Comic Book Retro 50: April 1976

A bit of blog bidness up front: 

1) The bi-monthly blog post where I look back at comic books I bought 50 years ago will now be monthly.

2) And it's called Comic Book Retro 50! 

Tell all your friends and enjoy! 

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Here we go, fellow comic book nerds as we venture forth 50 years into the past to answer the burning question of:

What comic books did a young Dave-El buy in April 1976?

Since Marvel had a banner across the top of every cover proclaiming the "Marvel Comics Group", DC answered with their own banner starting in May 1975.  

Now taking up even more real estate on the cover was "DC Comics Salutes the Bicentennial".  

The number on the right end of the banner was part of a giveaway that required readers to (gasp!) mutilate their comics to win a metal Superman belt buckle.

Note that this trade dress ran on issues that were COVER dated July 1976 although these issues actually went on sale in April 1976.   

The gap between the actual sell date and the date on the cover was designed to trick retailers into keeping titles in the spinner racks longer.  

Maybe you could get your nifty Superman buckle in time to wear at your 4th of July Bicentennial picnic! 

Let's get on with the comics! 

I picked up Superman#301 which had a couple of significant developments with the creative team. 

Instead Cary Bates or Elliott S! Maggin (or in the case of the last 5 issues, both of them), we get writer Gerry Conway.

And instead of Superman mainstay Curt Swan, we get the debut of Jose Luis Garcia Lopez on pencils.  While Swan was a solid artist who provided the definitive look for Superman both in comics and for outside marketing, Garcia Lopez offerd a more dynamic style that made the Man of Steel feel more modern.  

Alas, Garcia Lopez only provided a relative handful of issues for interior Superman art but did provide a plethora of covers for various Superman titles.  DC Comics also employed Garcia Lopez as their principal artist for style guides, making his version of Superman more unbiquitous than Curt Swan's.  

Conway & Garcia Lopez pair up with regular inker Bob Oskner for a 17 page slugfest called "Solomon Grundy Wins on a Monday!".  

 Solomon Grundy was a massive zombie man-monster who mostly fought the Golden Age Green Lantern on Earth 2.   

How did Grundy get from Earth 2 to Earth 1 to fight Superman.  IIRC, Gerry Conway tells us that Grundy walked here. 

Conway didn't have to deal with multiple Earths over at Marvel.

Conway does a little bit of world building by introducing the super criminal organization known as SKULL in this issue 

They would appear off and all in Superman for a couple of years as well as in Superman Family.

April 1976 brought us Batman Family#6.  This book was split between new stories feature Robin and Batgirl working solo or as a team and an assortment of reprints. 

The reprints include a short 1945 solo out for Alfed (when he was known as Alfred Beagle) and a Mad Hatter story from Batman#161 where the villain takes revenge on the jurors who convicted him and sent him to prison. Which is the same story used in the Mad Hatter's appearance on the Batman TV show.

The new stories include a solo outing for Batgirl as Congresswoman Barbara Gordon heads out west.

But of some considerable note is this issue's Robin adventure. 

By Bob Rozakis, Irv Novick and Frank McLaughlin, "The Joker's Daughter" introduces a distaff version of the Clown Prince of Crime.  

"Can't bring myself to hit a girl"? Jesus, Robin, it's 1976, not 1946! 

The mysterious femme fatale would return in subsequent stories as various "daughters" of established Batman villains to bedevil the Teen Wonder.  

Her reveal of who she is and how she came to be will be covered in a future Comic Book Retro 50 post. 

Next up is Justice League of America#132 by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin & Frank McLaughlin, "The Beasts Who Fought Like Men",concluding the tale begun the month before in issue #131.

From Justice League to Justice Society, we go to All Star Comics#61.  

Let's talk about this cover for a second.

We've got the two banners at the top, word balloons and a text box hyping the plot.  Besides the big All Star Comics logo, we've got a banner proclaiming "with the SUPER SQUAD" with the JSA reduced to an afterthought shield graphic next to the comic's title. 

Boy, there is a LOT going on! 

So what the hell is a "Super Squad"?   

I'll let Gerry Conway try to explain it.

"I wanted to do a “modern” group — which at the time meant kids in costume.  Youth rules — and the original JSA characters were a bit long in the tooth, according to continuity (even given that time seemed to run at a different rate on Earth-Two).  Robin was a nod to the present; The Star-Spangled Kid was a nod to the past; and Power Girl was an attempt at something “new.”"

"Calling the resulting group the “Super-Squad” was intended to differentiate it from the JSA.  Also, while I wanted to use the All-Star name for the comic, I knew that, in fact, none of these characters were what readers of the ’70s would consider to be “stars.”  Hence, “Super-Squad.”"  

Except that never quite panned out.  Robin was quickly written out and SSK and PG were basically members of the JSA.  Still, the Super Squad cover dress would continue for another year before it was finally replaced with a proper Justice Society logo.

Keith Giffen took over as penciller  with issue #60  and li'l Dave-El was really loving his artwork.  

Giffen was still relatively new to the comics game but I found his work to be especially powerful and dramatic, setting the stage for Giffen's later work with Paul Levitz on Legion of Super Heroes. 

Speaking of the Legion,  here comes Superboy#218.

Cary Bates is determined to make us care about Tyroc.

But we don't want to.  

He's got the dumbest super power where he screams weird shit which makes stuff happen. 

What kind of stuff is determined by the needs of the plot.  

The convoluted standard issue Cary Bates plot involves some shenangans with a Legion reject called Absorbancy Boy.

I will pause a moment to let you giggle at that.

<pause>

Are you done now? Good. 

So Absorbancy Boy (stop giggling!) absorbs residue energy such as from super-powers. Now he has the powers of Sun Boy and Superboy.

Because Cary Bates is determined to  make us like Tyroc whether we want to or not, the solution to this threat is something only Tyroc can do.  

Tyroc challenges Absorbancy Boy using an ultra-high frequency that only Superboy's super hearing can hear.  This hurts Absorbancy Boy because he's not used to Superboy's powers so Tyroc knocks him out.

World's Finest Comics #239 gives us  "The UFO That Stole the U.S.A." wherein Superman, Batman & Gold from the Metal Men contend with an alien invasion that isn't what it seems.

Illustrated by Curt Swan & John Calnan, the story is more patented insanity from writer Bob Haney.  

In order to reach Superman in space, Batman has Gold (which is a very malleable metal) stretch into a very long wire to extend to Superman in outer space.  

If that sounds impossible, well, that's Bob Haney for you.   

Action Comics #461 continues the Superman tale by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Tex Blaisdell as the alien Karb-Brak continues to cause problems.  

And because DC has it's finger on the pulse of the young people of 1976, the back up is a solo story featuring Perrty White. 

Look at the ol' cigar chomping Daily Planet editor in the DC banner, just begging the hip happening kids of the 70's to buy this comic! 

Challenging All Star Comics#61 for the month's most crowded cover is Adventure Comics #446.  

Aquaman is on this cover THREE times, in the banner, off to the left side on a friggin' seahorse with an American flag and beating the shit out of Black Manta.

Guys, I think Aquaman is in this book! 

We're in the middle of an Aquaman run by writer Paul Levitz and artist Jm Aparo (with Paul getting some scripting help from Martin Pasko.)  Paul was very young (I think he was just out of high school maybe?) and was writing Aquaman because no one else wanted to.  

Pasko pecks out the script for the Creeper who holds down the fort in the back up with Ric Estrada  & Joe Staton doing their best to invoke the spirit of Creeper creator Steve Dikto.  

I was not buying this book on the regular and this was very much a random purchase.  After this issue, I did not buy another issue of Adventure until 1978.   

Looks like April 1976 was another month without Batman or Detective Comics. 

Next month, Comic Book Retro 50 moves to May 1976 where the Caped Crusader's solo titles will return to my purchase pile and we get the return of Green Lantern/Green Arrow. 

Earth Day 2026

Today, Wednesday April 22, 2026 is Earth Day.

Here is the photo of the Earth taken by the Artemis II mission.

 

Take a good look.  It had a good run while it lasted.

 

There are obstacles in keeping our world safe and hospitable to life.

 

At the top of those obstacles are people who seem to thing the Earth is perfectly fine and there is nothing to worry about.

 

The big fat orange blob monster Donald Trump will still ramble that climate change is a hoax and so what if sea levels are rising, that just means more ocean front property.

 

Or something stupid like that.

 

One argument Li’l Donnie makes in defense of his position is what he perceives is uncertainty from others about what is happening with the Earth.

 

First they called it “global warming” and then they called it “climate change”.   If the Earth is getting hotter, how come it still gets cold and we have ice storms and what not?

 

Geez! This guy! 

Of course this dumb fuck does not understand the difference between "weather" and "climate".  

 

“Global warming” posits that the overall temperature of the planet is increasing. 

 

This warming impacts the strength, position and direction of air currents and ocean currents.  Polar ice melts more frequently which adds to the ocean levels.

 

All of that messes with the overall climate of the planet.

 

It doesn’t equate to the weather is hot instead of cold.  What these changes to the climate mean is that when it is hot, it gets REALLY HOT!

 

When it gets cold, it gets REALLY COLD!  

There are those on the right who argue that we've always had tornados and hurricanes. 

 

That is true but with climate change, we get MORE tornados and hurricanes with greater intensity.

 

It is kind of complicated which is why certain simpletons grasp hold of ignorant talking points to disavow what is going on around them.  

 

Besides Trump, other alleged conservatives claim the Earth is doing just fine and there’s nothing to see here.

 

Like that March 2026 was the hottest month in recorded history? 

 

Why this propensity to deny the reality of our changing climate? 

 

Mostly it’s due to that perennial favorite cause of conservatives, the almighty bottom line.

 

Every dollar spent to mitigate pollution is a dollar away from the sacred profit margins of big business.   

 

That’s why Trump and his cronies are so eager to tear through EPA regulations that mandate things like cars producing fewer pollutants.

 

Li’l Donnie will try to slap a populist coat of gloss that this is to help make cars more affordable for the common folk. 

 

Do you really think any loss in the cost of a car is going to outweigh any gain in the profits of automakers and their billionaire CEOs? 

 

Besides money, another argument made by conservatives involves religion.

 

They’ll argue that the Bible says God has given mankind dominion over the Earth

 

But dominion does not mean that people can do whatever the fuck they want with the world.

 

Dominion means responsibility as well as privilege. 

If one accepts the premise that God gave man dominion over the Earth, then that means God gave man the responsibility to not fuck it up.   

I once sat across from a man in a Sunday School class who said he did not think man would destroy the world because God would not let it happen.

Well, if that helps him sleep at night, so be it. 

But it is a statement that is dumb as fuck. 

If you accept that God exists, I think at best maybe God is rooting for us human to make this work and not totally screw up this small sparkling ball that we cling to as it floats in the cold lifeless void of space.

But God knows we are perfectly capable of making a mess of everything.

That is the power and the peril of having dominion.   

On this Earth Day, we need to remember this world is all we have.

And it is ours to keep.

Or to lose. 

Tuesday TV Touchbase: The Boys and Hacks

This week’s Tuesday TV Touchbase gives us two shows that have a few things in common:

 

• Both began their 5th season. 
• And both are on the home stretch to a series finale.
• And both say “Fuck” a lot!

 

From there, the shows paths diverge.

 

Let’s start with The Boys.

 

Season 5 begins with Homelander solidifying his super powered grip on the United States government, overseeing a country where Christian nationalism is running amuck. 

 

Even when Starlight gets the infamous Flight 37 video out for everyone to see (the one where Homelander allowed the plane to crash with everyone on board), the damage is quickly mitigated by a PR apparatus that immediately springs into action with claims of “fake news” and allegations of AI manipulation.  

 

There remains the one option to kill him, the virus that in order to be strong enough to unalive Homelander would also kill every single person with super powers on the planet. 

 

So Billy Butcher gathers up the team to put this final option into effect.  First, Billy, Starlight and Komiko (who can talk now!) have to bust out Hughie, MM and Frenchie from a “Freedom Camp”, an internment facility for those Homelander calls enemies of the state. 

It's scary how much the world of The Boys reflects the world we're actually living in and show runner Eric Kripke's kind of annoyed about that actually.   

“I am really tired and weary of the world reflecting the show before we get a chance to do it. I appreciate the marketing. I’m just like, can you just please give us a chance to put some absurd satire out there before you prove that it's more realistic than we ever intended?”

Homelander has egomaniacal delusions of grandeur, of ascending to godhood.  A vision of the deceased Madelyn Stillwell tells  Homelander “Who is more loved than Jesus? And why should he have more love than you?”

Kripke felt confident this plot development would not be matched by the real world.   "Homelander saying he’s God is so out there. We have to be careful about how we even introduce the idea to the public because they’ll say he’s gone too far."

Then Donald Trump drops an A.I. image of himself as Jesus Christ.  

Kripke can only shake his head and comment wearily, "It’s just really hard to out-satire this world."

 

And now we’re off to Hacks.

 

The fall out from Deborah’s season 4 decision to not capitulate to studio boss Bob Lipka about what she can say or do on her Late Night talk show and who she can hire continues to impact her life.  Bereft of a TV show and unable to score any work anywhere due to the non-compete clause in her contract, Deborah is lost.  

Lipka has his fingers in so many media pots, he has effectively erased her from pop culture existence, pulling not just the clips from her talk show but also all her comedy specials as well.  His retaliation against Deborah for her daring to stand up to him has been total.  

Her legacy is more than just diminished and tarnished. Her legacy is just plain gone.  

 

And Deborah is understandably pissed off about that.

Deborah stages a secret stand up comedy set where everyone's phones are confiscated.

But someone records the show anyway and puts it online and Bob Lipka immediately sues Deborah.  On the courthouse steps Deborah frames the non-compete restrictions as a first amendment issue and announces she will be back on stage at Madison Square Garden when she beats this contract.

Who leaked that video? It was Ava. But that's OK, it's all part of the plan. Lipka's lawsuit was just what Deborah needed to put herself in front of the cameras in the first phase of reclaiming her legacy.

Although securing MSG might be harder than expected. The only date available for the venue is... September 11th. 

Well, that's gonna make for some awkward comedy.

Leave it to Hacks to make September 11th a punchline.

 

That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Next week, everything old is new again as we look in on the return of Scrubs and Malcolm In the Middle.  

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

 

 

The Worship Of Power

CAUTION: this is a long one. Sorry!

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Religion has been a hot topic lately. 

Who has religion?

Whose religion is it?

Who is using religion properly?

Who is NOT using it as intended?

What is the intent of religion?

Here's what Thomas Jefferson had to say on the matter of religion:   "In every country in every age the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in allegiance with the despot , abetting his abuses in return for protection of his own."

Does that sound disturbingly relevant?  

The subject of the use and abuse of religion as a lever of power and influence has been a topic of contention in the last week.

The instigator was this image that Donald Trump posted to his moldy mildewed Truth Social platform.  

Taking a look at this A.I. generated image of Li'l Donnie in white and red robes with glowing hands and most people would look at this and say, "What the hell? Does Donald Trump think he's Jesus Christ?"

When pressed for a response, der Führer admitted he did indeed post the image but he thought the picture depicted him as a doctor helping people because that's what Donald Trump does, helps people.

A doctor? Really?

The Doctor maybe? That glow around his hands could be regeneration energy. Oh HELL NO! Keep your decaying grubby hands off my Doctor Who fandom! 

Hey, does that guy Trump is "healing" look like Jeffrey Epstein?

So Li'l Donnie wants us to think he's a doctor. 

My doctor does not dress like that.

I've been in hospitals as a guest and as a patient and I've never seen a doctor dress like that.

I've also spent a lot of time as a child in Baptist Sunday School and in all the books, pamphlets, pictures on the wall and everything, guess what Jesus was always frickin' wearing?

Li'l Donnie can gaslight us all he wants but we can all clearly see der Führer is co-opting Christian iconography for his own aggrandizement. And someone would have to be a goddam fucking moron not to see that! 

<Knock! Knock!>

Excuse me, someone is knocking at the I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You door!

Why look! It's Rev. Franklin Graham. So, reverend, what do you have to say on this topic?

“I do not believe President Trump would knowingly depict himself as Jesus Christ—that would certainly be inappropriate. I’m thankful the President has made it very clear that this was not at all what he thought the AI-generated image was representing—he thought it was a doctor helping someone, and when he learned of the concerns, he immediately removed the post. When I looked at the illustration, I didn’t jump to the same conclusion as some. There were no spiritual references—no halo, there were no crosses, no angels. It was a flag, soldiers, a nurse, fighter planes, eagles, the Statue of Liberty, and I think this is a lot to do about nothing.”

 <Whir! Whir! Whir!>

That whirring sound is Franklin's dad, Rev. Billy Graham, spinning in his grave.  

<Knock! Knock!>

Excuse me, someone else is knocking at the I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You door!  (When did this blog get a door?)

Why look! It's notable crazy person Marjorie Taylor Greene. I bet she'll have something to say that is....

“Franklin Graham making excuses for Trump posting himself as Jesus is one of the worst things I’ve seen."

...perfectly reasonable.   

My God!  A preacher defending blasphemy and MTG making sense? What is going on in this crazy world?

An online account called @WalshFreedom posted in response to Li'l Frankie's obsequeious toadying:  “Hey @Franklin_Graham, assuming there is a God, and assuming you meet him one day when you leave this life, he’s going to put this tweet in front of you and he’s going to ask you point blank why you lied here and called a man who is the very antithesis of Jesus Christ the most “pro-Christian” president ever. He’s also gonna demand to know why you sold your soul to so obscenely support such a cruel, hateful, ignorant, & dishonest sociopath. I hope you’ll have some good answers.”

Donald Trump posting himself as a Christ like figure even managed to offend non Christians. Muslims don't consider Jesus the son of God, but they revere him as a prophet and believe that he helped pay the way for the teachings of Prophetic Mohammed.

Seriously, what kind of stupid suck up would defend this?

<Knock! Knock!>

Really, another knock at the I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You door?  (Why does a blog even have a door?)

Look, it's J.D. Vance!

"'I think the president was posting a joke."

(Ha!) OK, I think I get it! Trump's policies have so decimated (Ha! Ha!) people's access to afforable health care that (Hee! Hee!) it would take a fucking miracle (Ha! Hee!)  for someone to (Giggle!) get healed.

Bwa! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

That is a good one, J.D.! Thanks for explaining that! 

<Knock! Knock!>

NO! We are not doing this bit anymore! 

Amanda Marcotte of Salon.com made a deep dive into what all this means.  

"One gets the sense that most evangelical influencers weren't really angry so much as they were embarrassed that Trump said the quiet part out loud: He has supplanted Jesus Christ as their lord and savior. MAGA leaders love to praise Trump's bluntness when he's attacking their presumed enemies, but they expect him to be a little more circumspect when assessing the character of the people who follow him. That is a huge miscalculation. Trump eventually betrays everyone who shows him loyalty, so it should have come as no surprise that he couldn't help but strip away the pretense that their faith is about following the teachings of Christ."

"The Christian Right is really not about worshipping God — it's about worshipping power."

"In the MAGA movement, Trump serves a similar role, his followers not to the Almighty but to what they really want: control over American government and society. And there is nothing the president could do that would cause the Christian Right to lose their faith in him."

When Trump once said that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue in New York City and not lose any support, THIS is what he's talking about.

As long as Li'l Donnie is a useful tool in the acquisition and retaining of power, the snivelling synchopants in the Christian Right will say or do whateve it takes to maintain their support of their new lord and savior, der Führer himself.

After deleting the picture of Trump AS Jesus, Li'l Donnie began circulating this image of Trump WITH Jesus.    

I would like to think this whispered conversation in this illustration goes something like this. 

"Psst! Donnie! Yeah!
Dad says you are so fucked!"

Oh great! Now both Donald Trumo and I are going to Hell! 

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is not the only one looking to usurp religion to sell an agenda. Pete Hegseth, Dude Bro' O' War, keeps trying to promote the war with Iran in religous terms as some kind of sacred crusade.  

Recently, Pouty Pete delivered a prayer that was quoting a passage from the Bible. 

Or Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fiction.   

Jesus preached messages of peace and forgiveness.

Pete's faith is rooted in hate and restribution. Of course he would think Samuel L. Jackson's tirade was Biblical.  

As if the war with Iran was not enough, Donald Trump has declared war on the Vatican.

Pope Leo declared that peace is preferable to war and Li'l Donnie lost his shit! 

You know, the same Li'l Donnie who lost his shit when he did not win the Nobel Peace Prize took exception to Pope Leo's call for peace over war.

Trump declares that if not for this war, Iran would've made the Vatican a radioactive crater by now.   

Trump and his enablers are trying to sell the war in Iran as some kind of devine cause blessed by God. 

Pope Leo doesn't believe wars are blessed by God.

And now IT! 

IS!! 

ON!!!

JD Vance and Mike Johnson have taking turns attempting to school the Pope in theology and what God does and does not want.

Vance is allegedly a Catholic and Catholics are supposed to believe the Pope has a direct hotline to God.  

I guess Vance thinks Pope Leo needs a better cell phone plan?

Pope Leo says he's not scared of Donald Trump and the Pope insists he will remain a defender of peace over war.

Jesus! Who does this guy think he is? Some kind of emissary of Christian ideals? 

While on a visit to Cameroon, Pope Leo made a very telling and significant statement. 

“The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild.  They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found.” Pope Leo in Cameroon, 4/16/2026

Surely Pope Leo wasn't calling out Donald Trump.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, Trump was caught on a hot mike saying the federal government didn't have money for health care, food assistance or some other 3rd thing that actually helps people. 

There is only money for war.

Seriously, he really said that.  

So yeah, that sounds pretty directed at Li'l Donnie.

That's Pope Leo being nice about it.

I will not.

Donald Trump is a failure and a total loser who knows nothing except how to destroy, to traffic in hate and ignorance.  He knows nothing of kindness or compassion.

Any so called followers of Jesus Christ continue to follow Trump, I say you know nothing of Jesus Christ. You trade worship of God for worship of power. 

And I am no Pope Leo but I kinda think Jesus would not be OK with that.  

Happy (Belated) Superman Day

Yesterday, Saturday April 18, 2026 was Superman Day.

How did I not know that?

I'm going to lose what remains of my comic book geek cred.  

Maybe I'm just getting too old for this stuff.

April 18, 1938 was when Action Comics #1 was released featuring the debut of Superman by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

So happy (belated) Superman Day!

It is apparently not too late to join the party as DC Universe Online (DCUO) has a Superman Day Event running until April 27, 2026, with a "Doomed Metropolis" theme, featuring daily/weekly missions and exclusive rewards.  

So up, up and away, Superman, forever and a day!

Star Trekking: The Paramount Ball Drop

 

Welcome to another edition of Star Trekking, this blog's regular berth for all thing Star Trek.

This week we're taking a break from the look back at Star Trek: The Next Generation for a look forward. 

What pray tell does the future hold for our friends and foes of the Federation?

Well, I hate to say this but the future's kind of fuzzy.

At last week's CinemaCon 2026, Paramount kicked off it's presentations with updates on such franchises like Top Gun, Jackass, Call of Duty, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

And Paramount is rolling the dice on Johnny Depp who dropped by to show off some footage from his upcoming Christmas Carol movie.

Well, good  on them for all of that.

But this post is Star Trekking, this blog's regular berth for all thing Star Trek. Whazzup with Trek, y'all?

It seems that in this 60th anniversary year, Paramount is dropping the ball on all things Star Trek. 

At the start of the Paramound presentation, there was a rapid fire annoucement of all the things the studio is allegedly working on and buried in the mix was Star Trek. 

Basically it boils down to Paramount's standard line that a Star Trek movie is "in development". 

They've been saying that for years. 

Ever since Star Trek Beyond was released in 2016 (has it really been THAT long?), Paramount's been telling us that a Star Trek movie is "in development".

Last year, we did get this news from the studio that the writing team of  John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein were working on a new Star Trek movie which was both good news (Yay! These guys wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming) and bad (Uh oh! These guys wrote The Flash).

SIDE NOTE: John Francis Daley was Dr. Lance Sweet on the TV series Bones. When Daley needed some time off to focus on a writing project, the show had Sweets murdered. And yes, I'm still pissed off about that.

The only other deets we got about this alleged Star Trek project was that the next movie would be a whole new direction with whole new characters.

So fans who WANT to see more Zachary Quinto as Spock, well, no, you're out of luck. 

All that was last year. This year at the major hype fest that was CinemaCon 2026, all Paramount could say about Star Trek was "hey, we're working on something, guys".

Paramount saying they have a Star Trek movie in development is about as meaningful as me saying I have a Star Trek movie in development. 

So that's Star Trek at the movies? Surely something is going with TV stuff, right? 

Nothing.

No, less than nothing.  

The sets from the most recent Star Trek series have been broken down and are being sold off at auction.  

That write in campaign to save Starfleet Academy? Forget about it.

The idea that Strange New Worlds could spin off into a Star Trek: Year One type series with Paul Wesley as Capt. James T Kirk?  Not bloodly likely! 

All that world and character building in the last season of Picard carrying over into a Star Trek Legacy series? Sorry but that ship has warped outta here. 

To celebrate Stat Trek's 60th anniversary, Paramount is not giving fans anything they want or asked for.  

It looks the time of Alex Kurtzman and his Secret Hideout production team on Star Trek is done.   

And there is no one set to take his place.

And all we have from Paramound is a vague promise of some kind of movie coming some time. 

Paramount has a long history of not quite knowing what to do with this franchise.

William Shatner was in town last week, appearing at the Tanger Center for a screening of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan and he shared stories afterwards with the audience.  

No, I did not get to go but one fan did post a clip online where Shatner shared how Paramount execs were jealous of the success of Star Wars and wondered if they had anything like that. They had to be reminded they owned Star Trek. 

And once they remembered, well, their involvement wasn't always helpful.  One of the reasons Star Trek: The Motion Picture was so low and ponderous was that Paramount wanted to compete with Star Wars spectacle so character development was sacrificed to put more time for special effects on screen. 

Subsequent films were done in by Paramount's ever more stringent budget cuts.  Yes, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was done in by William Shatner's bad story and bad directing but Paramount's bare bones budget of $25 million didn't help either. 

When Paramount reluctantly greenlit  Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, they did so for the same $25 million budget. The movie repurposed sets from the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series to help meet the budget.   

While Paramount's management of the Star Trek franchise has always been questionable, it seems it's fate is even less uncertain under the current Paramount Skydance regime led by CEO David Ellison, a MAGA supporting ally of Donald Trump.

Is Star Trek's future actually in doubt due to it's propensity for progressive views, showing women in charge, racial equality and support for the LGBTQ+ community, all concepts that are anathema to the orange blob monster in the White House? And his billionaire friends? 

Like the recent Artemis II mission to the moon demonstrated, Star Trek is the epitome of what good can come from a diverse humanity coming together to accomplish incredible things.

But the powers that be that control Star Trek are following a political movement heading in the opposite direction of such an expansive and hopeful future.

Hopefully this political race to self destruction will reverse itself and Paramount may want to see the wonder and beauty of Star Trek's vision for a diverse and inclusive future.

For now, we have to contend with Paramount's big ol' ball drop.

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Never mind me, what does a wiser and more informed person feel about the current state of Star Trek?

Here are some quotes from Jonathan Frakes on the Star Trek All Access podcast.  

“I think, sadly, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of our incredible franchise, it seemed very unfortunate that they’ve chosen this moment to not have any new Trek in production. It seems like a very unfortunate irony. I’m sure that Trek will resurface, it always has, and it always will. And the power that Roddenberry invested in it seems to have made it through six decades.”

As a working actor and director, Frakes can ill afford to burn many bridges in Hollywood but it's clear his hope for the future of Star Trek is tinged with more than a little cynicism. 

“So some people who either didn’t like or didn’t approve or didn’t support the latest endeavors, for whatever reason.  Perhaps it’s the changing of the guard at Paramount+ and CBS [Studios]. Perhaps it’s indecision. Perhaps it’s the amount of money it costs to make how beautiful the show is; the level of the production has become this sort of “shoot to thrill” cinematic phenomenon that when we did the show back in the ’80s, we counted on storytelling and acting and the occasional camera move. It’s a different beast now, and that beast is very expensive, and as we know, it’s called show business.”

Frakes commented on the recent cancellation of Starfleet Academy.  

“Yeah, isn’t that unfortunate? And that’s how [Alex] Kurtzman felt. I got a call from Alex and Noga [Landau], who was his co-showrunner on Starfleet Academy. They were calling people to let them know that the show was kind of ‘on ice,’ I think was the phrase they used. And it was what you just said [critiques coming from people who hadn’t watched the show], they couldn’t not mention as a factor, the trolls.”

Even in the wake of cancellations and halts to production, Frakes looks to hold on to hope. Even if as he says, "None of it is encouraging."  

“I’m very optimistic about the future. I just wish that something was percolating now. I know that there’s talk of another movie. I don’t think it’s going to be one of the J.J. movies. It seems it’s going to be a brand-new [idea]. I know that there’s also a percolating idea about the Paul Wesley [Star Trek: Year One], which would be the origin of Kirk, but that’s all I’ve got. All I’ve got is rumor and innuendo, and none of it is encouraging… But in truth, there will be a Star Trek on the air through 2027. That gives us a lot of time to get something else in the oven, if you will.”

God bless Jonathan Frakes.  He acknowleges things do not look good for Star Trek right now but he holds on to it's ideals and the hope that it will rise again somehow, some way.

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Next week: Star Trekking returns to the past as we move to season 3 of Star Trek: The Next Generation.