Star Trek #4 and #5: Sisko and the Living City

Hi, this is John Delancey and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. You've just jumped

inside the pull bag. Join TFG1 Mike and the rest

of the comic crew here at the GCRN as they make

their great escape into comics. From DC, Marvel

and Image to IDW, Bloom Studios and Xenoscope,

we have everything right here. We cover things

like Transformers, He -Man, Super Heroes, TMNT

and Radiant Black. Yeah, we have all that and

so much more. It's all inside the pull bag here

on the Geekcast Radio Network. So, without further

ado, it's time to talk about the comics we're

reading right now, here inside the pull bag.

Hello and welcome to the pull bag. This is episode

516. I'm, of course, TF2 and Mike. Joining me

once, sort of, kind of, almost as always is Steve

Megatron. Hello, sir. Hello. Yes, yes, and we

are back to talk about IDW Publishing's Star

Trek. This is issues four and five We'll be discussing

in this episode of the podcast It's the Benjamin

Sisko adventures which apparently don't mention

Benjamin Sisko to Optimus Solo cuz he's not exactly

a fan of of Cisco but that was a whole Twitter

thread that apparently you were left out of and

I'll have to send that to you later cuz yeah

It was hilarious. It was, it was so funny. And

I kind of teased a new thing that you and I are

going to be doing. I've kind of sort of been

a little bit teasing. Like I just use the, there

really is no acronym to probably one of the first

shows in our history. We don't have an actual

true acronym for, but yet. Well, I mean, A, D,

F. WST doesn't really spell anything. All right,

Star Trek number four. Creative on this, as always,

Jackson Lansing and Colin Kelly. We're the writers,

artists, Ramon Rosanis and Oleg Chertakov. The

colorist is Lee Lockridge. Letters done by Clayton

Cowles. Oh, hey, I know Clayton. No, in quotes,

Clayton. Design and production done by Neil Yucatay.

The senior editor is Heather Antos, and the editorial

assistant was Vanessa Reel. So we start with

the LCARS, and boy was I confused when I first

opened this. This is issue four. How are we at

chapter 33? And then I realized it's an LCARS

panel. He's reading a book. Yeah, yeah. He's

reading his little eye device there. But yeah,

we start off with Cisco and his narration about

how he's supposed to talk with his son Jake and

all of that and just all of the ways that father

and son and he's like, oh, I should bring this

up to him. Oh, no, don't worry about it. It's

nothing. And then we get a really nice shot of

the Theseus. I almost say you take that design,

but now I like my other choice better. Me too.

Out of all the ships in all the worlds, the one

I pick is the one from almost 40 years ago. Hey,

it's a good ship. I'm not saying it isn't at

all. Hello, I think they're bringing it back

too. Good. Absolutely. So good. So good. So we

have the the other crew members here looking

at this, this crystalline entities and the shapers

and Q and what do they all have in common? And

it's something about tachyons, I guess, and how

there's no mass in space. Yeah, it's something

that I don't like, I don't expect to understand

tachyons. they kind of are the plot device needed

at a certain point in time. So they can really

mean anything. But I like Scotty going, you're

thinking about this too hard. You don't want

to see space -time fabric operating beyond the

warp threshold. All you got to do is look at

subspace. Subspace, you're a genius, Mr. Scott.

I know. Well, he wrote the book, so, you know.

Well, I mean, yeah, you know. This new city or

this city that they've come upon, is it Tikon?

Is that what it is? Yeah. OK. Because I wasn't

sure if it was Tikon, as in like T -Kon, K -O

-N -Kon, or Tikon, like a certain idiot villain

was going to come back. You know, like the Wrath

of and all of that. So we got Cisco and data

in there and this is what I love about this series

to this point and continuing on further is how

much The new crew and the old crew, like their

ideas kind of combine. Like you just mentioned

with Scotty, you know, telling the younger crew

members what to look for and whatever else. And

the whole thing between Data and the other two

crew members and Cisco and Data's talking to

Cisco like he's Picard, he's not Picard. Cisco

just laughs at him. There's no way I'm asking

permission to save the universe. Pretty much

he's right. I mean, you know Yeah Absolutely,

I love the interiors of the ship I love all the

the little little not nooks and crannies, but

Is it just me or is it weird that it's green?

Is that the actual color of the inside of the

ship is green? I don't know. I don't know. I

would assume that is a physical chair that Cisco

is sitting in that he is grabbing the arm of

when he says engage and they go warping off into

whatever. It could be the lighting. Yeah, it

could be but I'm not Yeah, I'm not thinking it's

the lighting. Like I said, he's gripping the

arm of that chair and you see in the art Like

with his hand gripping the side of it. There's

no way that's a light trick. There's just no

way It's a green. It's a lime. No, it's a mint

green interior Oh Karen would love that. She

loved mint green paint for some odd reason. I

don't know why oh boy so they go through warp

space and they come out the other side and holy

crap we have there's something absolutely huge

out there on screen beautiful this is a god city

apparently yeah okay Why does the God City have

these spider technicals pointed at the city like

it's going to come crashing down on it? I don't

know. I don't know. That's why I'm asking the

question. They're pulling an Iron Man. Yeah.

It almost looks like, you know, his arc reactor.

A little bit, yeah. And alright, so we had an

Iron Man reference. We're gonna get a Transformers

reference later. Is it more than meets the eye?

Oh, well, no, it's uh, no I mean we can always

work that into anything can't we? Yeah, but no,

I don't know. Is it this issue? Yeah, it's because

they they found this planet thing It's it's coming

up actually because they they see the brain of

the thing So they're going through and they're

trying to figure out what this what this city

is or what the planet is and you get um That

is that's not troy. Is it who is that? Is it

bevril? Yeah, that's It's Beverly. It's Crusher,

not Troy. I've got too much Star Trek on the

brain, folks, because of things that are coming

soon to the GeekCast radio network. And I'm trying

to keep it all straight. And I only have one

brain sometimes. I wish I had two. If he only

had a brain. Well, I have one. It just doesn't

work. It's not functioning properly sometimes.

so they are inspecting this thing and looking

at it and figuring out what it is and then they

see would you look at that as an entire structure

built direct symbiosis with a life form curled

at the center of it so there is a life form curled

at the center of this city there is an episode

in g1 i believe it's in season three maybe it's

there's one where they go out to an astronaut

an asteroid and They find this egg they crack

open the asteroid. There's a creature inside

of the ass the same damn thing Same damn thing.

I'm not complaining about this I'm just making

the references all is when I started reading

this and I got to this point I'm like, hey, where

have I seen that before? Oh, yeah Transformers

absolutely funny So this living city is living.

I do love, again, the younger crew members. So

is this an actual god? We are both observing

the same data, Lily. So you don't want to know

either, right? Right on. And then, of course,

Scotty, my antimatter scrubbers. Oh, him and

his antimatter scrubbers. He's not happy unless

he's in engineering Yeah, pretty much. That's

I mean, I don't want to say that's where he belongs

but everyone has a calling in life and Scott

he's an engineer and you know, we get We get

the villain of the series or I shouldn't say

of the series. I don't know if it's gonna be

the entire At least this, you know, our godkiller

is just rolled in It's the Klingons, of course

it is. Emperor Kaelas. Emperor Kaelas. You suck,

Emperor Kaelas. You suck. You suck. He's a clone.

He's not even the real one. You suck and you're

a clone. How bad is your day going? Yeah, they

took his DNA off of a blade and... cloned him

in a TNG episode. Oh, damn. That's hilarious.

So we have Kayliss and he's the new emperor and

we have a personal log from Warf, I think. Yeah,

it's from Lieutenant Warf, yeah. So this was

nine years ago in this whole text thing here.

about, you know, explaining to us, the readers,

about who Kalis is and the whole backstory there

and all that. So that's very, very cool. We have

Worf, Sisko, and Mr. Paris. And Mr. Paris is

basically saying, don't worry, she may be smaller

than us, but we were built to run. I love that.

What are you thinking to this point in this fourth

issue? I like the things that kind of happen

back and forth with the different cast in this.

I definitely love the mixture of different eras

of Trek. You've got the original series with

Scotty. You've got TNG with Data Wharf and Dr.

Crusher. You get Deep Space Nine with Cisco and

Voyager with Tom Paris. And then you get the

other two, the Andorian and the Vulcan. Yep.

Think it's kind of neat that they turned Kayla's

Into this this Destroyer of of the godlike entities

and track Mm -hmm considering he's supposed to

be revered kind of that way and then it's funny

that that they're kind of making this this giant

endeavor between it's kind of like a a face -off

between Cisco and Kalus. Mm -hmm. So I don't

know. I really like the the fact that we're We're

getting to that point where there's gonna be

this ultimate showdown. Yep and Yeah, it's it's

very much ultimate showdowning. They even have

a whole panel of quantum torpedoes incoming and

like the whole two ships facing each other in

in space with the with the thesis on the left

and the Klingon Warbird on the right. Yeah, very,

very cool. I'm digging this. I'm digging the

art. I'm digging the characters. You know, and

basically, Kalis just wants destruction. That's

all he wants. And, you know, that's pretty much

it. And the issue basically ends with, you know,

Worf saying they're charging the weapon that

Klingons killed their gods. And now we're gonna

finish the job, oh boy. Yeah, issue four, I really

dig it, I think it's cool, I think it's fun.

I think we are setting stuff up to have a really

cool climax to this story. I don't know what

the ultimate thing is going to be, I don't know

how. Jackson and Colin are like like, how are

they? I assume it's gonna be one long storyline,

but I assume that Villains will come in and out

of the the thing I don't like there's only so

many so far You could take one character as the

bad guy kind of thing unless it's you know, somebody

I mean, okay, let's could come back We don't

know but you know what I mean? Like it's a I'm

just wondering like how the writers and the creators

are going to Set out the rest of the series as

it goes and issue four. I really really Really

liked it. I like all of the different Character

moments. I like that almost every major character

gets a speaking line. I like that individual

characters interact with each other in ways that

You wouldn't normally wouldn't get the chance

to yeah exactly like you know, especially with

the actors passing away. Yes You know, across

different areas of Trek. Yeah. You get this nice

timing of it all. Yep. Because this kind of takes

place before Nemesis. Yeah. Does it? Yeah. Well,

data's still alive. Oh, okay. Well, then that

one. When did he die? I'm not a Trekkie, folks.

Oh. I don't think I've ever... You're 2379 in

Trek history. Okay. I know we covered... Wait,

what is returned? If people want to know, they'll

find out. Yeah, I know we covered all the Star

Trek films on a previous podcast that we used

to do, but I honestly don't remember that far

back. I remember the good Star Trek films that

I liked, but I don't remember ever watching Nemesis.

I mean, it's all right. Oh boy. Issue four. Any

final thoughts or anything like that and rating

and all that good stuff? I'd give it a four just

because I was wanting more out of it. But it's

not that it was bad or anything. I just I was

wanting a little bit more, which we get in the

next issue. Yeah, I think that's the thing with

the single issue reviews and stuff is that Even

though we're doing these two issues at a time,

these are monthly comics currently, they're not

in trade paperback yet, and they have to find

a way to grab readers every time. Either you

have a full -on issue with action and all of

that, or you have one with dialogue and storytelling

and whatever, or you find a way to mix both.

And I think this issue found a way to mix both,

but you're right, it left me wanting more, so

I will give it a three and a half. Alright, we're

going to take a quick break. You can hear some

ads and some other stuff and we'll come back

with issue five right after this. So get altered

get geeky with the altered geeks every Friday

on the geek cast radio network A comic book podcast

that actually talks about comics. Yep. Each week

we open the shop up and read and discuss a comic

Sometimes we pair that up with comic book movies

or TV shows. We're not lots of times. It's just

comic books And sound effects. Oh yes, definitely

lots of sound effects. So tune in on all the

major podcasting platforms, The Last Comic Shop

Podcast or check out our library of evergreen

shows at www .lastcomicshoppodcast .com. that's

been around for over 10 years. We cover everything

from Doctor Who to the MCU to pop culture and

everything in between. A new show drops on Tuesday

mornings on the GCRN website and all of the major

podcast platforms. So listen to the Mark Who

42's universe podcast from the universe and beyond.

You are receiving this transmission from the

Rod Pod. Upload pending. Standby for soundtrack

transfer. I am Maggie. And I am John. And we

are trapped, hurtling through space in a ship

shaped like Rodimus's head. The ship, for reasons

we haven't been able to determine, contains the

entire run of the IDW Transformers Phase 2 comic.

Which chronicle the events following the end

of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons?

So we figure we may as well read them all in

order and report our findings to you stand by

stand by Upload complete now the Rod Pod. Look

for us at marriedwcomics .libson .com, at iTunes,

at Stitcher, or wherever good podcasts can be

found. So, uh, tell all or one. Tell all or one.

All right, folks, Star Trek number five from

IW Publishing, Kelly Lansing Rosanus. Tomeo and

Lachridge and Cows are on creative and this one

Basically kind of sort of starts off where the

last one left off, but everybody is arguing and

nobody has a solution yet Sort of They're not

arguing it. It just looks like they're arguing

because it's because they're contemplating what

to do because they can't Damage Kayla's ship.

Yeah, and data points out the obvious it's been

altered Yeah, it's a Sarka dash technology and

reinforced beyond the frequency What I really

hate and this has been a thing that they've been

doing in modern Trek Not just here. They've been

doing it on Picard. They've been doing it on

like every series The the phrase fire everything

Because they never do You know it the in in Picard

what's funny is You know, they there's a there's

a in season 3 they yell it in like episode 3

or something And he says fire everything, you

know, and there's no phasers and they fire three

photon torpedoes And it's like that's not everything

And see and then and then in episode eight One

of the characters says fire everything we've

got and they fire four full time torpedoes and

no phasers and it's like when they did that in

TNG and They were firing against like the board

or just you know something and they were like,

you know, give them everything we've got, you

know They would give them a full spread of every

phaser array was firing off, and then they were

firing torpedoes at the same time. And in Deep

Space Nine, they would do the same thing. So

when they would say fire everything, they literally

fired everything they had. Here and in the modern

TV shows, fire everything is relegated to three

photon torpedoes, maybe four. In this, they actually

fired phasers instead of torpedoes. And they

shot it from... from technically a couple of

the phaser arrays, because there's usually some

in different places, but they still didn't fire

everything. I see. OK, so there's the panel where

there's five. There's there's five shots going

from the Theseus. Yeah. So there could be five

phaser arrays firing. However, that's not everything.

Yeah. And it's showing the, you know, the ones

from the the from the nacelles and from the underside

of the saucer section. There would be some on

top of the saucer section as well as a photon

torpedo bay on the front and the back of the

ship. I understand your frustration with it,

but I also understand with what the art is. It's

the phrasing. Right. No, I completely understand.

but I'm saying like since they're using that

phrasing but yet the art isn't reflecting that

phrasing because look at how the thesius is drawn

and drawn and colored in that panel where you

only see the underside of it so it would be a

little weird trying just like I mean maybe the

next panel if it shows like the next panel shows

like two shots coming down Vertically downwards

and I yeah, you're right and honestly the only

time I ever want to hear fire everything is when

Liam Neeson says it in 2010 is the a team when

they're flying a tank it's the only time I want

to hear anyone say fire everything because They

fired everything in that movie. It is true. It

is true. So they fire on the Klingon ship and

yeah Klingon versus Klingon I was just gonna

say it's a cling -off. Oh boy. So we find out

that Worf has a son, or maybe he's had this son...

His son was in TNG, but he was a young boy. Right,

he was a young boy. But now we find out that

his son Alexander has joined the... The Empire.

The cause of Calus. Yes. And again, I do like

how they do the L -cars in between these with

the primary education report and all of that.

I think that's very, very cool. So you got father

and son versus each other. And then this, I don't

know if this is actually in the, because we're

using the IDW media copies, folks. that IDW sends

out. I don't know if this is actually in the

physical comic. If it is, it's weird for IDW

to do it. But we get Worf and Alexander. Alexander

says, and the path we walk is red. And then we

get an ad for Star Trek Deep Space Nine, the

dog of war. very rare that IDW does ads. IDW

is not DC or Marvel. They normally don't put

ads in their digital issues. Now, maybe the physical

issues they do, but normally they don't. So that

was, I was like, wait, at first I thought, oh,

this, even though it's not even close to being

a full page, you know, full page count comic,

but you know, and the path we walk is red, that

would have been a great cliffhanger short comic,

but great cliffhanger. So Cisco is being contacted

by his Boffins or whatever the hell they are

the prophets the prophets there you go and we

see all the lights and they want him to do this

and do that and Some is not all the Cisco has

met some What will you do to stop it? And you

know, he and I love what I love about this whole

scene is not what's going on with him and with

the prophets But how everyone around him is reacting

to him basically being checked out Yeah And don't

get me wrong. I I do like his little altercations

with the prophets. Mm -hmm. However, I I can

see where it gets annoying Right, yeah. So, yeah.

What else did you like about this one? Well,

this is where Worf decides to go off alone. Mm

-hmm. Because Cisco's like fire and Worf's like,

no, you cannot! No, my ship is on that ship.

Yeah. And Cisco like very heartlessly, then you're

relieved, get off my bridge. Exactly. And Worf

is like gladly, you know. Yeah. And it's horrible

because, you know, they respected each other.

They worked well with each other. But that was,

you know, their time. Mm hmm. Yeah. And it's

horrible because the the prophets are trying

to get him. To destroy them. Yeah, I do love

the art, though. Yeah. The art in this issue

is epic. I love the detail. Yeah. The the amount

of information that's passed throughout it. Is

really well done and then you get Cisco in an

environmental suit Yeah, cuz he has his own plan

screw the profits. I've got my own plan and it's

basically father and son and father and son I

mean, it's basically Cisco and Cisco and wharf

and Alexander It's Jake and Ben and wharf and

Alexander kind of thing, which is really cool

to me I think that's awesome and then it's horrible

because because he saved This creature. It's

going to destroy the Earth. Yeah. Well, we already

destroyed the planet long ago, so no big loss.

Yeah. And then it leads off at the end of the

issue with Defiant. Yep. And Worf basically,

and I've read that one. Yeah, I haven't read

that yet. I need to we will be covering it soon

folks Yeah, he gets all these renegades from

different places and what's funny is some of

it kind of plays into like Picard season 3 Nice

like not entirely but the way they use some of

these characters. It's very fitting Very cool.

Very cool. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, I I love that.

I love this story. I think this is really cool.

I think the art is amazing. I think what they're

doing with it is super cool. I could do without

the tentacles, but that is what it is. That's

just my personal thing. But yeah, the end of

this is like, you bring me only pain. I see into

the soul of you and I read your vast library.

I see your home. And like you said, earth, boom,

dead. To oh, okay. Well then so this is issue

five to be concluded So I assume that they're

gonna go and do like five issue arcs That's fine

with me. Love that. That's cool. That's awesome.

That's fun. That's easy Then they wrap it up

really easily. Yep. Well, I mean, you know I'm

sure we'll have a plenty of battle scenes in

the next issue and and all of that. I still can't

get over the living city. That just looks weird.

And more of that multicolored green. I don't

know what I have against the color green right

now, folks. I'm not a huge fan of it either.

I like the blue in it. I think the blue in it

is cool. It just looks off. on the cover for

next month, where the Theseus is flying towards

it or away from it or whatever, he's flying towards

it, actually. Just the green that's part of the,

I assume it's part of the tentacles. It just

looks, it's just personal preference, folks.

But yeah, issue five, I will give this a four.

I really dug it. I thought it was great. I thought

the conflict between Wharf and Cisco, even though,

you know, didn't It's not going to get resolved

anytime soon, but I like that because hopefully

they can find a way later, maybe the next issue

for the finale of this arc, to realize, oh, we

both have sons. Oh, we both should be blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah. Maybe we can do something like

that or something. And now because of his interference

in the way that he did it, he's getting to feel

kind of what Worf was dealing with. Yeah, a little

bit. Although I may make him double down on his

stance You know following the profits it's hard

to tell yeah, it is very very hard to tell Any

other final thoughts on either issue four or

five sir No, I just yeah, I would I would give

it a four Yeah, give it a four. Yep right there

with you fours all around. And yeah, I think

that's going to do it for us here inside the

pullback. You got anything you want to promote?

Not at present, but there shall be soon, I hope.

We're going to be defying you with a couple of

fascinations really soon, folks. Thank you for

joining us here inside the pullback. If you'd

like to get in contact with us, leave feedback

for the show. There are several ways to do so.

Visit the website, geekcastradio .com, where

you can listen to and comment on all of our content.

Send an email to feedback at geekcastradio .com.

You can check us out on any of the podcasting

clients you choose to use. Follow us on Twitter

at geekcastradio for the network, at the pull

bag for the show. I am at TF2 and Mike, what

is your Twitter? At scp21. Become a fan on Facebook,

go to facebook .com slash geekcastradio network

and also check out the pull bag over there as

well. Join us next time and we will be starting

Autobotly April here in 2023 as we have a bunch

of Transformers news we needed to catch up on.

And then we dive back into after eight years,

Transformers, the Marvel US run volume two. So

this is from IDW Publishing when they reprinted

all the classic stuff. So Transformers Classics

US volume two is coming up next and then volume

three and volume four for the rest of April.

For now, I am TF2 and Mike with Steve Megatron.

As always, make your greatest game to comics

and we will catch you next time. You've just

heard the latest episode of The Pullback, the

GCRN's first comic review and discussion podcast.

There are several ways to get in touch with us

and leave feedback for the show. You can visit

the website geekcastradio .com where you can

comment on the episode and all of our different

podcasts. You can rate and leave a review for

the show on iTunes. Be sure to leave us feedback.

Become a fan of us on Facebook? Facebook .com

slash The Pull Bag. Send us an email? Feedback

at GeekCastRadio .com. Follow us on Twitter at

The Pull Bag and at GeekCastRadio. So until next

time, make your great escape into comics and

unleash the geek in you.