Star Trek: Defiant #8 Review: A Fresh Start For Star Trek’s Deadliest Crew

Star Trek: Defiant #8 launches out of the “Day of Blood” crossover with a new mission, and some big mysteries. Is this a good jumping-on point for the book?

We reviewed the book on the Stack podcast. But in the interest of highlighting more about the title, here’s a summary of the conversation with our thoughts. And if you prefer the longer audio version, that’s below as well!

Powered by RedCircle

Star Trek: Defiant #8 Review:

In the wake of IDW‘s Day of Blood crossover event, Christopher Cantwell and Mike Feehan set up a new status quo for the crew of the Defiant. Specifically — and spoilers past this point — they get court-martialed and stripped of their ranks. And then they get given a list of targets that a rogues gallery of returns from the Star Trek franchise. Spock is fine, though.

In particular host Alex Zalben though there were “some fun moves with Worf here that really dug into his character.”

Overall, “This feels like a fresh clean start for this crew and this title,” Zalben said. “And I love the place they leave it in.” Though he felt that it was “preaching to the choir” in terms of selling Star Trek Easter eggs to Star Trek fans, it still worked for him.

Justin Tyler agreed, saying, “They really put in all the bangers from every Star Trek show in this series… And then to do it again with the villains, the dossiers that are handed to this team.” He added that as the series goes on it “seems to be shifting more towards a Deep Space Nine paradigm,” which he enjoyed.

Wrapping up, Zalben said that, “It just feels like a really good, fresh setup for this book. If you haven’t read it yet, you can jump right in with this one.”

Star Trek: Defiant #8 Official Synopsis:

Arc two of the acclaimed Star Trek: Defiant series starts here! Still reeling from the battle on Qo’noS, Worf and the Defiant crew have been ordered to return to Starfleet headquarters where they await learning the Federation’s thoughts on their involvement in the fight against Kahless and the Red Path.
Written by Christopher Cantwell (Hellcat and Star Wars: Obi-Wan), drawn by Mike Feehan (Star Trek and Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles), and colored by Marissa Louise (Defiant and Black Manta) with letters by Clayton Cowles (Batman and Daredevil).