IDW Publishing plans to launch its first Star Trek crossover in May 2023, with a prelude in its Free Comic Book Day issue and the main crossover event, Star Trek: Day of Blood, debuting in July.

“Prelude to Day of Blood,” by writers Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, and Christopher Cantwell, with art by Mike Feehan, will run in the FCBD comic and will start with the U.S.S. Santa Cruz taking a trip to the Korvat colony for the Klingon festival of Kot’baval, a trip that quickly turns violent when the cult of the godkiller appears. Free Comic Book Day will be May 6, 2023 (see “FCBD Gold Sponsor Comics”).

The five-issue crossover will bring together IDW’s recently relaunched Star Trek series (see “IDW to Launch New ‘Star Trek’ Flagship Comics Series”) with the new series Star Trek: Defiant, which will launch in March (see “IDW Expands ‘Star Trek’ Line with ‘Star Trek: Defiant’”).

The event begins with Star Trek: Day of Blood #1, to be released in July 2023, then continues through Star Trek: Defiant#6 and Star Trek #11 in August and Star Trek: Defiant #7 and Star Trek #12 in September.

“Star Trek: Day of Blood is what this last year of comic book planning has been all about,” IDW Senior Editor Heather Antos said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “It all leads to this moment. Was Sisko the correct choice of the Prophets? Will Worf’s Klingon honor serve him well? Or will the two remain in the crossfires of the godkiller? Jackson, Collin, and Chris are asking some of the biggest questions we’ve ever seen in Star Trek comics, and it’s time to answer them in the franchise’s first-ever classic summer crossover event.”