IDW Publishing 2020
Written by Scott Tipton & David Tipton
Illustrated by Greg Scott
Coloured by Felipe Sobreiro
Lettered by Neil Uyetake
Death casts its shadow as Constable Odo searches for truth amid a web of treachery and lies. Everyone on the Promanade has a motive for this murder, be it vengeance, justice... or old-fashioned greed.
While I am a fan and supporter of the original Star Trek books I never cared to read the TNG comics. Deep Space Nine was something I started to watch and gave up on it just wasn’t the version I was hoping for. This however intrigued me because it focuses on Oto and I adored Rene Auberjonois, and had a crush on Dr. Bashir so I had to check it out. Plus if you know me I am a fan of the Tipton’s and Greg is one of my absolute favourite artists working today which guaranteed I was going to be reading this. Sometimes I am beyond thrilled to take a chance on something that I wouldn’t normally go for. The idea of this story is something I personally love to see because there are so few mystery stories set in this world.
I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see here through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is laid out exquisitely well. The brothers Tipton really are some amazing storytellers and I thoroughly enjoy the work they do in the Star Trek Universe and to see this the way we do is phenomenal! The character development that we see here is superb. We get to see some really nice work on these characters, some of whom I don’t know and others that I am surprised to see within these pages. So yeah I am totally impressed with exactly much we find ourselves liking, questioning or being reminded why we didn’t like them. The pacing is amazing and as it takes us through the pages revealing the layers of the story to us we see how well this book is structured as well as how it all works together so seamlessly in creating the books ebb & flow.
This is a phenomenal book! The way we see the story start and begin to get juicy as a myriad of characters are introduced as possible suspects in this crime. Just the introduction alone is one that makes us want to see more and if we were going to get this quality of storytelling is what we should expect than I want to see more of Deep Space Nine, something I never thought I’d say.
Oh Greg is one of today’s most extraordinary artists. His linework is exquisite and how he is able to utilise its varying weights and techniques to really showcase the attention to detail. How he is able to utilise these bold, strong lines side by side with the soft and delicate ones and bring them together is something you cannot be taught in schools. This is pure talent right here and we see this also in the way he utilises backgrounds throughout. They not only enhance the moments but they provide this amazing depth perception, sense of scale as well as the overall sense of size and scope to the book. The creativity and imagination that we see throughout is just sensational, in the myriad of species as well as the architecture on, in and whatnot the station. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such a masters eye for storytelling. The colour work that we see is divine. How the various hues and tones within any given colour that’s being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is rendered perfectly. The colour choices we see are inspired and inspiring and how they are utilised to add to the definition at times shows this supremely talented eye.
This book is mindboggilingly bloody brilliant! From the writing to the lettering there is absolutely nothing to find fault with.