Star Trek Into Darkness tie-in fiction, and other IDW plans

At the recent New York Comic Con, IDW announced some of their plans for 2013, including some early hints at the direction of their Star Trek comics. Comic Book Resources reported what IDW told the convention, with the biggest news being the confirmation of a Countdown-like four-issue prequel series running into the new film, Star Trek Into Darkness, cunningly titled Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness. It appears Mike Johnson will continue to be the go-to new movieverse writer, with David Messina returning to do the artwork. They did also show a cover, which Bleeding Cool got a snap of and I have straightened up a little.

Meanwhile, the Star Trek ongoing series will continue concurrently with Countdown to Darkness, and will be filling in the origin stories of Bones, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu and Chekhov.

IDW also report the TNG/Doctor Who crossover Assimilation² has being doing well, and they are already thinking about a potential sequel.

Back in the new-movieverse, StarTrek.com also recently announced the inevitable novelization of Star Trek Into Darkness, with Alan Dean Foster returning to write it.