Written by Mike Chen

Art by Angel Hernandez

Colours by Nick Filardi

Letters & Design by Neil Uyetake

Edited by Heather Antos with Editorial Assist from Vanessa Real

Quark brokers a deal for one of the rarest items in the universe: a pure-breed Welsh corgi. He names him Latinum and instantly loves him. Latinum is adorable. The Borg equipment also involved in the trade is less so…

Billed as a ‘lost episode’ of sorts this is another really strong entry in the current line of Trek comics. Antos and Real are fantastic editors and each one of these mini-series has felt exactly like the show whose world it’s set in. In this case, Chen’s script gives the surprisingly large DS9 cast a lot to do and cleverly balances whimsy with the horrors of the Dominion War.

This is fundamentally a Quark and Sisko story and Chen nails both their voices. Quark’s self-righteous huffing as always conceals a heart of pure marshmallow and his gradual bonding with Latinum is adorable precisely because it’s so well-written and earned. The fact he has Vic Fontaine run a holo dog park is good enough. The fact Odo morphs into a corgi for a play date is better. The fact the dog park is, of course, called Deep Space K-9? The best. Chen’s got the Ferengi’s number and he’s not alone. We also get O’Brien’s up-front honesty and instance fondness for his fellow burly (if in this case quadrupedal) celt, Bashir’s reticence and Jadzia’s amiable fondness for her previous incarnations.

If anything, his Sisko is better. This is Ben Sisko making a fist around his trauma and trying to turn it into a weapon to win the Dominion War and Chen gets the fundamental complexity of DS9’s commanding officer to a tee. Sisko’s always been one of my favourite captains, measured, calm until he isn’t, deeply principled and completely aware of his failings as well as his strengths. All of that is on the page.

Best of all though is how the story captures the pace of a DS9 story. Hernandez’s art hits that near impossible bullseye of recognisable likenesses but fluid movement and Filardi’s colours shift gracefully between the dark of dubious cargo holds and the frantic information of Borg space. As well as the park land of Deep Space K-9 obviously. Uyetake’s lettering shines too, getting every speech pattern from this wordiest, weirdest collection of Trek characters down to every inflection.

Verdict: The Dog of War is fun, kind, weird and deeply sweet-natured. It’s Deep Space Nine to it’s bones. The very goodest of boys. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart