If Star Trek fans thought that the last few years of IDW's Trek comics added a whole new dimension to the franchise's familiar lore, they had better prepare themselves for the coming year, as the series hints at a gamechanging alteration to the mythology surrounding Benjamin Sisko. The new revelation may prove to be controversial, but it is not out of line with familiar Trek storytelling devices.
Star Trek #28 – written by Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing, with art by Tessa Fowler – finds Captain Sisko vaulted backward in time, to "a Bronze-age Bajor," leaving the indigenous population to question whether he is "a terrifying threat or the prophet they've been waiting for."
From this synopsis, readers have immediately started to speculate that Sisko is about to instigate a classic causal loop, creating the mythos that would later lead him to be deemed the Emissary of the Prophets, as originally depicted in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Star Trek Is About To Reveal A Major Twist About Benjamin Sisko's Bajoran Prophecy Backstory
Star Trek #28 – Written By Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing; Art By Tess Fowler; Main Cover By Ramón Rosanas
Lore has destroyed the multiverse, and its fate now lies in Benjamin Sisko's hands. But after the U.S.S. Theseus slingshots into the Celestial Temple, Sisko finds himself without his crew... or any technology... on a Bronze-age Bajor. The ancient Bajorans don't know what to make of him: Is he a terrifying threat or the prophet they've been waiting for? If Sisko is to save life itself from the Orb of Destruction, he must first save himself...
In more ways than one, Kelly and Lanzing's Star Trek ongoing series at IDW has been an extended project of reinvention, recalibration, recontextualization – whatever readers ultimately call it, the authors have devoted themselves to approaching Trek from both new and familiar angles. They have already made many exciting contributions to Star Trek canon, and largely, the new things they have brought to the franchise have been embraced by the fandom. There is no reason to suggest that Sisko's adventure on Bajor in the far-flung past will be any different, but longtime Trek fans are, to some degree, understandably hesitant.
Why A Major Change To Sisko's Trek History Will Have A Harder Time Winning Over Fans
Star Trek #28 – "Old Sisko" Variant Cover By Tess Fowler
The idea of the casual loop is iconic in science fiction, and has been used memorably in Star Trek before. So, it isn't that it is out-of-place in the Trek universe that might make readers hesitant to embrace the use of the trope, if that is indeed where the story of Star Trek #28 goes. Instead, the chief reason for some fans' doubts is not exclusive to Star Trek at all, but rather is part of the discourse surrounding all major franchise storytelling.
