Star Trek 1202: Judgment Day, the Conclusion!

1202. Judgment Day, the Conclusion!

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #2, Marvel Comics, December 1996

CREATORS: Howard Weinstein (writer), Tom Grindberg and Al Milgrom (artists)

STARDATE: 49237.1 (follows the last issue)

PLOT: In the Alpha Quadrant, Sisko learns from the Amaralans that they were oppressed by the Dominion into abandoning their religion and that what moved the station to the Gamma Quadrant is a godwind sent by their deities to punish and/or guide them. The Defiant fails to reach the GQ. On the other side of the Wormhole, the Amaralans distrust the DS9 crew and even jail Odo. A dissident faction frees him and helps the Niners get ready to return the station home. An opposed Amaralan commits their ship to self-destruct, and the Niners use it to destroy two Jem'Hadar ships while making their escape. The station returns to the Alpha Quadrant and Sisko wonders about the mysterious force that moved it in the first place.

CONTINUITY: See previous issue (Jem'Hadar).

DIVERGENCES: A holosuite scene has Kira playing baseball with Dax, long before and in contradiction with Take Me Out to the Holosuite.

PANEL OF THE DAY - When you do the Limbo Rock...
REVIEW: I just realizes that the mysterious space smoke featured in issue #1 was none other than the Wormhole itself. Rough art, but a rougher story. Flitting between quadrants and using alien characters that all look alike doesn't help, nor does Weinstein's cliched use of a dissident faction (I could have called it!). Plus, it glosses over how the station can return to the Alpha Quadrant while the Defiant can't cross over, and how a whole pylon is reattached. Worse still is the concept of the godwind which isn't addressed in any meaningful way, just left as a future danger. I don't know if it was ever followed up on, I'm ready to hazard a guess that it wasn't. Nor do I especially care if it was. Not to mention Bajor's prophecy of apocalypse, also forgotten. A most depressing reading experience, this series.

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