If familiar Trek storytelling devices.
Star Trek #28 – written by Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing, with art by Tessa Fowler – finds Captain Sisko vaulted backward in time, to "a Bronze-age Bajor," leaving the indigenous population to question whether he is "a terrifying threat or the prophet they've been waiting for."
From this synopsis, readers have immediately started to speculate that Sisko is about to instigate a classic causal loop, creating the mythos that would later lead him to be deemed the Emissary of the Prophets, as originally depicted in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Star Trek Is About To Reveal A Major Twist About Benjamin Sisko's Bajoran Prophecy Backstory
Star Trek #28 – Written By Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing; Art By Tess Fowler; Main Cover By Ramón Rosanas
The full teaser for Star Trek #28 reads as follows:
Lore has destroyed the multiverse, and its fate now lies in Benjamin Sisko's hands. But after the U.S.S. Theseus slingshots into the Celestial Temple, Sisko finds himself without his crew... or any technology... on a Bronze-age Bajor. The ancient Bajorans don't know what to make of him: Is he a terrifying threat or the prophet they've been waiting for? If Sisko is to save life itself from the Orb of Destruction, he must first save himself...
By now, authors Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing have more than proven that they can be trusted to take an ambitious, time-and-space hopping Trek story and use it to deliver emotionally profound moments from the franchise's most beloved characters. So, it is not really a question of whether the issue will deliver a satisfying step forward for Sisko's arc in the comics – the answer is all but certain to be yes. Instead, the question is how radically this story will alter fans’ understanding of Trek canon.
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In more ways than one, Kelly and Lanzing's Star Trek ongoing series at IDW has been an extended project of reinvention, recalibration, recontextualization – whatever readers ultimately call it, the authors have devoted themselves to approaching Trek from both new and familiar angles. They have already made many exciting contributions to Star Trek canon, and largely, the new things they have brought to the franchise have been embraced by the fandom. There is no reason to suggest that Sisko's adventure on Bajor in the far-flung past will be any different, but longtime Trek fans are, to some degree, understandably hesitant.
Why A Major Change To Sisko's Trek History Will Have A Harder Time Winning Over Fans
Star Trek #28 – "Old Sisko" Variant Cover By Tess Fowler
The idea of the casual loop is iconic in science fiction, and has been used memorably in Star Trek before. So, it isn't that it is out-of-place in the Trek universe that might make readers hesitant to embrace the use of the trope, if that is indeed where the story of Star Trek #28 goes. Instead, the chief reason for some fans' doubts is not exclusive to Star Trek at all, but rather is part of the discourse surrounding all major franchise storytelling.
As long as the story does justice by Sisko's character, and progresses his story in Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing's run, its lore implications will be merited, whatever they are.
That is, the move runs the risk of making the Trek universe feel smaller, and more insular, which would be at odds with the series' general commitment to expanding the universe. Similar to criticisms of contemporary Star Wars storytelling, there is the increasing feeling as though each franchise's "star" characters need to be connected to every major moment in franchise lore, rather than Star Trek and Star Wars stories being set in vast universes, of which the stories being told are just a fraction of the larger history.
The extent to which this concern is valid remains up for debate – but what can be said is that a story shouldn't be pre-judged before it has been told, and so fans will have to reserve their opinions on the matter until Star Trek #28 is released. The synopsis could, of course, be obscuring an even bigger twist, though it doesn't even need to. As long as the story does justice by Sisko's character, and progresses his story in Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing's run, its lore implications will be merited, whatever they are.
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Captain Sisko's journey backward in time in Star Trek #28 is part of a much more ambitious reimagining of the Trek universe, as it is precipitated by the destruction of the entire Trek Multiverse by Data's evil brother Lore. The Lore War, the franchise's big 2025 crossover, feels like a summation of everything Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing have done with the franchise in nearly three years. While hopefully it isn't a swan song for the creators' time on the book, it will certainly be a major milestone for the franchise, one that has the chance to significantly redefine Trek comics moving forward.
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As with any reality-warping Trek tale, the authors are well within their right to return everything to the status quo prior to the start of the arc, but they also have the opportunity to fundamentally alter the make-up of the Trek universe – if IDW is willing to let them go that far, of course. Overall, 2024 was the biggest year yet for IDW's Trek "renaissance," and it seems as though 2025 has the potential to top it, making Star Trek a must-read for comic book fans and franchise devotees alike.
Star Trek #28 will be available January 22, 2025 from IDW Publishing.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Release Date
- 1993 - 1999-00-00
- Network
- CBS
- Showrunner
- Michael Piller, Ira Steven Behr
WHERE TO WATCH
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, also known as DS9, is the fourth series in the long-running Sci-Fi franchise, Star Trek. DS9 was created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, and stars Avery Brooks, René Auberjonois, Terry Farrell, and Cirroc Lofton. This particular series follows a group of individuals in a space station near a planet called Bajor.
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