In Review: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine—The Dog of War #1 (of 5)

Synopsis: BORK! An extremely rare purebred corgi from Earth makes its way aboard Deep Space 9 when Quark cuts a deal to procure it for a high buyer. After all, a Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all! But Latinum the corgi comes with unexpected cargo that shakes Captain Benjamin Sisko to the core: a Borg component discovered by a crew sent to uncover Cardassian technology after the station’s reoccupation.

The Story

Set during the latter stages of The Dominion War. This new DS9 story sees Quark stuck with a Pure Bred Corgi and a mysterious Borg device from a deal with a buyer that has left them with Quark as collateral. While the crew of Deep Space Nine grows rather fond of the Corgi. The Borg device shakes Benjamin Sisko to the core as he remembers his involvement in the Battle of Wolf 359. However, Admiral Ross feels that Sisko may be overreacting and would rather Sisko and the team on DS9 find a way of utilizing the Borg technology in their ongoing fight with the Dominion.

The Artwork

Angel Hernandez and Nick Filardi do a solid job with the art and produce some great visuals throughout the book. We get some cute imagery with things like seeing Vic Fontaine surrounded by dogs on the Holodeck to edgier imagery like Captain Sisko trying on the Borg device in order to test whether it is safe for Starfleet personnel to use. The panels where we see Sisko wearing the Borg device look really good and would make for a great poster.

Overall

Writer Mike Chen does a great job of capturing the feel and voice of the DS9 characters and pairing Quark with a Corgi Dog is a genius idea. I particularly found Quark’s business idea of charging residents of DS9 to walk the dog to be a fun idea and consistent with the kind of scheme that Quark would have come up with on the show.

The story concerning the Borg technology was the dominant thread in this book. This makes me wonder if the Dog is going to be used in some way for the Federation’s fight with the Dominion.