Maneuver, and transporter chief Mr. Kyle has similar memories from his time on the Enterprise. In short, anyone still alive and not in some kind of exile may have a chance to speak in their own voice.
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