Everyone's favorite Klingon is putting together a "Star Trek" dream team.
As a pivotal component of IDW Publishing's efforts to build out their expanding world of "Star Trek" comic books starting with a new flagship "Star Trek" series coming later this month, the first bold expansion of that initiative is streaking towards comic shops for a March 2023 premiere.
Written by Chris Cantwell ("Iron Man," "Namor," "Star Wars: Obi-Wan") and injected with absorbing artwork from Ángel Unzueta ("Iron Man," "Star Wars: Poe Dameron"), "Star Trek: Defiant" will be an ongoing series where fan-favorite character Lieutenant Commander Worf recruits a hand-picked crew to stop an evil intergalactic threat.
Related: 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' comic book miniseries launches in December
Here's the official IDW synopsis:
In "Defiant," someone is killing the gods … but while Benjamin Sisko and the U.S.S. Theseus have been facing the threats in the higher cosmos, very real casualties are growing on lower ground. The true 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 the hopes of defeating the dangerous messiah behind a genocidal cult. Pulling from all eras of "Star Trek" canon to create something wholly unique and unexpected, "Star Trek: Defiant" unites some of the strongest personalities in the franchise — including Spock, B’Elanna, Lore, and more—on a mission with very little guarantee of success!
"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 Collin 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 their moral compasses as they embark on a high-stakes galactic manhunt … the Prime Directive be damned."
Spanish illustrator Ángel Unzueta admits his great excitement over joining the "Star Trek" universe and considers it a huge challenge, but one he'll gladly undertake.
"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," says Unzueta. "Also, I'm working with a great writer, friend, and partner from our Iron Man days, and with my favorite 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!"
IDW's "Star Trek: Defiant #1" drops into Earth orbit in March of 2023 accompanied by a number of special variant covers courtesy of series artist Ángel Unzueta, Malachi Ward, Declan Shalvey, David Aja, and Daniel Warren Johnson.
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