Star Trek: Defiant #1 Review

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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

520. I'm of course TFJ and Mike joining me. Once

again kind of almost sort of as always is Steve

Megatron. Hello, sir. Hello Hello, and we are

here because we are It's defiant folks. It's

a fascination. It's a thing IDW publishing I

almost said transformers Wow IDW publishing Star

Trek Defiant number one. So when we last left

off with the main 2022 series that they are doing

at IDW 2022 into the future 2023 with Colin Kelly

and Jackson Lansing Wharf is like see you Cisco.

I'm out. I gotta go do my own thing I gotta go,

you know, you're you're too much you and your

unholy alliances or whatever the hell so we have

Star Trek Defiant and it's wharf and Holy crap

folks. I apparently don't pay attention to stuff

anymore. I don't know why. I just did not catch

it. I did not even see a certain character on

the front cover of this comic book. So as I'm

reading this, I'm like, what the is Spock doing

there? I'm surprised you didn't notice. No, I

like I'm sure when I sent you the art, I probably

kind of sort of noticed now. The the guy next

is that data to or is it that's not no that's

his brother. Oh That's that's Spock's brother.

Okay. No, that's that's data's brother lore.

Oh Data lore. Oh lord. Yeah. Oh Boy, I was gonna

say he kind of looks like a data But at least

in that in that cover he does. Yep, and then

that's role Aaron on the other side But yeah,

wharf is setting up his own His own crew now

this series I don't know if this is gonna be

a new ongoing if it's gonna be like him I do

know that because they have split from like wharf

is split from Star Trek and this is something

we can talk about probably close to the end But

we will have a crossover between these two books

I think freak homebook day this year launched

Uh, Star Trek? What is it? Is it Dying World?

Dying Wish? Wake the Dead? It's called something.

I googled it earlier. But there will be a crossover

between this book and the main ongoing. This

series is written by Christopher Cantwell with

the art done by Angel Onzueta. Sorry if I mispronounced

that. Colorist is Marissa Louise and the letterer

is Clayton Cowles on this one. And yeah, basically,

Wharf is gone after Clone Kalus. Yep. Yep. I

do love how It's the most trivial thing ever,

but it keeps coming up at least in this issue

so far I don't know because I haven't read ahead

after this but in the beginning of this wharf

can't like this ship that he's taken or whatever

like the computer doesn't want to Acknowledge

him as the commander of the ship as the captain.

He just smashes the computer Well, it's not doing

what he asked it exactly exactly and We we have

Spock here and Spock and this is interesting

to me. I like this I like seeing the the TOS

characters interacting with the TNG characters

Well, oddly enough. Those are some of my favorite

episodes Mm -hmm is when there is a crossover

Yeah, I mean wharf and Spock you'd never think

to make that connection but It works. Mm -hmm.

It works. It works. And of course we hear at

least in my own head I hear the late great Leonard

Nimoy and obviously Michael Dorn as wharf and

Yeah, it's it's so good The art in this is really

cool Yeah, I this is one thing I've really enjoyed

with IDW is their attention to detail and then

the faces look eerily similar Yep That's why

I thought Data's brother was data. I'm like,

wait a minute Well, you can tell is there's a

there's like a sly grin Yeah, that Laura has

as opposed to data who has no emotion. Yep So

Worf has, uh, he's basically doing this long

ass captain's log and basically saying, Oh, by

the way, I'm stealing this ship. I'm making this

record. So people know that this is what is happening.

This is what's going on. Oh yeah, by the way,

my son is also with the villain and I have to

go save my son. And I feel guilty about all of

that and everything else. I do love that they

try to, they try to blow him up. And or it's

not they don't try to blow him up But it's part

of the plan to steal the ship to this whole super

secret Star Trek spy mission thing with the data

chip and everything else and these like Energize

now the escape pod blows up and he escapes mm

-hmm You know and then there's another explosion

and Love these two guys John talk for strange

weather patterns Starfleet spies falling from

the sky That's hilarious, what are you thinking

so far I I just like I Just like how the series

more or less is turning out yeah This is only

the first issue. Yes, I like that wharf and in

Spock meet Mm -hmm Because they never met in

reunification part one and two. Yeah and Spock

is among Romulans. Yep, which is The Vulcan,

what is it, the Vulcan Science Academy or High

Council or whatever the hell the Vulcan say.

Like, that's probably not a great thing, Spock,

but... But it's funny that Spock's codes were

not revoked. Mm -hmm. I love how they explain

it away. Yeah. Like, Starfleet, they just probably

forgot. Yeah. He's like, I do not believe Starfleet

ever revoked my command codes, perhaps as a token

of respect, but more likely out of neglectful

oversight. Yep. So the question is whether you

can find a ship. Yes. Yeah. And so he, he chose

the Defiant because... He's Defiant. Well, he's

captained the ship before. Oh, that's true. Yeah,

he did. in Deep Space Nine, and it has a cloak,

although technically it doesn't. That's a little

bit of an oversight. The original Defiant was

destroyed with the cloaking device in the Dominion

War. The second ship was the USS San Paolo, and

that was rechristened as the USS Defiant. Exactly

the same model. Technically, it should have been

the USS Defiant A, but they didn't do that because

of budget constraints. They wouldn't basically

the paramount wouldn't let them spend the money

to redo the decal to put the A on there. And

so they just got and so they literally just kept

shooting it the way it was. But they wanted to

turn it into the A like kind of like how the

original USS Enterprise uh, was destroyed and

then replaced with the Enterprise A, but it was

the exact same model of ship. Yeah. And so the,

the new Defiant had no cloaking device because

it was destroyed in the original. This, um, panel

here where they're, it's right as they're, as

they're talking where Worf is like, my choice

was easy. And we see the image of the Defiant.

These two planets or two moons or whatever the

hell they are that they're flying by I'm like,

holy crap. It's red matter It's not red matter,

but seriously look at look at how those are drawn

Look how the shading is on those and the color

of their I'm like, holy crap. There's red matter

in space. Yikes. That's not good Don't let them

touch each other or else they're they'll explode

And we have a sort of Elkar's sort of a mission

report from Commander Selah. Yeah, it's a...

It's a Tal Shiar Romulan Empire version. Oh yeah,

okay. Selah is actually the half human, half

Romulan daughter of Tasha Yar. Oh, yeah, Tasha,

okay. And she was created by a temporal mistake

basically in yesterday's enterprise where the

enterprise C went through a temporal vortex and

ended up in the 24th century later when the enterprise

D was out. Right. It created a time issue where

wharf was never brought to the Federation. And

so Tasha was still alive and she went back in

time with the enterprise C. And so therefore

it was a Kind of a paradox that she did. She

was actually dead in the prime timeline, but

somehow she was alive again because of the. The

temporal screw up. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah. I

love the whole transmission here between her

and. The other guy on on Cisco ship, I forget

what his name is off top of my head. Oh, you're

talking about Balana Torres and. Yeah. Yeah,

okay, Tom Paris, yeah. I love the ending of this.

Lieutenant Paris informed Captain Sisko that

if he wants my data, he'll first need to remove

his head from the clouds and transmission. She

turns to him, did you just use a human aphorism?

I have grown quite fond of cutting through the

bullshit. And obviously in the comic folks, shit

is... Number signed and dollar signed and percent

signed out but that yeah, that's that's hilarious.

I I hope we get a Cisco wharf like some sort

of other face off from them in the future cuz

Oh boy, the personalities between the two of

them Yeah, it's it's uh Quite interesting how

this is going to go down. Yeah, I've never been

more interested in Star Trek than I have reading

this book and the one that the other one, the

main title as well. This is what I what I like

about IDW is, yes, they have some that kind of

play in the vague or play in the what if elseworlds

type scenarios. What I like about them, however,

is that. They. Aren't afraid to play. In. The

continuity. Yeah. And. This. And the other title

where they brought Cisco back. Both play in the

current in in the actual continuity. Yeah. Now

whether it's it's used as far as like the continuity

of. like Picard or Lower Decks or Prodigy or

any of the shows that are after Nemesis or after

Deep Space Nine. I don't know. But yeah. But

this plays after like a couple of years after

Deep Space Nine. And so in that regard, it still

kind of plays in the continuity. Yeah. And I

think that's cool. And I think that's interesting.

And I think that's good. I have yet to go back

and rewatch Deep Space Nine. We will be doing

that in the future. But it's one of those things

where if everyone has seen Deep Space Nine at

least once in their lifetime, you can read this

and like I've said the whole point, you're the

diehard. I'm the one on the outskirts of the

universe here kind of just like dipping my toes

in and just waiting to see what happens. But

I still know certain things. I still remember

certain, like I said, characters. Obviously,

who can forget Worf? If people forget Worf, you

must have amnesia because, man, he's a character.

Same thing with Cisco. Same thing with, oh, what

was his name? Not Quark. Oh, no. No, the other

white guy that's on the...the Irish white guy.

The, um... O 'Brien? Yes, O 'Brien. I remember...

Deep Space Nine was 1999? When did Deep Space

Nine come out? It came out 1993. Really? Yes.

Deep Space Nine was 90...wow. Okay. And Voyager

came out in 95. That enterprise came out in 2001

this one. Yeah Okay, I guess I know my start

I know you know not doubting you Yes, like I'm

not trying to sit here clicking through I am

to be to double -check I trust that you're right,

but it just doesn't seem like it was that soon

because TNG ran 87 to 96 95 All right, she ran

from I know it's 7 to 93. Oh Right. Okay, that's

oh now it makes sense. Yeah. So anyway, my point

is I remember If I remember right the guy who

plays O 'Brien is this like really surly I've

seen him in other I think it's all meaning. Yep

I and the only reason why I love that actor.

I love that actor. I love that character. And

the reason why I love that actor is in in Star

Trek since 1987. Yeah, he went from encounter

at Farpoint the very first episode of TNG. And

then he kind of eventually faded into obscurity

and became the transporter chief. And then he

was spun off later into DS9. DS9, yeah. Which

is where I first kind of learned of that character,

but him as an actor, oh man. He was in, he was

the, not evil, but he was the adversarial FBI

agent against John Cusack in Con Air. He was

the other FBI agent. So, uh, what do we do now?

What's the plan? You do have a plan, don't you?

We're working on it. Contingency plans for something

like this don't exist. The situation's never

been contemplated. Well, you better start contemplating,

because this is a situation that needs to get

unfucked right now! That wanted, basically, John

Cusack's character to basically fail, and he

was the one with the car that had the nice silver

car that they ended up destroying. That's why

I remember him. because he has that that voice

and that bravado of of whatever as an actor absolutely

love that guy so yeah I mean I remember and I

know certain things but reading this this series

and reading the other series it's like oh hey

this can kind of be my start like you know what

I mean like this is something that I've gotten

into because I enjoy it because not only do I

know some of the characters I like I'm actually

enjoying learning about some of these new ones

or new ones to me I should say or ones to you

yes yes yes so prison yay Yeah, worth brinking.

Yeah, he's like wake up lieutenant redemption

calls. Yep Because ensign row because she was

ensign Which is funny that she's a lieutenant

here Although I think she may have gotten promoted

during TNG because she came in during season

six and then stayed through season seven until

she traded on Picard in the end Starfleet and

joined the marquee Oh, wow. Yeah. Which is that

sect of, you know, fighters, which is what, you

know, Tom Paris joined it for a short time and

half the Voyager crew was a part of them. Cisco

was the only one that managed to put a lot of

them down. Well, he is just planets. Yeah, he's

like, he's like, yeah, guess what? You can't

live there now. No. And they were like, what

are you doing? Yeah for the yeah, I was bought

for the uniform. Yeah, that episode was great.

But yeah, so wharf wharf is breaking her out

here And again, I love the the dialogue between

the two of them You're going to a lot of trouble

to make ro look good with the orions when truth

is she was never a Mac was true believer. She

was a Starfleet spy, a hypocrite. That is not

what her lengthy criminal record states. I just,

I love that. And we have a Captain's, an incoming

message for Captain's eyes only and Denok? Yeah,

that's right. Yeah. Those apostrophes always

get me folks. So yeah, we've got this going on.

Yeah. Again, it's all set up for whatever is

gonna happen later, but This is again, you know

It's building wharf as a character here in this

story and figuring out what's going on with him

and then we get what do you think of the Just

as a design thing the L cars or the the mission

briefing thing like these these like us as readers

actually seeing these data points and you know

having all this the level one communique yeah

yeah yeah I love the all cars interface I really

do so much so that I've used it in art and I've

used it in like the USS future imperfect website

when I had that go on So I just I don't know

I really like to design in the computer interface

of it enough that I've thought about Oh, what

if I did that to my phone? Or you know my computer

or you know things like that so Back in the day,

I think I even had it on Windows 95 or 98 like

a theme that was the L cars and I was like, oh,

this is great So yeah, I mean I love these little

interfaces that they they kind of give you a

you know, peek behind a curtain. I think that

it's funny. I think it wasn't the NX 74205 anymore.

Okay. And I, part of me wants to test that theory.

Okay. Because I think that I think that we're

dealing with a different a different version

of the ship here. And I think that they may have

cataloged it differently because the NX74205

was destroyed. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe they

could be creating their own continuity and not

really going or they just don't know. I don't

know. I mean, I've never heard possible. Yeah.

Because Yes, sometimes the comics miss the Miss

the mark Yeah, cuz the USS San Paulo was assigned

to Deep Space Nine to replace the Defiant after

its destruction and They renamed it to the Defiant

in honor of the original ship and So it's it's

technically They technically okay, so they're

technically right and technically wrong It was

being that they gave it the same name It's they

gave it the same registry number the NX which

is supposed to be the experimental Okay, so yeah,

I mean technically it's right I yeah I wasn't

sure if they gave it the NCC or if they kept

it with the NX. And if that's true, this still

wouldn't have, although it does say here, the

defiant formula, the USS San Paulo had been in

dry dock. But if they use a cloaking device,

then it's not real. Okay, they didn't have they

didn't have a cloaking device on the second ship.

It was only on the first right. I got it Yeah,

so anyways, it's according to like Star Trek

Picard. It's preserved in the Fleet Museum So

I'm looking up I Be careful when you Google things

folks, especially if you don't specify so going

to explain this here, but wanted to see since

we're talking about this and since we're talking

about these details about whether they are going

off of the actual timeline or creating a story

that fits in the timeline or if they're just

doing their own stuff I wanted to look up the

writer Christopher Cantwell. Well if you just

type in Christopher Cantwell into Google hit

enter and hit the first Wikipedia article Christopher

Cantwell the Nazi okay Back, back, back, back,

back. Christopher Cantwell Comics comes up. Wikipedia,

TV, and comics writer, because I wanted to see

what else he's done. In television, he was the

writer -director of Krantz from 2009. No idea

what that is. Halt and Catch Fire, which was

a TV series from 2014 to 2017. He was co -creator,

co -producer, and showrunner, also writer and

director. He did the paper girls television series

based on the comic. I believe for comics he has

written The mask I pledge allegiance to the mask.

I have no idea what that is. Is that what I think?

Yep. It's what I think it is Doug Menke and John.

Okay Dark Horse. All right, dr. Doom. He did

the 2020 Iron Man series He's done Star Wars

Obi -Wan in last year so He's not just a brand

new, I mean, he's been doing this for a while.

So again, just want to make sure we're doing

our full on due diligence of not just assuming

that the writer doesn't know what you're doing,

because I would like to think that they do. And

again, who knows what kind of continuity this

is going to fit into. But yeah, those L cars

man, so sometimes that takes me out of the story

because I'm so used to comics being art and speech

bubbles or art and like the the Background where

it's like internal monologue bubbles where it's

not bubbles. It's mm -hmm And then you have like

a whole page of text and I'm like wait, this

is a comic book But it works I'm not saying it

doesn't work. It works. It's just a little getting

used to. So you have Worf and Spock and they

don't really get into an argument but they kinda

get into an argument because Worf mentions Sisko

and the Theseus can hold Starfleet at bay even

if he has no idea what I'm up to and Spock's

like, we could brief him now. No, don't do that.

Worf is like, I will do what I please. And now

I know Spock and Worf are friendly here, but

as they walk away in the hallway, Worf has this,

you know. Has this thing where he's doing another

internal monologue and it's the two of them walking

in the hallway No matter the cost. I'm like is

Spock gonna shoot Optimus Prime in the back?

Yeah, I know obviously not because Spock would

never but I'm saying just a line of no matter

that cost Old Transformers gonna love it. Mm

-hmm And then, yeah, this took a left turn I

was not expecting. Severed heads. It's lower.

Yeah, it's lower all right. Well, it's where

they, it's kind of how they left him, although

he was deactivated at the end of the descent

part two by data. Interesting. Never to see the

light of day again. Until now. Yeah, he does

come back in Picard, but in a sense. But, yeah,

he's back here and is questioning why Wharf is

in command. Well, one does not know. As a first

issue, I really like this because we're seeing

how Worf sets off from being separated from Cisco,

from the other series. We are now getting basically

him getting his crew together between Spock and

all the others. So I like that. I like that because

this is a number one, it is setting it up at

the same time. Wish we had just a little bit

like I wish this comic was like two more pages

I think this is a perfect cliff. You could still

have this cliffhanger I just wish there was something

more whether it was with wharf doing another

captain's log and Or something but other than

that though. I really enjoyed this. This was

fun Yeah, and it definitely left me waiting for

the next Oh yeah, most definitely. Yeah, it,

uh, I never thought I'd ever say it, folks. I'm

really into the Star Trek stuff now, at least

with this. Look, it's not that I'm not into it,

it's just that it's not my main go -to kind of

thing, but apparently with this comic series

it is. So, I think, did you have anything else

you wanted to bring up, anything else you want

to discuss? Don't think so just that it's it's

been an interesting run Mm -hmm, and this run

is just starting. We're already at least by the

time we're recording the or five issues into

the other series where one issue into this and

I'm not disappointed. I'm liking a lot of this

like there's not a lot so far that is like I

can we can nitpick every day and and usually

we do but For the most part, you know, this is

very very enjoyable So I think we're gonna go

to a quick ad break You'll probably hear one

or two other ads either from us or from other

people that I help promote we'll come back with

ratings and Close the show right after this Like

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.com. We are back here inside the pull bag with

Star Trek Defiant Number One. As a number one

goes I'm all in however long or short this like

I never know sometimes with series or miniseries

or ongoing or not ongoing or. Because sometimes

if the numbers aren't there if the sales aren't

they are there they'll cut it I don't think they're

gonna cut this short but at the same time who

knows but as a number one defiant starter to

find number one. Probably give it a four and

a half out of five. I'll give it the same because

I was rather entertained through the whole thing.

I get that the ship is supposed to not look super

sleek. That's probably the only reason why my

half point comes off is because I wish the. The

new defiant was a little bit more sleek looking

other than what it is But it is what it is because

it's an old -ass ship and or it's a new I don't

know whatever it is, but But yeah, no very very

enjoyable This is the first week of May folks

who actually were recording this in the future

But you're gonna be hearing it in the past so

free comic book day is about to happen But it

actually already did happen I did not participate

this year. I'm still living in the one horse

town that I moved to and, and there is a comic

shop here, but I just don't, I don't leave my

house. I just don't have a house anymore. Uh,

so what have you got going on, sir? Uh, just

keeping busy with stuff for the network and,

uh, preparing for, uh, Some new endeavors. As

vague as I can be on that. Yes, as defiant as

he can be on that. Transport and warp out. Something

like that. De -energize. What a bunny. Coming

up here inside the pull bag next week, or this

week, or whenever you people get it, people will

just be like, oh, the pull bag shows up a new

episode. Wait, this was two weeks ago? Yeah,

usually that's, I usually end up either back

dating or future dating things, but episode 521

is Eduardo and I talking about G .I. Joe World

on Fire, another IDW series. Technically May

is all IDW month this month because Joe Reed

and I after that are gonna come back with TMNT

ReWarm volume 2 and then Steve and I will be

back at the end of the month for episodes 523

and 524 Star Trek Defiant issues 2 & 3 and Star

Trek issues 6 & 7. So that's gonna be the Star

Trek content for May. Let's see here. What else?

What else? Anything else you want to bring up?

Anything else you want to say before I run through

the closing? No, I think I'm good. Alrighty then.

Thank you for joining us here inside the pullback.

There's always getting in contact with us. Leave

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For now, I'm TF2 and Mike with Steve Megatron.

As always, make your greatest game in the comics

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