Star Trek: Red Shirts – Ghost of the 21st Century #1 is written by Gerry Duggan and published by IDW Publishing. Artwork is by Scott Buoncristiano, colours by Charlie Kirchoff and letters by Jeff Eckleberry. Main cover art (left) is by Chris Shehan.
Star Trek: Red Shirts – Ghost of the 21st Century #1 is available from today, in comic book stores and on digital platforms where all good comic books are sold. Grab your physical copy from Forbidden Planet or digitally from Amazon Comixology UK.
Synopsis
Revenge is a dish best served on time delay. From Gerry Duggan (Deadpool, X-Men: Fall of the House of X) comes the next Red Shirts bloodbath… On the Federation’s farthest frontier, red shirts don’t just die—they’re used. When conscripted security grunt Harry Deubert finds contraband hidden inside a fallen comrade’s body, he uncovers Section Null—a secret Starfleet directorate turning disposable red shirts into assets in a sprawling criminal conspiracy. Teaming with Lyna Taval, an Andorian officer with her own covert agenda, Deubert digs too deep…and becomes a target. Someone inside Starfleet Security is selling out the Federation. And once Deubert and Taval learn what red shirts are really for, there’s no going back.
Review
Star Trek fans are in for a treat today as not one but TWO Trek books arrive in comic book stores from IDW. Whilst Starfleet Academy fans can revel in the latest chapter of the Lost Contact series, those looking for something a little darker in tone should be rushing out to lay their hands on a copy of Star Trek: Red Shirts – Ghost of the 21st Century. Writer Gerry Duggan picks up where Christopher Cantwell left off for a second foray into the murky world of espionage at the heart of Starfleet.
Handily there’s a neat passing of the baton in the form of a prologue of this issue. Rather than stepping into a brand new Red Shirts mystery Duggan is returning to the world Cantwell so brilliantly setup in the first series. Former ensign Chip Miller is back and it seems that in the time we’ve been apart he has been rising through the ranks in Starfleet. The opening scene, focussing on the Romulans that Miller so easily gave himself up to, perfectly sets the scene. It shows us exactly how the Romulans are operating behind-the-scenes and delivers enough intrigue that anyone coming to Ghost of the 21st Century new may feel compelled to go back and read the original series.
A ten year time jump brings us to the present day and the newly minted Section Null’s Space Station Marianas. The station is a shady base from which Section Null conducts its off-the-books operations. It’s also where we find a new group of red shirts just waiting to meet their fates. This group serves under the now Captain Miller although his actual role in proceedings is yet to become fully clear. There’s less setup for each of the new group than there was the first time around but it quickly becomes clear why that is. There’s subterfuge amongst subterfuge and these poor red shirts are just the first wave of cannon fodder.
There is one character pulling focus however, Harry Deubert. It appears Harry will be our de facto lead for Ghost of the 21st Century and Duggan has certainly laid the groundwork for an interesting journey ahead. Deubert doesn’t have the most Starfleet of backgrounds but his story is reminiscent of Chris Pine’s James T. Kirk in the Kelvin-era Star Trek movies. Whether intentional or not it’s a nice little nod to another side of the franchise. A brief flashback dropped in neatly by Duggan connects Deubert with Miller for a piece of effective connective tissue between series. Then, once the away mission featuring the rest of the team has gone disastrously off-course, it’s Deubert who becomes the most important piece of the puzzle setting up what comes next.
Like the original Red Shirts series before it, Ghost of the 21st Century has clearly drawn sides, only this time there might be more than two of them. The series’ central mystery isn’t a copy and paste job of Cantwell’s work. It’s an entirely original continuation of the world that was initially setup. Duggan isn’t dropping too many hints about where we’re going so once again readers are in the dark as we continue to explore the Wild West of the Federation.
Scott Buoncristiano and Charlie Kirchoff’s artwork is doing a lot of work to help set the scene this issue. There’s a great, gritty edge to Buoncristiano’s artwork which helps to pull Star Trek into the world of espionage that is at the core of this story. The pops of colour, of course the red in the Starfleet uniforms, looks great against colder backdrops. There are plenty of recognisable elements of Trek included across the book with each of those nods subtly building up a strong picture of where the book fits into the wider universe.
Verdict
Star Trek: Red Shirts – Ghost of the 21st Century #1 is a confident continuation of Cantwell’s espionage-thriller take on the Federation. Duggan finds fresh intrigue in familiar territory, and Harry Deubert makes for a compelling new lead worth following into the unknown.
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