Star Trek : Countdown Star Trek : Countdown is a four - issue series of comics from IDW Publishing . The series is a prequel tie - in to the film , . It serves as both a lead up to the film and a continuation of the era . The story details the back - story of Nero , the Romulan villain of the film . It takes place in the year 2387 , eight years after , and explains how Nero and Spock ended up in the 23rd century . The first issue was released in , with one more issue following each month through . The series is written by Mike Johnson and Tim Jones , based on a story by " Star Trek " screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman . David Messina is the artist for the series . The official description for the series reads as follows : The prequel connects the era of " Star Trek : The Next Generation " to the continuity of the film , inspired by and . As such , familiar characters from the TNG era appear in the series . In addition to Nero , Spock from the 24th century , who was last seen in " Unification " , is among the main characters of the series . In 2010 , the series was further connected to the film by its official , where the scene in which Spock Prime mind - melds with young Kirk is shown as a collage which is an overview of the " Countdown " story line . " Star Trek Online " follows the continuity of this comic , although altering the meaning of a few details , such as Worf ' s rank of general being a temporary commission . Game developers have said that they intervened to ensure that the comic ' s story only destroyed the Prime timeline version of Romulus , not other planets such as Vulcan and Earth . A trade paperback was released in , shortly after the last issue of the comic series . Publication history . " Countdown " came about after Anthony Pascale of TrekMovie kept asking the film ' s writers , Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman , to create a means for the characters of " The Next Generation " to " pass the baton " back to the characters of . Although comic co - writer Mike Johnson considers " Countdown " to be canon , Orci stated he was in no position to declare whether it was , though he felt it could be considered canon unless it is contradicted in a later film or TV episode . He later implied it wasn ' t canon before outright stating , with encouragement from the interviewer , that it was . Johnson and co - writer Tim Jones work for Kurtzman and Orci at their production company , K / O Productions , and , being fans of " Star Trek : The Next Generation " , they were asked to come up with a way to honor " The Next Generation " while connecting it with the new movie . Orci , Kurtzman , and J . J . Abrams provided direction for the comic , while Orci supervised the project . Johnson and Jones were permitted to read parts of the script and watch parts of the film in order to write the comic , particularly those parts which dealt with Nero . According to Johnson , every scene Nero has in the film fed into the comic book , while the comic gives much more subtext to his scenes . The writers chose to give his Romulan crew informal dialogue to reflect they are miners , not politicians or warriors . Although it involves characters from " The Next Generation " , the main purpose of the comic was to explain Nero ' s motives in the film , to show the character ' s journey " from a proud Romulan patriot to a murderous arch villain . " The series ran for four issues , with one issue released each month from January through April 2009 . According to IDW editor - in - chief Chris Ryall , the first issue of " Star Trek : Countdown " sold out within two weeks of its publication , despite the fact that more copies of the book were printed than originally intended . Electronic versions of the comic books are available on the iPhone and iPod touch from iTunes . The third issue was the first comic to be released in stores and on the iPhone on the same day . A collecting all four issues was released on , followed by a hardback release in . " Countdown " was also published in issues 1 to 3 of " Star Trek Comic " . The first issue contained parts One and Two , issues 2 and 3 contained parts Three and Four , respectively .