STAR TREK #1

Cover shows strong gloss and sharp corners with no visible creases or color breaks; spine appears tight with no stress lines evident in this photo. Minor edge wear may be present but is not clearly visible due to the protective sleeve and slight glare. UPC barcode box confirms newsstand edition. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed, so grade is based solely on the visible front cover condition.

Star Trek #1 launched Marvel's licensed adaptation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, scripted by Marv Wolfman with pencils by Dave Cockrum and inks by Klaus Janson, under editor Jim Shooter. The issue introduces the film's expanded crew roster to the comic page, including Ilia and Sonak alongside the original series regulars Kirk, Spock-adjacent bridge crew Sulu, Uhura, Chekov, Scott, and McCoy. It arrived in April 1980 as part of a wave of movie-tie-in comics capitalizing on Star Trek's theatrical revival, and represents Marvel's first ongoing ownership of the franchise in comic form, following Gold Key's earlier television-era run.

The book's market behavior is typical of a high-volume Bronze Age newsstand release: certified population figures exceed 1,300 universal copies, with nearly 900 combined sales recorded across grades on the high end alone. Demand is concentrated almost entirely at the 9.6-9.8 tier, where FMV climbs sharply from the mid-$30s to $85, reflecting collector focus on pristine, well-centered copies rather than reading or mid-grade condition. Lower and mid-grade copies show a flat, compressed price curve in the high-$20s, indicating the book is plentiful and inexpensive outside of top-census condition.

This is a franchise and nostalgia-driven title rather than a speculative key, appealing primarily to Star Trek completists, licensed-comic collectors, and those assembling Cockrum or Wolfman bibliographies. Raw copies in low and mid grade are readily available and trade as inexpensive fillers, while the real transactional activity and price tension sit at the CGC 9.8 level, where scarcity of true gem-mint survivors among a large surviving population drives a meaningful premium over every grade beneath it.