Star Trek: Defiant Comic Announced
By Kieran Burt.
Lt. Worf will be leading his very own comic line next year, titled Star Trek Defiant, IDW announced during their panel at New York Comic Con.
This comic will run from March 2023, and will follow Worf leading an all-star crew of Spock, Lore, B’Elanna Torres, pulling from all eras for the Star Trek canon. The basic premise is that someone is killing the gods, and the crew of the U.S.S Defiant need to stop the dangerous messiah.
The comic has been described as a “dark” and “edgy” take on the Star Trek universe by publisher IDW. Think of the Dirty Dozen meets Star Trek.
It will be helmed by two comics veterans, Chris Cantwell – who has previously written Iron Man, Namor and Star Wars: Obi Wan – and Ángel Unzueta – who has previously been an artist on Iron Man, Star Wars: Poe Dameron and The Flash.
Ever since I made my dad take me to my first Star Trek convention when I was ten, I have been waiting for this moment,” says Cantwell. “When Heather Antos, Jackson Lanzing and Colin Kelly reached out to me about writing the first book to spin out of their flagship Star Trek title, I wanted the quality to match my massive wells of enthusiasm; I knew this book needed to be undeniably Star Trek first and foremost, but also something new and complex that would have readers leaning forward as they engaged with a more unexpected journey to the stars.
“Whereas the new Star Trek book carries forward the grand tradition of Starfleet’s saga of discovery and exploration, Defiant immediately sets out to break the rules of the Federation and go on a fugitive run from Starfleet with a cast of Trek’s best iconoclastic heroes and ne’er-do-wells, each of them straddling worlds in their identities and calibrations in the moral compasses as they embark on a high-stakes galactic manhunt…the Prime Directive be damned.”
To be part of this amazing new Star Trek universe is a big challenge, and I love big challenges,” says Unzueta. “It will be very exciting to show how far our crew can go to save the universe, how many rules they can break just to make things right, how ‘badass’ these guys can be when compared to the more clean-cut crew of the Theseus from the ongoing series.
“Also, I’m working with a great writer, friend and partner from our Iron Man days, and with my favourite editor, who is pushing me to the stars once again. I am so excited and ready to make this book a new experience for the Trek audience!”
“Just when you thought Star Trek comics couldn’t get any bigger, we’re continuing to boldly explore new frontiers,” says Senior Editor Heather Antos. “Between the flagship title and Defiant, it’s safe to say that we have comics’ biggest Trek fans – Lanzing, Kelly, Cantwell, Rosanas, and Unzueta themselves – crafting what is going to be Star Trek’s biggest and boldest interconnected comics story ever. And this is only just the beginning!”
Antos’ comments about boldly exploring new frontiers ring true, as in 2023 it will be the first time that IDW has run two Star Trek comics concurrently.
Along with Star Trek and Defiant, IDW recently launched two new mini-series, Star Trek: Picard: Stargazer and Star Trek: Lower Decks. They also recently announced Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The Illyrian Enigma. And they are set to release a prequel mini-series tied to the upcoming game Star Trek: Resurgence.
