Writer: Mike Chen
Art: Angel Hernandez
Colors: Nick Filardi
Letters: Neil Uyetake
Covers: Angel Hernandez & Nick Filardi; Adrián Bonilla & DC Alonso; Andy Price; Liana Kangas
Publisher: IDW
Price: 4.99
Release Date: June 7, 2023
If you’re interested in this comic, series, related trades, or any of the others mentioned, then simply click on the title/link to snag a copy through Amazon as you read the Star Trek Deep Space Nine: The Dog of War #3 Review.
The Dispatch
Everybody loves Latinum. Why shouldn’t they? He is a good boy after all. But is he more important than technology that could win or lose the war for the Federation? STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE: THE DOG OF WAR #3 sets out to answer that unusual question. And it does it better than you might think.
Despite himself, Quark grew attached to Latinum. And as STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE: THE DOG OF WAR #3 opens, Quark is trying to convince his buyer to stay away a little longer. Unfortunately Quark isn’t nearly as convincing as he thinks he is. A mysterious trio invade the station and take Latinum and the Borg device before beaming away as fast they beamed in. When Captain Sisko takes a personal interest in what happened, the crew learn that Quark was dealing with a mysterious Broker who sells valuable items to customers as a way to gain access to them and their secret information. Latinum and the Borg device allowed the Broker to do exactly that. Now the race is on to stop the Broker before he can sell their secrets.
Chen very effectively merges the lighter Latinum story and the more serious Borg device story in this issue by way of the Broker’s infiltration strategy. The first two issues lingered primarily on Latinum’s story with only a few pages each devoted to the Borg device. The likelihood that these two storylines would converge was high. But they had such disparate tones that it was fair to wonder how this could possibly happen. By incorporating Latinum into the Broker’s overall strategy, Chen links everything together while raising the stakes of Latinum’s story. It’s not just about saving a dog, but saving a dog from a criminal who is merely using him.
STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE: THE DOG OF WAR #3 also moves the story to where it was inevitably going to go: a threat resulting from the Borg device. But Chen’s build-up of that tension proves to be an effective misdirect. The natural assumption as the series went on was that the device itself would be the danger–that Starfleet would pay a price for using their enemy’s technology. Instead it proves relatively innocuous, merely copying data. It’s a clever payoff that keeps the overall story relatively low stakes.
There is one place that the issue stumbles. Though it’s more of a nitpick than anything else. At a certain point it’s hard to believe that Admiral Ross would just keep giving Sisko carte blanche to handle the Borg device situation. It’s clearly gotten away from him. The moment Sisko asks to go after it, largely based on it being stolen out from under him, has strong “For the Uniform” vibes when he had to be the one to bring in Eddington because of his previous failure.
The Art & Lettering
Hernandez, Filardi, and Uyetake turn in their usual strong work once again in this issue. It’s difficult to identify standout moments that are significantly different from those in the first two issues.
However, Hernandez’s layouts during and after the robbery work very well. The panels overlap each other in somewhat chaotic fashion. And Hernandez’s use of what in film would be called Dutch angles (setting the camera at a tilt so the horizon line is not parallel to the bottom of the camera frame) creates the illusion that all of the panels are at odd angles. This reinforces the chaos and urgency of events while letting Hernandez still draw orderly, rectangular panels.
The second to last panel in STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE: THE DOG OF WAR #3 sees Quark standing by a porthole on the Promenade, watching as the Defiant flies off. Filardi uses a very dark color palette for this–one that arguably isn’t in keeping with the Promenade’s established aesthetic. And to the extent that there is subdued brightness, it comes from the porthole rather than backlighting Quark with light from the Promenade. There is no dialogue in the panel, and Hernandez’s composition would be effective on its own to a point. But Filardi’s choice to go for mood rather than aesthetic consistency makes Quark seem somber without even seeing his face. Quark wants Latinum back.
Final Thoughts
At first blush it looks like this series shouldn’t work. The two plotlines, one featuring Quark’s newfound love for a dog and the other the hope that Borg technology can help win a war, sound too at odds to combine cleanly. But STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE #3 successfully merges them, setting the stage for a fun and exciting conclusion.