The currently running “Lore War” crossover in IDW’s Star Trek comics is catnip for Trek nerds. The pitch is essentially “Age of Apocalypse” but Star Trek, and as of the second chapter in Star Trek: Defiant #26, this storyline is only getting wilder, darker, weirder… It’s playing with all the tools in the Star Trek toolbox, and having a blast while doing so.
Written by Christopher Cantwell, with art by Davide Tinto, Data’s evil brother Lore has remade the universe in his image. But despite running thousands of takes at building the galaxies the way he’d like them to be, there are still outliers, things that he can’t account for. Part of that is likely Data, who is key to Lore’s plan, unknowingly defying his brother’s control. But there’s also the core idea that, to crib from another franchise, life will find a way.
Specifically, life will find Ben Sisko and Kahless II, who have formed an uneasy alliance to stop Lore and get things back to the way they were. Over the course of the issue, they steal Zefram Cochrane’s shuttle, evade Lore’s gaze by distracting Data with images of his pet cat, and generally throw a wrench in the works. But that’s far from the only problem for Lore, as it turns out he just cannot deal with the Vulcans, who in this iteration have essentially Borg’d the Borg Collective, making their power their own.
While this issue doesn’t have the emotional gut punch of the kick-off issue, which found Sisko dutifully abandoning his remade family to save, well, everyone, what this issue does have is the sort of giddy only-in-an-alternate-universe plot points that made this Trek fan gasp and giggle. There’s a text page in here after an intro where Cochrane meets Lore that is laugh-out-loud funny, as long as you have a dark sense of humor. The mismatched trio of Sisko, Kahless, and eventually Beverly Crusher is a squabbling delight. And there’s the inclusion of Lower Decks‘s Shaxs, who is Lore’s right-hand man, an upgrade for the very fun, very hulking character.
If the kick-off for IDW’s new Star Trek line was “What if we assembled the Avengers of Star Trek?” this crossover takes things into X-Men territory, with all the messed up family dynamics and wild timeline shenanigans that implies. Cantwell is clearly having the time of his life here writing Lore at the height of his manipulative abilities. And Trek nerds are going to have the time of their lives reading the issue.
Star Trek: Defiant #26 Rating:
Star Trek: Defiant #26 Official Synopsis:
On one side of the war, Worf, Shaxs, Alexander, and others who once valued honor above all have now been designed by the malevolent android Lore to uphold his dictatorial rule; on the other side, a rebel Maquis fleet, Kahless II, Beverly, Sisko, and all those who know the truth behind their current reality endeavor to tear it down with what little resources they have. But not everything is as hopeless as it seems: There are allies hidden in the unlikeliest of places and assets — like the famous U.S.S. Phoenix — that escape even the all-seeing positronic eye of Lore.
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