In Review: Star Trek: Defiant #1

Synopsis: The events of Star Trek: Defiant are spun directly from the recent story arc in the ongoing Star Trek comic. Someone is killing the gods. But Benjamin Sisko’s Prophets-guided dealings of the higher cosmos have led him to forget about the very real casualties on lower ground. The enemy is a MAN, not a god. And Worf of House Martok has put together his own crew aboard the U.S.S. Defiant in hopes of defeating the dangerous messiah behind this genocidal cult.

The Story

Picking up from events seen in Star Trek #5. Captain Worf has left the Theseus in order to try and find a way of stopping Kahless that doesn’t start a galaxy-wide war. As he makes his escape from the Theseus in a shuttle. Worf is shot down and winds up taken prisoner on a remote Romulan colony, but is saved by Ambassador Spock who joins Work in his quest. With Spocks help. Worf borrows the U.S.S. Defiant from DS9 and puts together a crew that includes form Maquis and U.S.S. Voyager Engineer B’Elanna Torres, former Enterprise D Helmsman, and Starfleet traitor Ro Laren and Data’s not so nice brother Lore. 

Their mission is to apprehend Kahless and put an end to the Red Path cult, which has taken seed on the Klingon Homeworld, and save Worf’s son Alexander from his poor decision to join Kahless.

The Artwork

Angel Unzueta and Marissa Louise produce some lovely artwork in this first issue and capture the lighting effects and general mood of the U.S.S. Defiant brilliantly. Added to this are some wonderful character likenesses for all the key characters in the book which seems to be a little more polished than the Star Trek story arc that it is spun off from. Worfs character drawing is particularly good. But my favorite all-around visual from this book is the final page where Worf goes to see the Android Lore, who is little more than a head hooked up to the ship via lots of connective wires. It’s quite an effective visual that takes your breath away at first sight.

Overall

Christopher Cantwell spins a compelling story as he sets up the characters and puts everything in place. I particularly liked the brief note we see from Sela who has been monitoring Spock’s activities and has revealed that she is following Worf and Spock as they pursue their mission. Hopefully, we get to see Sela in future issues as we find out what role she has to play if any further role is needed from her. 

The description of this book being the Dirty Dozen meets Star Trek is pretty much bang on. And I can’t wait to see how this ongoing story arc will further link up with that of the ongoing arc in the main Star Trek comic.