Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (comics)

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was a comic book series written by Chris Cooper and published by Marvel between 1996 and 1998. Lasting 19 issues, the series focuses on the adventures of Nog and his teammates in Omega Squad at Starfleet Academy.

Omega Squad itself was a classic Five-Man Band consisting of:


 * Nog (The Alien)
 * Kamilah Goldstein (The Heart)
 * Matthew Decker (The Lancer, later The Hero)
 * T'Priell (The Smart Girl)
 * Pava Ek'Noor (The Action Girl)
 * Edam Astrun (The Sixth Ranger)

Although generally forgotten today, Starfleet Academy was considered to be among the best series in Marvel's Star Trek run, both in terms of art quality and storytelling (their use of original characters allowed them greater freedom). It is notable for being the first series in the Star Trek Universe to feature primarily original characters (debuting several months before Peter David's Star Trek: New Frontier novels; David himself wrote a few young adult novels about Worf at Starfleet Academy that introduced some New Frontier characters). It is also the first Star Trek series to directly address homosexuality (Cooper himself is gay). With Pava's inclusion as a minor character in Star Trek: Titan, the series has been retroactively incorporated into the Star Trek Expanded Universe.

Tropes seen in Star Trek Starfleet Academy include:
"Worker: Boothby, you old coot! You had us drill through the Academy's main power cable! Boothby: Oops. Must be getting senile, I guess."
 * Academy of Adventure: Obviously
 * Anyone Can Die:.
 * Axe Crazy: Selke.
 * Big Bad: Sub-Commander Thokol
 * The Chessmaster: The Founders; possibly the Talosians as well (see Xanatos Gambit below)
 * The Chris Carter Effect: Although this is more the fault of Marvel losing the license to publish Star Trek comics
 * Complete Monster: Sub-Commander Thokol, one of the most unambiguously evil (and psychosexually fucked-up) characters in Star Trek
 * Continuity Porn: Talos IV; Charlie X; Admiral Leyton's coup....need I go on?
 * Cool Old Guy: Boothby, the campus groundskeeper
 * Crowning Moment of Funny:


 * Crisis Crossover: The Telepathy War arc brought the Cadets into contact with the crews of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
 * Culture Clash: One of the major recurring themes.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Zund. Although, as to what actually happened in her past, we will never know.
 * Evil Plan: Dominon and its attempt at genocide stirs up a lot of conflict.
 * Ho Yay: Decker and Yoshi. Apparently more than subtext.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Edam Astrun
 * Its Complicated: Andorian mating rituals.
 * The Mole:
 * Memetic Mutation: A rare in-universe example, as the Dominion plots to exterminate all telepaths with a deadly Ear Worm. Notably, this was written years before Dawkins's theory of Memes was popularized by the Internet.
 * Not Quite Dead:
 * One Steve Limit: This one puts an aversion into the Star Trek universe with Matt Decker, who is named after his great-grandfather, the commodore of the Constellation from "The Doomsday Machine".
 * Pieta Plagiarism: The cover of issue five.
 * Psycho Rangers: The Klingon cadets of First Cadre
 * Reality Ensues: Pava alone angainst three Jem'Hadar soldiers. What did you think was going to happen.
 * Stuffed in A Fridge: . Somwhat subverted in that her death primarily affected Pava.
 * Suddenly Sexuality. Averted. Yoshi was gay all along, it just didn't become an issue until he meets a homophobic alien.
 * Squick: Thokol confessing his undying love.
 * Take That: Issue #2 takes shots at the then-popular practice of collecting comics without reading them.
 * Tear Jerker: The death of
 * Too Good to Last: Alas, Marvel lost the license in 1998.
 * War Is Hell: The Jem'Hadar invasion of Talos IV.
 * Word of Gay: Says Decker was gay too.
 * Xanatos Gambit: The Founders trick the Federation into believing that they plan to annihilate a Telepath conference; in reality, they want the delegates evacuated to spread a memetic virus. In any event, the virus has already been implanted and the evacuation would facilitate the spread.
 * Xanatos Roulette: Ambassador Spock speculates that the entire Telepathy War may have been orchestrated by the Talosians in order to obtain a race of Jem'Hadar slaves to reclaim the surface. This is neither confirmed nor denied by the Keeper.